October

I took so many pictures in October that I think I'll need to make Halloween a separate post. I do tend to take more pictures outside, and October was chock full of outdoor activities. Giddyup!

Lunch at the Park - Temperatures FINALLY cooled enough to visit the park in October, which was both a blessing and a curse. Antonia loves the park and loves seeing her friends there, but I might as well let Eve roll around in the gutter for the amount of grime she acquires on her person when we're there.

The funny thing/not really funny thing about this day at the park was when somebody's baby stuck her whole hand in Antonia's "dipping sauce" and Antonia was TICKED. At a baby.

Oh, my dainty little enchantress...

To Eve's way of thinking, crawling around in the dirt is really the only thing worth doing at the park.

Saturday Yard Work- (AKA picking up "pokies") It's obviously not very effective to have the kids pick up these little seed pods by hand. The benefit comes more in the form of keeping them busy for an hour.

One of the more common yoga poses, I believe it's called Groaning Frog

A four-year-old has no business having hair this long. Especially not one who screams with utter abandon while her mother tries to tame the masses of rambunctious curls with a brush. 

Another day at the park

Raindrops are rare, and so must be tasted. (Don't follow that logic too far.)

 Going for Walks- There is a trail near our house that runs parallel to a wash and is wonderful for running, or for taking the kids. There is always wildlife around- bunnies, lizards, pheasants or something like pheasants. Some parts of the trail were funded by people paying for trees to be planted in memory of loved ones. Most of those loved ones are people...

This festive display is an elaborate and seasonally-appropriate memorial...to a dog. 

The bunnies on this trail see humans often enough to not be particularly afraid. Which reminds me of a Simpsons quote, when Homer draws little bunnies around the electrical outlets to keep Maggie away, and Marge protests "Homer, Maggie's not afraid of bunnies!" And Homer says "Well, she WILL be."  End of aside.

Charlie's First Gymnastics Competition- I already posted a video of Charlie's competition. It was his first meet since moving up to his current level a couple of months ago, so we didn't really know what to expect. We thought it might take an hour and a half, at most. After two hours, when he had only done half of his events, and we had taken turns pinching each other to make sure we weren't caught in some kind of horrible wiggly-baby-whiny-preschooler nightmare, we realized that one of us would have to take one for the team and miss the rest of the meet. So I took the girls home and I did not get to see a couple of his events, or the awards.  Now we know that we'll need to engage a long-term care provider for the other kids next time he has a competition. And we'll bring better snacks. And I'll have someone explain the scoring system to me, because it's a little complicated. (Think: created by algorithm demons)

I took the picture at the wrong time on this one, but he did a flip once he hit the mat

Dismount from the parallel bars

chalky and tired after FOUR hours' worth of gymnastics meet

 Preschool 'Park Day'-  It sounds fun, doesn't it? But really it's the day they make parents come to preschool with the kids (don't they know what the whole point of preschool is?) and sign up for things like snacks. I always get stressed about it, because one year I was the last one to sign up and I had to bring something that involved a lot of slicing and prepping, as opposed to popcorn or crackers. But it's all worth it when the little snitchers get up and sing the songs they've learned thus far in the year. And if there's anything we, as parents, just can't get enough of, it's our children performing songs with hand motions in groups with other children.

This is classic Antonia: too busy looking askance at the girl doing the wrong hand motions to actually participate

 Homecoming Parade- We try to see Will's band march in the high school homecoming parade every year. And every year I weep bitter tears when I realize that the parade route has not changed, and there is not a single square inch of shade in which to stand to watch the parade. And every year the harsh October late-afternoon sun beats down on us as we attempt to cast our gaze westward. It's possible I'm being a little dramatic.

That's Charlie's head in the bottom left. You might need your sunglasses for this one...

 Miler's Club Octoberfest Mile Run- Charlie loves to run, and if his early school start time didn't already require him to be out the door at 7:30, I would have him going to Miler's Club every morning before school. But since it doesn't, and I'm not insane, he only gets to participate every time they have an after-school activity. I hope someday soon the scheduling can work out so that he can get more frequent opportunities to run.  In the meantime, I'll keep making him run alongside the car, instead of riding inside with us...

Charlie and his buddy Chase sprint the downhill portion of the lap. I love how Charlie makes running look fun. Wait! It IS fun!

Charlie's Birthday- Charlie had very specific requests for his birthday: donuts for breakfast, hot lunch for lunch, and Red Robin for dinner. Unfortunately we got a late start on a trip to Utah the day of his birthday, so by the time we rolled into St. George, it was too late for that. So he settled for In 'N Out.

Charlie is such a great kid. He's super low-maintenance, just like his dad. He has a natural talent for just about anything, except for maybe communication. I never know what he's thinking, but Will assures me that when I'm worried that he's thinking things like "What are those kids talking about? I don't know what they're talking about. I don't understand that. Why isn't so-and-so nice to me? What if I can't remember to bring my library book? Why does so-and-so get to play with video games an I don't...etc." Really, he's probably thinking something like "Legos. Hm."

Trip to Utah- Tired of sweating it out in the high 90s whilst everyone else enjoyed lovely crisp fall weather, we took a little jaunt up to Utah to see some bona fide autumn. I was a little more than chagrined to discover there was snow upon the ground when we arrived in Provo, but eventually things warmed up and we had some pleasant almost-warm afternoons. And even though I thought I might die one morning when I went for a run because it was so cold, and I couldn't feel my face, I thoroughly enjoyed the views of snow-capped mountains on my out-to-the-lake-for-old-times'-sake run along the Provo River Parkway.

I fretted about the kids being too cold the entire time we were in Utah, then noticed that most of the locals were walking around in short sleeves... I guess 45 is considered positively balmy by Provo standards

 We met 'Jenevan' (my brother Evan and his wife Jenessa, also known as 'Evanessa') for lunch at the Cougareat (awesome salads at the L&L these days!) and then little kids went to take naps and Charlie and I trekked around campus. I'm sure the highlight for Charlie was the giant Kung Fu Panda statue in the math building, but it also could have been kicking the piles of leaves that were scattered about. Piles of dead leaves are pretty exciting for a kid with palm trees in his backyard.  Don't worry fellow Cougars, I kept him off the grass as much as possible :)

When I was a kid and we visited the BYU, we always stopped in the law building to look at my dad's Class of 1982 picture. (If you zoom in really close, you can see him, fourth row up, 2nd from left.) Now we look at Grandpa's picture AND Uncle Bryan's (Class of 2005)

 It being October, there were no end to the fun fall festivities of which to partake. Will's sister Jaclyn lives and Orem and joined us with cousin Hunter for the things

Antonia and cousin Hunter bowl with pumpkins

I'm not exactly sure what this is supposed to be, but that just makes me love it more

Would you believe this was the BEST picture I could get with these three? Fine, don't believe it! See if I care!

 Of course, no trip to Utah would be complete without eating some Magleby's french toast. I really tried to not eat ALL the syrup, but I just could not. Eve DID try to eat all the syrup, plus a healthy amount of french toast. She is most definitely a carb-o-phile like her mother.

Nothing like playing with a couple of acorns to while away the minutes while waiting for french toast. Acorns are another specialty item that we don't have in Las Vegas. 

At the corn maze

Woh-pah Evenam style. 

Next up: Halloween pics. Spoiler alert: they're adorable.