Happiest of Halloweens

This year we had a handsome archer...

Ben decided to dress up this year (last year he didn't want to), and be a kid for one more year.
A fighter pilot...

We had a tough time finding this costume. It is so big that he can wear it again until he is probably 15 years old.
THE CUTEST girl ninja ever...

This sweet girl came up with stuff we already had, we added a pink sash, and she was good to go. She even let me do her hair for today (instead of just having it straight down we got to put it in {gasp}a pony tail---it's the little things!)
A princess...

She changed her mind about a million times on what she was going to be---a cowgirl, that morphed into Jessie (from Toy Story), a witch, a bat, and on and on, until we were at Costco and she saw this costume, and there was no turning back (except now she is just planning for her costume for next year).
And Rapunzel...

 Happy Halloween!

What has gotten into her?

I had no idea she was so silly. We have problems with Trevor acting crazy in pictures, but after going through all of our pictures of our trip, I was reminded how similar these two can sometimes be. I don't even remember her doing some of these crazy things, but here you go...

It's like she has her own version of photo bombing.

The Zoo

We thought we would take one last adventure before we headed home. So we before we started the long leg of the trip home, we went to the zoo. It was Lydia and Piper's first time going to a zoo since we don't have one at home. Most of the zoo seems to be under construction so it didn't seem like there was a lot to see, but I guess it helped get some wiggles out before we were stuck in the car.

The elephants were cool. There were monkeys. And sea otters, rhinos, a polar bear, a lot of snakes, and wolves. And that is about it. We live with monkeys. We have coyotes at home, which are almost the same as wolves. We have snakes too. Oh and we even have a bear--that is one of the reasons we have Raider. We have fish which could easily take the place of the sea otters. The zoo doesn't have too much on us!

Down on the Farm

Alright, if I knew about this stop on our adventure, I would have hired a photographer to meet us there, and we could have gotten our long over-due family pictures. This stop was to Wheeler Farms--a historic working farm. This was the stop that Karmin was most excited about. My mom is right that Karmin was born to live on a farm. They had ducks that we got to feed (and in some cases, pet), they had random animals that we could look at, and old rustic barns that we could take pictures in front of. BUT, milking the cow was what we came all the way from home to do! We all got to milk the cow. That was a lovely experience. It was a cute place, and the last stop (besides dinner) on our adventure for the day.

Out of this World

After the museum, we headed over to the Clark Planetarium. This was so much fun! I had no idea it existed, but thanks to the Prince family and their suggestion, we went over. This was an awesome experience! We had so much fun learning about the planets, the sun, and the solar system. We watched an Imax movie about butterflies, so we even learned about the monarchs. The lovely music put Piper right to sleep. See? It was great!!

Things Undone

Today we started off by going back over to Temple Square to see the things we didn't get to see. First stop? The Family History Library. Oh how I miss this place. Grant and I spent many weekends up in SLC going to the FHL. Grant did his internship up there as well, so this place is near to our hearts.

Then we went over to the Church History Museum. Piper is lacking on sleep, so this was more of a run-through tour. But we did stop and play at the section they have for kids. Karmin loved the dancing. 

Now off to find Piper a nap.

Thanksgiving Point

This trip is awesome. Besides all of the obvious reasons of it being awesome, we are also able to count this as one huge field trip for school. After being at BYU, we went over to Thanksgiving Point and spent the rest of the day at the Museum of Ancient Life . The kids loved it. Lydia and Piper got to build a dinosaur. They all got to play and learn about erosion. They dug for fossils. Then they got to go play with electricity, air movement, and other fun stuff.
By the end of the day, my feet were tired!

Old Stomping Grounds

Today was the day that I was looking forward to the most on our trip to Utah. It kind of seems silly, but I only have 1 shirt from BYU, and it is from before we graduated more than 11 years ago. I know, I know, I could buy a new t-shirt on-line, but you never know how it fits--what is their sizing like? Do they run small or big on their sizes? Plus, if the kids were there, we could buy them a shirt too and so then they will proudly wear a shirt from the best college ever. I'm trying to get future alumni here.

This was us a few months before we moved out of our apartment at BYU:

This was us today:

I think he has grown a bit. We had to show the kids where we use to live.



We went down to campus and saw one of the new buildings. It was stunning. Walking around campus, I kind of missed the days of just going to class, studying, being carefree, but then I got to the test part, and decided: I'm good.

The stairs by the bell tower that Grant and I use to race down are gone and there is a bridge over the street. Deseret Towers, where I lived my 1st year, is gone and beautiful apartments are there instead (Grant also lived in one of the towers his first year). The bench where Grant and I sat when we talked about getting married, is gone, and now they have tables and chairs with trees that are a lot prettier than our old bench. How times have changed.

There is this pretty tree at about the spot where our bench was.

We also had to stop by the BYU Broadcasting Bldg because the kids' favorite show is "Studio C." Trevor was really hoping that he could have seen somebody--anybody--Jason, Mallory, Matt, Whitney--he would have been in heaven. I think Grant and I live with a bunch of groupies!

After that we headed over to the creamery and had ice cream. It was a splurge!