Walker Talk: October 2012

Fall Break Monday

I loved that fall break this year included Monday! It was so nice to have one more day to play. We took advantage of the sunshine and drove out to Saratoga Springs to play at the new Neptune Park that I keep hearing about. Totally awesome! Check out the pyramid!

I think each level was about 6 feet high, so altogether it had to be about 30 feet tall!

The kids loved it.

This awesome, 2-person swing was a hit, too.

Eliza just wanted to eat wood chips.

We had a great time at the park, and then ran some errands- got the shopping done for the week. That night for FHE, we started our new family MTC goal: we have divided up lessons in Preach My Gospel, and are using those to teach our family night lessons. Our first lesson went really well- we talked about how missionaries have a commission to preach the gospel. I tried to focus on having a personal testimony before trying to help other develop their own testimony. Lehi's dream was the example: Lehi ate the fruit, and then he had a desire to share. We all committed tp personal scripture study and prayer. I hope this will make a difference in my children's readiness to serve missions! Our activity that night was to watch 17 Miracles- we started kind of late, and were thinking we would just watch half of it, but couldn't bring ourselves to stop the movie. Late night- and the next day we had to be up early! Oh well- it was a fun night. I do think we wore Josh out, though- he had jazz band the next morning at 7:15, and then the kids had a band competition that they didn't get home from until almost midnight. Good thing they're young! :)

It's Autumn time

I just had to capture the bright colors in the back yard- and I'm glad I did, since a couple of days later, a windstorm came up and blew all the leaves off the tree and out of our yard!

The Virginia creeper was just changing, but I love the colors.

I think fall is my favorite. Until spring, at least.

Fall Break Saturday- Kolob Canyon, Cove Fort

Saturday morning the skies finally cleared, and it was gorgeous! We decided to drive back down the 20 miles or so to Kolob Canyon. So glad we did- it was so beautiful with the mist rising off the sagebrush and the clouds clearing from the cliffs.

We drove up to the parking lot and then hiked the short trail (about half a mile) to a little peak where, on a

clear day, you can supposedly see to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. This was not the day to test that, however. Still, though, the views were spectacular, and the hike was fun, if a little muddy.

At the top!

And back in the parking lot.

Scraping mud off shoes...

I love our Beast! It's huge and black and gets terrible gas mileage, but it's sure fun to drive, and we all fit in it for trips!

When we finished with the canyon we started for home- Cove Fort was just at the right spot (after waiting on the freeway for half an hour for an accident to clear), so we stopped and took the tour again.

On top of the fort wall- this was the first time the kids have been able to go up, and they were pretty excited.

Then finally the last leg- it wasn't always this cheerful looking in the back seat....

and Eliza was definitely ready to get out at this point (that's my hand trying to comfort her from the front seat).

I wasn't very happy when were were at Spanish Fork and Emma said she absolutely had to go to the bathroom right now, and no, she couldn't wait 15 more minutes, but we pulled off the freeway. I hadn't been down there in a long time; they're building a new Costco, and right next to it is a brand new park that is awesome!

Even the big kids had fun climbing through all the weird structures.

I told Price if he climbed the whole length of this thing, I would rename him Spiderman. He did it, of course- not only across the whole thing one way, but back on the other side. So yes, I called him Spiderman for the rest of the day.