Fall Fun in Utah!

What's not to love when you look at this picture?  Fall is one of the most beautiful times of year, but it makes Utah look gorgeous (my favorite place to be in the fall is in upstate NY & New England though).

We had lots of fun this fall.  We did some hiking:

Kendall and Kevin hiking up Bell Canyon together

Time for a break!  Those little legs of Kendall's were tired after walking up that trail!

Love this view!

What a goofy girl!  Both kids loved jumping from boulder to boulder!

Looking for fish?

We even took a trip to the pumpkin patch this year.  Not sure if pumpkin patch is the right name for it, but there is a house on the way to karate that converts their property into a pumpkin patch!  They have pumpkins of all shapes and sizes literally covering their entire place.  The prices are good too.  They are one of the local farms that sell stuff here in Draper so we like to support them when we can.  The kids had so much fun picking out pumpkins.  Kendall kept putting more and more in the wagon until it was too heavy for me to pull.  I had to have Riley help by pushing from behind!

My two little pumpkins!

Kendall and I met up with her little friend Adelyn for Thanksgiving Point's Barnyard Boo.  The girls had so much fun catching up and playing!  

Riding the ponies is always a favorite of Kendall's.

 The MOMS Club of Draper has a Halloween party every year.  This year it was held up in Suncrest where we enjoyed a potluck lunch, games and trunk-or-treat!

Some of the kiddos

Princess Kendall and her handsome knight in shining armor!

The kids has a great fall, regardless of the fact that Daddy was MIA for most of it.  Sadly he spent much of his time in Arizona, even on weekends.  He was bummed to have missed out on all the fun.

All Things Halloween

I can't believe I didn't post about Halloween?  Geez, it's already past Thanksgiving and soon it will be Christmas!  

Kendall's class at school had a Harvest Party and two other moms and I helped them celebrate.  It was so cute to see them interact and try new things. 

Here they all are trying some "dirt" dessert.  The girls wouldn't go near it because we called it "dirt!"

Kendall trying to throw the candy corn shaped bean bag into the pumpkin's face!

 Showing off the jack-o-lantern candles they made!

For Halloween we once again celebrated with friends.  We are so thankful for our friends here in Utah and that we have the opportunity to do special things together, like taking all the kids trick-or-treating together.

Here's Kendall with her best buddy Pikachu (aka Roman).  These two are two years apart in age, but you'd never know it when it comes to playing together. She adores him and I'm pretty sure he feels the same.

Viv and Kendall taking inventory

Riley and his buddy Anthony checking out their stash after a VERY long and tiring trek through the neighborhood.  Both of their pumpkins were filled to the TOP with candy!

We had a great time celebrating with friends and so did our kids.  It was so wonderful to let them go with their buddies just like we did as kids!  We are so grateful for that opportunity and so blessed with awesome friends!

Pumpkin party!

We decided to paint our pumpkins this year instead of carving them.  Because let's face it, who does all the work when they are this young?  That's right, MOM!  I end up cleaning out and carving all the faces after the kids tell me what they want...So why not let them have all the fun instead?

Kendall got right to work on her masterpiece

Dad is helping Riley draw a face on his pumpkin

Just an abstract little pumpkin for her!

We even broke out some markers - like how she's doing all her decorating while holding on to that lollipop?  

Riley was so proud of his work!

I think this is going to become a new tradition in our house.  We can paint them early and not worry about rot like when you carve your pumpkins.

Cousin Mania!

Earlier this month, my brother, sis-in-law and niece took a much deserved vacation to South Carolina (they are the ones who live in Alaska).  They enjoyed the sun and the sand of Kiawah Island and Charleston.  On their return trip, they were able to arrange a long layover in Salt Lake City!  Lucky us!

We went to the airport immediately after school to meet them.  Once they landed we picked them up and wisked them off to the Red Iguana for dinner since we had the time.  The two little girls sat in the 3rd row of my car and squealed with delight at seeing each other once again.  Riley was more than excited to have Uncle Matt to himself in the back seat and that gave Mere and I  a chance to catch up.

What fun we all had getting to see each other and spending a few hours together.  Kendall has been asking for her cousin Alice every week since we saw them.  I'm hoping to convince Mere and Alice to plan a girls trip to SLC sometime during their off season from the cafe.  The flight from Anchorage is around 5 hours so it's tolerable.  Maybe we can get my mom to fly in from North Carolina too?  Well, I've planted the seeds.  We'll see if we can make it happen.

Purple Belt = Sparring!

Riley passed his belt test before Thanksgiving and now he's a PURPLE belt in karate.  That means he gets sparring pads and has the chance to actually use his moves against other students!  He couldn't be more excited about it!

Here he is after earning his purple belt - so proud of himself!

We all went out for wings to celebrate!  Dad even got to watch him!  

His pads didn't come in right away - must have been a back order type of thing - and he just received them last night.  He was more than thrilled to have his own sparring pads!  

He really enjoys karate and we're glad that he has found his niche for now...karate, cub scouts and skiing keep our little man busy most of the year.  (Sorry for the poor photo quality - both were taken on my phone)

One Proud Set of Parents

Today was the first completely, 100% successful attempt on Riley's part to ride his dirt bike without his training wheels.  He's tried it in the past, but always struggled with starting and stopping because his legs weren't quite long enough...But that summer growth spurt has had some advantages!  He was a little hesitant to start - not sure he was as confident in his ability as his parents were, but once he had success, he kept going and going!

Here he is in all his glory!

He was just as proud of himself as we were.

The Days of Elijah

Behold he comes

Riding on a cloud

Shining like the sun

At the trumpets call

Lift your voice

It's the year of jubilee

Out of Zion's hill salvation comes!

I snapped these shots last week after I dropped Riley off at scouts.  The sun was just above the clouds (we had low clouds for Utah that day) and the sun shining through the clouds reminded me of this song.  

Our Annual Cornbelly's Trip

Every year we head to Cornbelly's for some family fall fun!  Cornbelly's is located next to Thanksgiving Point (about 15 minutes away).  They have so many different things for the kids to do in the fall.  They have things like: a giant corn maze, cow train rides, grain train rides, multiple hay mazes, hay rides, corn cannons, pumpkin blasters, jumping pillows, huge slides built on stacks of hay bales, lots of bounce houses, a pumpkin princess playland, a kiddie corral with swings, life size lincoln log houses to build, gemstone mining, face painting, food, etc.

Our kids love to go and look forward to it each fall.  Thankfully yesterday, the weather cooperated and we were grateful that Andy was able to join us since he's been traveling a lot over the weekends this month.

Kendall and the Pumpkin Princess

Look at our harvest!  

Ready to ride the cow train!

All of us got to ride

Some days I feel like launching her to the moon!

And him with her!  ;)

Thankfully we didn't get lost in the corn maze and have to call 911!

Zooming around the race track

Riley loved riding the carts

Kendall did too, but needed Daddy's help

Air Pillows!

So much fun!

Riding on the Princess' horse

Trying to ride the horses in the Royal Corral

Didn't have much luck with this kind of horse - maybe we should stick to pony rides?

This is the REAL reason we love Cornbelly's!

Harvest Time

The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.

Psalm 85:12

Every fall the MOMS Club of Draper takes a field trip to the local apple orchard.  It's nothing compared to a trip to Cherry Hill Orchards back home, but it's better than our options in Jax (none!).  This field trip includes a hay ride around the orchard, a tour of their apple cider production facility and since they are delayed in their cider production due to our late onset of springtime weather, the kids got to go through the orchard and pick their own golden delicious apple.  Kendall hadn't gotten the chance to do that yet and she was ready to pick every and all apples!  I had to show her to look for worm holes since this orchard thankfully doesn't use pesticides.  She got to eat it right off the tree!  What a great treat for us!

Here we are on our hay ride:

I have an email out to the orchard in Alpine - just the other side of South Mountain where I got my Jonagolds last year (Jonagolds are my absolute favorite apples) and I'm waiting to hear back as to when they will have theirs available.  If any of my Utah friends are interested in some, let me know and I can pick them up for you whenever I get there.  We love apple crisp, apple dumplings, apple sauce, apple butter, etc.  We also love apple cider donuts but haven't found anything better than Indian Ladder Farms cider donuts back in Albany, NY.  Our family loves the fall and all the harvest brings!

Sunrise...

He is like the light of morning at sunrise

on a cloudless morning,

like the brightness after rain

that brings the grass from the earth.

2 Samuel 23:4

What a great way to start your Monday, huh?  God painted a beautiful sky this morning and I'm thankful that I was up and able to catch it on this first Monday back to school after a week off.  It's amazing how His beautiful creation can change you attitude and outlook for the day.