We just finished up a lovely fall break! For the younger half of my kids, fall break started after school on Friday October 10th and lasted for a whole week. For the older half, fall break began after school on Wednesday October 15th and only lasted for 4 days. Friday night, the 10th, Zac went camping with the scouts. Emily hung out with friends. Aubrey had a friend over and they watched Addy while I went to Fun Friday at the church. Steve was making his way back across the country.
Saturday evening we had a street party with all our awesome neighbors that live on our street. It was fun, and this year we didn't even have to call an ambulance!
I got to hold this most adorable baby! It was the highlight of my night.
Earlier in the week (before fall break), Steve flew to Atlanta where he bought a box truck for work. He spent the week driving it back home. He was able to visit his brother in Kentucky and his sister in Missouri. While in Missouri, he was able to convince his brother in law Steve, AKA: Redneck, to drive the rest of the way home with him and work with him for a couple of weeks. I didn't know Redneck was coming, so I was rather surprised late Saturday night when I went out to greet Steve at his new truck and found not one, but two Steves. The next day was Sunday and Redneck talked us in to walking to church like all good Utahans should.
Sunday was my dearest and oldest (not age wise, but home building wise) neighbor Lori's Birthday. April and Allison and I decorated he driveway for her.
Aubrey and Addy had a lovely day off of school on Monday, I'm sure of it. I just can't remember one thing we did though. I do know for a fact that that evening we had family home evening at the movies and saw Meet the Mormons. Redneck was planning on surprising his daughter Sierra in Idaho later in the week so I couldn't post a picture of him on facebook, so I had to take two pictures and I actually got to be in a picture!
Aubrey and Addy were both determined to have a Fall Break party. I decided to knock 'em both out in one day, before everyone else got home from school and work. So on Tuesday, October 14th, Addy had a breakfast pajama party. It was a blast and she was very happy!
As soon as her party ended, we cleaned up, took Addy to my mom's house, stopped at the store and came home and readied ourselves for the next party. This one was quite a bit calmer than the first. Aubrey and her friends had a fun time and all I had to do was order pizza!
While those girls were having their party, I spent a little time with the dead people. I found a whole new line of people and added them to my family tree! After Aubrey's party we took Zac to mow my mom's lawn, picked up Addy and dropped Zac off at his friends house.
That night we took advantage (for the 2nd Tuesday in a row) of Dickey's $1 BBQ pork sandwich for dinner.
On Wednesday the girls were dying to start a sewing project. We went to the craft store and bought some projects for them to work on. Then we had a little froyo, courtesy of Aubrey's b-day gift card.
That night Emily was in charge of her Young Women's activity and Aubrey had an Activities Day party. As soon as her party was over, we ran her over to a friends house for a Birthday party.
Thursday Addy went to my moms house for sewing lessons. She spent the night at my mom's house. And Zac, Emily and Aubrey all hung out with friends. I spent more time with the dead people.
On Friday morning while Steve was at work, I took everyone on a forced hike.
Our destination started out as Flag Rock, a tribute to the fallen first responders of 9/11. The flag is at the same height as the World Trade Towers were. If you look really close, you can see it atop the rock in the distance. We were not aware that there was a road that we could had driven on to make our starting point closer to the flag. We started at the bottom of the mountain in a neighborhood. We about died just getting up to the road we didn't know existed. It was like seriously-straight up the mountain side. It took us longer than we anticipated, so we weren't able to make it to the flag. We made it so close, but had to turn around because Aubrey and Addy had a party they had to be at and we only had 20 minutes to climb down and get them there. We decided to bring Steve along next time and ride our wheelers down the road to the starting point halfway up the mountain.
We did however make it to Patsy's Mine though! Aubrey and Addy and I only went in a little ways. Aubrey and I were feeling a little too claustrophobic and Addy was afraid she would get ebola from the bats.
So we waited outside while Zac and Emily explored the mine.
After we left the mine is when we realized we needed to hurry back down for the party. Going down was a lot easier and faster than going up!
Zac reminded us that this is the tree we ate lunch by several years ago when we rode our wheelers up here. Ah! So we did know that road existed!
On Saturday October 18th we went out to the west desert for a little adventure. On the way there we stopped to have lunch. We were sitting at these little 2 person tables. Zac was my table companion. He was great company listening to his iPod and sleeping.
On the way out we also stopped to buy some soda. This soda was not for drinking. It was strictly for sport. Zac picked them out and bought diet so he could rid the world of artificial sweeteners one 2 liter at a time.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside.
We took our old appliances to recycle.
Trying to get a picture of the Mortons salt plant in the background. I don't know if you can tell, but there is a huge pile of salt back there.
Aubrey was taking care of a neighbors dog and as we went to walk him before bed, she and Addy and Hershey all gave me the sad face trying to talk me into letting Hershey spend the night at our house.
We had an absolutely fantastic Fall Break week! I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for all the new memories he allowed us to make together as a family! I love my family!
