ROCKtober: Halloween

We went to a pumpkin patch to pick the perfect pumpkins.  How many perfect pumpkins per person did we pick?  Perhaps a peek at pumpkin-picking pictures will prove to puzzle out this perplexing problem.

When you are a true lover of rocks, even a patch of pumpkins won't keep you from finding a truly awesome one.

Addie played Queen of the Haystack.

Jack attempted to overthrow her, but he was just a few years too early for such a victory.

 Addie was sure to let everyone know she was not a haystack queen to be reckoned with.

 Jack's favorite thing to do, other than find rocks, was to help push the wheelbarrow.  I couldn't bring myself to tell him that he was actually making the job harder, so I just kept my mouth shut and pushed along like a hunchbacked person wading through a river of molasses.

 Jack, my aspiring stuntman, discovered pumpkin surfing.  You can tell by the straw accumulated on his knees that a lot of falling is involved.

And Addie, along with Sparkles (her beloved koala), found a way to make the really lame maze into something awesome and potentially dangerous by leaping from bale to bale.  Can you guess what these kids do to the furniture at home?  That's why we're hanging on to the futon for awhile.

We picked seven perfect pumpkins, in case you were really trying to figure out the puzzle.  We carved them with my parents, brothers and hopefully future sister-in-law, and had a pretty good time of it.

 We also went to a fabulous Halloween party this year, hosted by our friends Colby and Heather.  They sure know how to throw a party!  Dull moments didn't stand a chance.  Here we are having a leaf fight.  I am the Waldo, Jack is the rat, and Addie is Tinkerbell.  (Eden and Mya are the other cute kids.)  Being the size of a kid makes me feel like I can still play like a kid.

Jason went as the "Most Interesting Man in the World", from the Dos Equis commercials.  He didn't just dress up like him, he also practiced the accent and memorized an entire monologue.  He was pretty convincing.  He did win a prize, so I guess all the effort paid off. (The prize was two eyeball whoopie cushions, and Addie popped them both in the car ride home.  But the honor of winning lasts a lifetime, right?)

 Here's Everett, age 2 and already a highly competitive pie-eater.  Oh, and I discovered that my costume was the best for photobombing.

Addie went out trick-or-treating with her friend Anna this year, while Jack and I waited for Jason to come home from work on break.  Jack really just wanted to go as rat legs, but we made him wear the top part... mostly for warmth, but also so that people wouldn't feel bad for the kid whose parents only got him half a costume to wear.  ("What kind of parents...?!  Well, I never!")  We only took him up the street and back down the other side, but he made a good hauling anyway.

And then Addie came home with a thief's amount of candy. They couldn't have been more pleased with the candy pile, and I couldn't have been more relieved that their Bapa is a dentist.  We counted them up, and here is the grand total for Trick-or Treat 2013: 202 pieces.  If only we could use it as currency!

And, as if getting married wasn't enough for one month, Patrick was sworn in and officially became a lawyer.  Congrats! 

ROCKtober: San Diego

At the beginning of October  (October 4th, to be exact) Pat and his sweetheart, Jesse, sealed the deal and were married in the San Diego temple.  Hip hip hooray!   It was quite the drive in such a full car (seven passengers, 3 of them kids), but it was worth it.  We had a fabulous time, and we all looked pretty good too!

 

Jack and Stetson, waiting outside the temple for the bride and groom to come out.  It looks like Jack had a pretty good grip on his cousin's leg...probably because he had just gotten a glimpse of Marie Osmond and couldn't believe his eyes.  No lyin', she was there!  As it turns out, she's related to Jesse
 (or she's available for hire to come to weddings now...)

And here are my beautiful sisters-in-law: Clare, Caitie and Cami.  They are also available for hire to attend any wedding that needs more glamor.

  Here's Jack, Addie and Stetson in their party attire.  Jack had just finished selling his papers for the day.  Carpe diem!

And here's my sweet family.  The location for this reception was so beautiful!  It was atop a hill overlooking vineyards and orange trees.  There was even a pool that was disguised as a pond, complete with a bridge.  Awesome! 

And here are the people you were really hoping to see: Patrick and Jesse.  Isn't she the most stunning bride?  There was food, dancing, and all kinds of fun at the reception.  When it was over, we all headed back to the hotel and soaked in the hot tub.

Just because the wedding was over didn't mean the fun was over.  Heck, we were still in San Diego, after all!  So we went to Sea World.  Addie is probably the only kid who has ever whined about going to Sea World.  She did NOT want to go, she just wanted to go to a beach.  Being the mean parents we are, we made her go spend the day at a fun place with awesome animals anyway. 

Here we are waiting for the Shamu show.  You can tell the show hadn't started yet because of how dry we all were still.  In fact, it was the first event of our day in Sea World.  See how not sweaty we are, too?

After hitting up all the shows and wearing ourselves out, we decided to take a break in the kids area.  Jason and Addie rode on the rides/ stood in lines while I watched Jack run through the splash pads at lightening speeds.  It was definitely Jack's favorite part of the day!  He shocked people by how fast he could run despite his small size, and even had a collision with a kid three times his size and survived.  He took a stellar stroller nap after all the exercise/concussion.  (In case any one is genuinely worried, he did not really have a concussion.)

Addie and I spent some time in school. 

Addie and Jason on a rescue mission, something to do with an endangered crocodile species, I think.

Jack woke up from his nap and decided that he had been hit harder than he previously thought, since he was now seeing large colorful fish walking around and singing Elvis songs. Stetson is the other cute boy in the picture, looking calm as a cucumber.  Oh, and Addie ended up having fun after all.  Surprise!  Didn't see that coming, did you?  She said her favorite part was the polar bears, which is hilarious because they were in hibernation and all we saw was their empty habitat. 

After Sea World we tried to go to a beach, but ended up at a really smelly sea lion one and left without even getting out...assuming it would be possible to get out and ambulate in such poor air conditions.  Fortunately, we still had Sunday morning to spend at the beach and make Addie's dreams come true.

Here's Bapa giving Jack his first dip in the ocean.  Jack's a fan of water, so he loved it even though it was cold.

 

Tyler found a large piece of seaweed that needed tossing.  It was reminiscent of Jason tossing the jellyfish in San Francisco.  It must be a boyscout thing...

Clare and Addie made a lovely sandcastle fit for a king crab.

 Here's Addie, wandering and babbling and imagining something princess-related, I'm sure.

Jack going in for another dip, with Bapa, Caitie and Marta in the background.  Marta seems to be the only one with the appropriate reaction to the water temperature.  She's also the only one in this photo from California, which means either A) she is unable to tolerate the cold unlike us sturdy Utahns or B) being at the beach is such a rare and special occasion for landlocked people, that the magic of the moment clouds our senses and blocks the message of "cold" from reaching our brains.

My brain certainly wasn't receiving any messages as I waded deep into the water with Caitie to battle the waves.  We continued walking into the water until we saw a large wave forming and speedily heading our direction, then we clung to each other and screamed until the wave knocked us over and washed us towards shore.  Then we did it again.  And again.  And then several more times after that.

Here we are in the clutches of a big wave.  Yeah, Caitie and I know how to have fun.

And I'll end this post with a photo of Jason in expert frisbee-catching form, looking so cool and ready for that flying disc to glide straight into his hand.  Go ahead, make it your screensaver.

What a fantastic trip! It's hard to believe that such a place really exists and that I was there once, while as I am typing this the snow is building up and threatening to trap me in my home.  Thank goodness for photos!

The Fantastic Hunt for Elk and Mushroomical Magic

This here post is about Jason's huHn' trip back over in September. Since I warn't there myself, I guess I'll just post the pichures without much wriHn'. ( I tease Jason about how he turns a little redneck when he's out hunting, or even just in Richfield.  He especially sounds redneck when I talk to him on the phone while he's on these trips.  It cracks me up, it does.)  Anyway, here are the pichures:

This is a flat tire on the Razor that happened early on in the hunt and required a trip back into town to repair.

 A rainbow, which may be a good hunting omen.

 Dan and Uncle Marty.  There were several people on this hunt, but only one person had an elk tag: Grandpa Utley.  Everyone else was there just to ensure that he got one (and because they like any reason to wander around on mountains with guns and camouflage).

Uncle Marty, Dallas, and Jason.

He got one, hurrah! Grandpa Utley, Dan, Jason, and Uncle Marty. 

While wandering around on mountain tops with much manly vigor, Jason encountered many mind-blowing mushroom species.  Fortunately for all of us, he documented them so that we may enjoy their splendor.  Take for example, the ruffly one in the photo above.  Is your mind already blown?  Well, it's about to get even blowner.

 This is the underside of a very large mushroom.  I believe the scientific name for this particular species is Fungi Shagiolus ElePhantomeous of the Operaus.

True, Dan is a funguy, but for the purposes of this mushroom unit we are looking at the orange fungi on the fallen trunk.  (Ho ho, I bet you haven't ever heard that joke before!)

I know what you're thinking: What, those are real?!  They aren't just in fairy books and Willy Wonka factories?!  Yes, I thought the same thing: this proves fairies and Oompa Loompas are real, too.

 And golden mushrooms also exist, my friend.  Imagine the royal stir-fry this would make!

This concludes our mind-blowing mushroom studies.  Please do not operate any heavy machinery  for the next twenty-four hours.

Jason and Dan went on their own little hunting excursion and were rewarded with three grouse... grouses... grouslings... grousers?... birds that live in that particular mountain terrain.

When he began cleaning the birds, he discovered the remains of their last meal.  Yeah, I think this is a good place to end the hunting post.  Enjoy!