Vroom! Vroom!

Andy has been talking about getting the dirt bikes out for the past few weeks now and today was such a glorious day, that he went over to the storage unit and dug out Riley's bike and his own and brought them back over to our apt.

First they went out together on Dad's bike to check the terrain together on the field across the street from the apt.  Once it was deemed safe - no holes, etc. to get caught in, they came back and got Riley's bike for him to ride...

He was SOOOO excited to get a chance to ride.  He hasn't ridden since at least May because Daddy but the dirt bikes in storage while the house was for sale in Jax.  He was cautious at first, but then after a few laps, got use to it again.  Leaning into turns, using his brakes & throttle correctly to make tight turns, etc.

Andy's PT use to ride dirt bike and has been cluing Andy in as to where to go to ride locally.  There is a place just west of Lehi where you can ride and camp...I think they are planning a guys camping trip this spring or summer with the bikes.  I love that they share this hobby together.  It's such a great way for them to spend time together and to bond as father and son.

Here he goes!

Not sure if you can see it or not, but he's got a HUGE smile on his face!

Isn't the background beautiful?

These are the same mountains we'll see out the back door of our new home, just a closer view....And YES, we do have IKEA in Salt Lake county!  Can't wait until we move in so I can shop Ikea for some cool stuff for their play room!  But aren't the mountains pretty?

Date Night

Last night Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cara came over to babysit for us so we could go out for our anniversary...Yes, it's been 14 years (on Oct. 21st) since we got married.  Can't believe it.  I started to count how many different addresses we've had and it's been 7 since 1995!  Wow!  That's a lot of boxes to move around!

We went out to dinner at an awesome place called Log Haven.  Click here to check out the restaurant.  It's located in Middle Creek Canyon and is the perfect setting...a log cabin built up on the side of the canyon with waterfalls on both sides of the road.  A beautiful setting for a wedding or reception for sure.


The food was delicious and the atmosphere was quite and romantic.  It was a wonderful night...the best part was getting away from the kids for a few hours together.  After dinner we stopped by Hoppers (a micro-brewery) for a drink or two before heading home to rescue the Wiegands.

Now we're ready to start on year number 15...Hope it's the best one yet!

Say Cheese!

Our first of many school pictures for Riley...He's growing up so fast!

Raise The Roof

Before you know it, this place will be covered with tar paper and shingles!  This can't happen soon enough for us.  It's amazing how quickly this is going.  But since it's build #3 for us, we realize that it all appears to go quickly during the framing part and seems to go much slower once you start working on the interior, but I'm getting my hopes up that it's done before New Years...

A Winter Wonderland

We had our first "winter" storm out here.  It was the wet kind of snow that sticks to the trees...The pretty kind, but also the slushy kind.  Thank goodness the roads were still warm enough that it didn't stick and create havoc for me since I had to drive Andy around.  I snapped a few shots of how pretty everything looked in a coating of white.  Riley is now calling South Mt., Sugar Mt. because it looks like it's been coated in powdered sugar!

This is from the balcony of our apt.

This is the view from our new place.

A Literacy Parade? Really?

This week is spirit week at Riley's school.  Monday was crazy hair day - he wore a mohawk.  Tuesday was backwards shirt day - he wore his skeleton shirt backwards.  Today was the "literacy parade" - he wore his pirate costume and carried his book called "How I Became A Pirate."  He then had a party in his classroom until it was time to go home...He loved marching around the school with his classmates, visiting every classroom and wrapping it up in the gym where all the anxious parents, siblings and extended family were waiting.

But calling it a literacy parade?  The note home told parents what books to bring if their kid wanted to dress as a witch or a knight, etc.  It also said that if they couldn't find a book, just to come dressed anyway...so why are we bothering to repackage the traditional halloween parade as a literacy parade?  Let's just call it what it is...Heck, I haven't seen a place that loves halloween more than Utah!

This is also a short week for Riley...He has off Friday for "Evidence Based Learning."  From what I understand this is a day that teachers use to plan, grade, evaluate curriculum, etc.  Great if you are a teacher...heck, in the 3 districts back east, I NEVER had one day a month for something like that.  But the part that gets me, is that every Friday is a short day for "teacher planning."  But since Friday is no school for the kids, their "planning" time is now on Thursday...Our kids need more time in the classroom, not less.    It kills me that Utah considers kindergarten "optional."  I could choose to keep Riley home this year and no one would do anything.

And the WORST part of it is that there isn't any physical education in elementary or middle school!  What is up with that?  Thank goodness my kids will never have to worry about learning how to stay fit or healthy, but there is so much to be said for organized large group physical activity.  Kids need to learn to cooperate, wait their turn, develop physical skills & coordination as well as be physically fit.  Physical education is a PERFECT way to help do all of that.  Recess doesn't do anything for their heart rates, body composition or fitness levels.  Those kids who aren't fit, will be the ones standing around or sitting on their behinds watching the rest of the kids play.  I am grateful that Riley does get chased by the girls at recess...he's getting his exercise and doesn't even realize it!  Hope they keep chasing him, but that they never catch him!

Okay, enough of my rant...the teacher in me came out...now back to mom mode.

Halloween Fest!

Our town holds a Halloween Festival with tons of stuff for the little ones to do and lots of candy to hand out.  It was great to see so many adorable and scary costumes.  Kids participated in games, activities, listened to witch stories, watched the fire dept. drop pumpkins off of the ladder fully extended, etc.  Andy had PT so I took the kids by myself.

K was dressed as a fairy - wings, wand, tutu and all.  R was dressed in his skeleton pirate costume once again.  K enjoyed running around and driving me crazy trying to keep my eyes on both kids.  She's fast for a 15 month old!  Thank goodness R is pretty obedient and stays near by.

The kids couldn't wait to get home and see Daddy and show him their loot!  I love coming in the door and watching them both go running into his arms.  R even shared some of his goodies with his Dad.  So cute.

This was the best shot I could get of the front of K.

This was pretty much my view of her all evening...

This was the "golf pro" from the indoor golf center in town having R hit a few...now I'm no golfer, but even I know that his hands are wrong on the club...Pretty sad when mom is correcting his form and not the pro!

We've got walls!

Here it is...I can't believe how much they have gotten done so far.  I guess that's a good thing because the weather is turning cold this week and we're getting our first "winter" storm Tues - Wed!  Shouldn't be too much of a cause for alarm, only 1-2 inches in the valley.

The chimney is in our living room, the entry is to the right of that room.  The next room is the kids playroom, then the two windows side by side are the 2 car garage and then you see the entry to the 3rd car garage.  Above the playroom will be a spare bedroom - so all of you who want to come west to visit, we've got a room ready and waiting...well, that room will also double as a craft room when we don't have company!

This is the view from the back.  The 3 windows in a row are our family room.  Then the bump out is the breakfast room and the kitchen will be on the left.  Above the family room is our bedroom, then K's in the middle and R's on the right.  The dining room is between the kitchen and the living room.  I can't wait to get inside and walk around.  Tonight they were working until at least 7pm!

Mom's Photo Shoot

Today we had a photo shoot by one of our MOPS moms as a fundraiser for MOPS.  We had a 10 min. sitting for $20 and a free 5x7 and then for an extra $25 I bought the cd of the pics Emily took of us.  Em is a professional photographer and she took them at Wheeler Historical Farm which was absolutely beautiful today with all the leaves changing colors.

I decided to snap a few of the kids and Andy while we were there and all dressed up.  Here are a few:

K likes to see the "ga gas" which is her name for ANY animal.

This is about the best we could get of K today...she was in a foul mood!

My handsome little man.

My main squeeze

I love this shot...the leaves, the mountains and my two favorite guys.

This is my wonderful family.

See how happy K was today...

I love playing the leaves...apparently so does Riley!

K wasn't as thrilled with the leaves on her head...maybe Daddy shouldn't have kept doing that, huh?  And we wonder why she was cranky?

To our surprise, there were some Air Force fighter jets (about 4 total) were cruising over the farm.  They kept doing laps around the area.  Riley and Andy were in awe of them.  Now a trip to Hill Air Force base will have to be in our future...I'll have to keep my eyes open for when they have an air show.

Who Knew Freezer Paper Was Good For More Than Just The Freezer!

Since I have NO idea where my holiday stuff is packed, the kids and I decided to make trick or treat bags this year.  I found canvas bags at Roberts and then picked up some fabric paint and sponge brushes and headed home to start our project.

I found some halloween shapes from some online coloring pages and used them as patterns to create our stencils.  I traced the pictures onto freezer paper, cut them out and then ironed the freezer paper onto the bag (freezer paper also works well on difficult fabric to cut for patterns).  Once the paint is dry, you remove the paper and voila!

This is the picture on K's bag.  I think I might go get a puffy fabric paint pen and outline the pumpkin for her yet...maybe add some cute halloween ribbon to her handles...

Here is Riley working hard on his bag.  He chose bats for one side and a jack-o-lantern for the other.

Riley's trick or treat bag

We also made some Halloween cards to send to family this year.  I "borrowed" this idea from my friend Becky in Jax.  We traced the kids feet and made ghosts with them.  They are so cute and a great way to chart the growth of our kids!

Take a look:

House Update:

They are making progress!  Take a look.

They were smoothing out the concrete in our soon to be basement.  This is the front of the house looking towards the back.

Garage floors were poured.  I was hoping to place a 2009 penny in the concrete in the garage floor, but I did not have one with me at the time.  

Instead, Riley decided to run across the garage floor and leave his footprint for eternity.

Here you can see just how big the basement will be...I can't wait for storage space!!!

What a surprise yesterday...When we arrived, we saw they had started framing!  Can't wait to see the progress they make next week before the snow and cold arrives!

Put On A Happy Face

Riley was missing his Dad and it was evident by his behavior...Quick to have hurt feelings and quick to cry...Dad had been traveling a lot over the past 2 weeks.  So when he got off the bus feeling a little down and very little worked to cheer him up, we decided to go out to lunch.  His request was hot cakes from Mc Donald's.  Unfortunately it was already noon so that wasn't an option.  We decided on I-Hop instead since they serve breakfast all day.

Now who could be sad when you have a lunch that looks this good?

What a Beautiful Day for a Hike...

In the short time we've lived in Utah, the kids and I have done numerous hikes, but sadly they have all been without Daddy.  Well, Saturday may have been one of our last beautiful days for a while so to take advantage of it, we decided to go on a hike.  We are fortunate that in the town where we live, they have countless hiking, mt. biking, and horseback riding trails along the foothills.  We packed up our gear and headed out to the trail head.

We hiked up to the "bench" along the Wasatch Mts. in our town...the "bench" is a straight line going horizontal along the mts. that you can see from the valley...it's where the water use to be many, many, many years ago when the valley was a large body of water.  From there we ended up on the Bonneville Shoreline trail which climbed even higher.  Along the way, we passed other hikers and mt. bikers.  We discovered that the dirt road that leaves from the trailhead goes to another trailhead, so when we got back to the car, we decided to see just how far the dirt road went...boy are we glad that we did.  It took us all the way back to corner canyon...What a gorgeous view from back there.  There was yet another trailhead back there as well.  I can't believe I didn't realize we had such beauty here in our own town...no need to drive anywhere else to hike!  (But we know we will still drive LOTS of places to hike because there are too many too choose from!)

This is a view from the bench to part of our town below

This is looking up from the bench

Once we hiked up to the bench, it was easy sailing, but the climb up from the trailhead was a killer with all the extra weight on my back!  It helped me to work off the Philly cheesesteak I had for lunch at Moochies with Kevin and Cara!

At the trailhead, there were some rocks for the kids to climb on...it should NOT surprise you that my daring daughter climbed to the top of this by herself.  (It was a good 3+ feet high)

Riley climbed to the top of this one with a little help from dear old Dad...He was pretty nervous at first, but once he learned how to navigate the rock wall, we couldn't get him down!

This is the view from Corner Canyon at about 4:30pm.  Isn't it beautiful?  Hard to capture the colors while looking west (and from my iphone), but you get the point.  Looking this way (east) from the west, you don't realize how far back this canyon goes.  There are so many trails to explore from this point that I can't wait for our next nice weekend!  Hopefully we'll have a few more before next spring!

Yes, Provo Canyon Is Haunted!

Last week was a rough one in the Chunko home.  My grandfather's funeral was Wednesday and I was unable to be there for it.  Andy left Monday through Thursday for Wyoming - his home away from home these days.  And then Andy left again yesterday for Fort Worth, TX for a short line meeting with UP and won't be home again until Wednesday.  I wanted to make the most of the short time Andy was home so...

After a long day at work on Friday, we met Andy in Orem (just north of Provo where his office is located) for dinner and then a ride on the Heber Valley Rail Road.  They have a haunted canyon ride for halloween that runs along the Provo river through Provo Canyon.  What a GORGEOUS place for a train ride - we'll have to do that next fall during the day when we can see all the beautiful fall foliage!  On the train ride, they told us numerous stories of how the canyon is haunted and then those stories played out (with actors, spot lights and lots of props) along the train tracks and river.  On the return trip, those haunting characters boarded the train and scared the unsuspecting passengers.  It wasn't too frightening, but just enough to make Riley think about if it was real or not.

Waiting to board the Haunted Canyon Ride

Riley's wondering just how "haunted" this train ride will be...

Yes, Riley is getting our money's worth on his halloween costume!