Happy Halloween 2010

We had a Happy Halloween this year.
Wyatt was a super cute skeleton
(though Caleb made fun of me for taking his picture on a snowman blanket).
We loved taking him into the closet to see the bones glow-in-the-dark.

Gavin and Henry were both ninjas this year. Henry is not the biggest joiner when it comes to Halloween, so he ended up just deciding to do whatever Gavin was doing. They were a cute pair.
Plenty of good ninja moves.
Gavin was the red ninja.

Henry was the yellow ninja.

Seriously... so excited. Wyatt also had his first tooth poke through today, while the other two are trying to convince me to let them eat enough candy to rot theirs out.

We went to the school Halloween carnival on Friday. The anticipation was maybe even a little more fun than the actual carnival, but the boys got a taste of Halloween and we supported the school. Gavin and Wyatt got their faces painted.

And we saw some friends and played some games.

This picture cracks me up... I can't figure out how Parker is standing, he and Gav are actually the same height. Some how he looks like he is standing up straight, though the fake muscles don't help the weird view. They have a great time together.

I didn't seem to get any pictures of the actual trick-or-treating and all, but it was a lot of fun, and we got more than enough candy.

Second children must be extra blessed

I was folding laundry the other day and the boys were watching, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." in the living room. This is what I overheard-
Henry- "What does extinct mean?"
Gavin- "It means dead."
Henry- "Ok."
Gavin- "You know, like how Mom and Dad's grandmas are dead... Well, they are passed away."
Henry- "So dinosaurs are passed away?"
Gavin- "No dinosaurs are extinct. When it is a person, they say passed away. When it is an animal they say extinct."

Pumpkin guts

For some reason, in a house full of boys, I am the only one that is willing to touch the pumpkin guts. We had a great time carving our pumpkins this weekend.

Gavin wanted to help scoop some out, so that he could appear tough. Unfortunately, the smell seemed to be a bit much for him, so he had to cover his nose the whole time.

Wyatt is super thrilled about his first pumpkin carving day.

Our end results were pretty good. Quite festive, in fact.
Henry's jack-o-lantern.

Gavin's glowing goblin.

They loved the lit candles.

Other Saint George Fun

This was our first real visit to Saint George and it really is a beautiful place. Not sure I could handle it in the summer, but it was nice and mild and we soaked it up. We visited the beautiful Snow Canyon. It was so fun climbing around on the petrified dunes and checking out the great views. The kids loved scampering around, and scavenging for cool rocks even though they seemed more obsessed with gravel parking lot than what they found on the hikes.

Henry refused to pose for any group shots because that is just who he is, but he still looks pretty awesome all on his own.

Nothing like beautiful kids in such a beautiful place.

Yep, Wyatt was snoozing away while I was trying not to fall down climbing the rocks.

Our awesome and handsome trail guide with his determined hiking group.

Everyone loves a good cave to climb into, except maybe Claire who was mad that everyone wouldn't give her more of her own space. She and Henry were the slowest walkers on both of our short hikes, but Claire made this one exciting by singing her own rendition of "Happy Birthday" and "We Will Rock You (and Flush You Down the Toilet)" on the walk back. I would always rather hang back with them, if that is the entertainment.

We also had a great little visit to the Saint George LDS Temple. It really is beautiful. We are still trying to figure out how they get it to be so stunningly white. There were a lot of people visiting the temple grounds that evening, so it was a little hard to get great photos, but it was beautiful.

Henry, Claire and Wyatt had fallen asleep in the car on the way over, so we let them rest a bit with Caleb. Mia, Libbie, Mallory and Gavin were great at posing and being happy together. Gavin kept picking out different spots and asking me to take pictures of them. Anytime.

We did lots of hanging out too, and since Caleb finally got a new phone and is now phone-twins with Nathan. There was plenty of obsessing about how cool their phones were. And plenty of nagging from their wives to get off the phone, or please stop watching the fancy GPS while driving. This picture is proof that Caleb was even trying to convince Jaren and Wyatt how cool his phone is. You can see they are more into eating a hat and sucking fists than coveting the phone.

Even though I was quite tired at the end, I really loved this trip. Running in the early morning with Stacy is always a favorite thing when we travel together, and I really got a chance to chat and catch up with the wonderful Cardon girls. The kids are usually busy cramming all the playing that they can into our time together. It was hilarious to watch Jaren get so excited to see Wyatt when we put them on the floor together. He would just squeal and try to dive for him. Always so nice to just hang out with Caleb and take a break from all of the things that make our lives crazy and busy. So grateful for the little moments that make me happy.

We love Zion NP (Part 2)

We headed back to Zion again on our way home, because we are probably a little obsessed. This time we stayed away from the main park and did some wandering on the trail where the Subway hike begins. We probably only went the first mile or so to the overlook ridge that leads you down to the canyon, but it is a beautiful place with lots of trees and some great views.

The boys saw so many people with walking sticks in the park that they had to create their own. They were pretty sad that we wouldn't agree to let them bring their sticks home in the car. What lame parents we are.

We stopped to let Wyatt eat at the overlook and some very formidable clouds rolled in and started to rain giant drops on us. I was trying to hold Wyatt and feed him a bottle while walking on the rocky path. It didn't work very well and we were all starting to get pretty wet, and just like that, the clouds disappeared. I guess we weren't meant to spend much time sitting around enjoying the view.

We also went to a new place that we have never been before, Lava Point Overlook. The drive was a little long, but it was so picturesque that we didn't notice. The colors are so hard to capture, but it was stunning. It was high enough to have changed a lot, although most of the main parts of the park hadn't.
This was a view of Zion that was so different from what we usually see, since we were a lot farther north that we have gone in the past. It was very cool.

We love Zion NP

For fall break last weekend, we took a trip to Saint George with Nathan and Stacy and family. It was a great time. It was the first trip or even outing that we have done together since Jaren and Wyatt were born, and since their were double the number of kids as adults, we were worn out by the end of the weekend. It was great to spend time together and let the kids run a little wild and crazy. Our first stop was Zion National Park, which we definitely love. I really think that it is a place that everyone should visit. We walked the trail (it is too easy to call a hike, Gavin pointed out) at the Temple of Sinawava. It was a very busy day on the trail, but still very beautiful.

Had to get some proof that the parents of all these children came too.
Any chance to get near the water can make every hike more exciting.
Even Wyatt already loves Zion.

Some seriously cute Cardon kids.

Wyatt got lots of attention from other hikers since he was sleeping through a lot of the scenery. Apparently he is pretty cute when he sleeps, I could not agree more.

There are so many rock cairns at the beginning of this hike in all shapes and sizes. Makes for a pretty cool scene by the river. The kids even built a few small ones. I thought this really showed some artist thought on someone's part.

3 months old And Fishing

Today Wyatt hit 3 months of life with us. What a ride! He has really settled into life and our family. He loves to chatter and smile, which is so fun to see. He still wiggles constantly, which sometimes makes it very hard for me to take a picture of him. He loves the morning, and just cracks us up how happy he is when we go to get him out of bed. It takes him forever to have breakfast because he wants to greet everyone and can't stop smiling. We are still working on his naps, but since he sleeps 10-12 hours a night about 5 nights a week, you will not hear me complaining.

He spends so much time wiggling, that sometimes this is the smiling shots we get.

Today we also got to go on a much anticipated fishing adventure with Brandt and Rena. Brandt has spent the spring and summer learning all of the best fishing spots in the valley and shared his expertise and fishing poles with the boys today. They had a blast. They each caught a fish that we kept and one more that was released.
Rena helping Henry reel in his catch. I think he may have hit the record for longest time to reel in a fish in a small pond. He was so excited to see it, and immediately grabbed the line and touched the fish.

Gavin reeled his in alone, but you can tell from his face that he is a bit worried once he caught sight of the fish. He was the best at focusing on fishing and following Brandt around to get him to show him the details of fishing. (He was also the one that harassed Brandt all summer about going fishing once it was cool enough.)

Gav refused to touch the fish, but when it slowed it's flopping he was more than glad to pose and keep and eye on it.

Gavin's excellent casting skills.

Relaxing by the lake.

Sadly, for my boys. I know nothing about preparing, cooking or eating fish. So we sent ours to the Loo's house since they have skills in all of those areas. Henry and Gavin both stated on the way home that they are excited to eat the fish. We'll see what they say when the time comes.