It's Fall Y'all

We've had a busy fall. :-)

First Day of School 2018

 Cade: 9th Grade 

Reagan: 10th Grade

Not sure you could get cheesier smiles from these two.

Levi: 5th Grade

 Liberty: 3rd Grade

We've had three birthdays I haven't blogged yet, so let's get those done:

Cade turned 14 and this was his first church dance.

Rock turned 41

The title of this picture should be "Blowhard"

and Reagan turned the big 16!

I let him pick his two favorite desserts for his birthday. 

He picked apple pie and Oreos.

 We took him to Tucanos for more celebrating.  

And this summer he gets a trip to Yellowstone with mom and dad.

 Liberty made him this picture for his birthday because he will be baptizing her next week!

Other family adventures this fall include:

Apple Picking

and 

The Pumpkin Patch

Yes, that cute kid is mine.

Balancing Act

Too cool for pumpkins

 Or not..

More Balancing...

GQ Pumpkin

GQ Pumpkin² 

In other news, Levi got his (first set of) braces off!  I get a small reprieve!

This fall Levi tried football!  When the kid who was going to play quarterback quit, Levi was put in as QB and he did a great job.  He worked so hard and did a job he'd never done before.  It was really fun to watch this kid progress.  

Here is a video I took of his last game.  It was a beautiful play...until the poor kid who caught Levi's pass, tripped and fell a yard from the touchdown. It was so sad.

And lastly, a few leaf pictures...back when we had only a few leaves in our yard.

Happy Fall Y'all

Temples and Tigers

Grand Mesa and the Colorado National Monument were not exciting enough for Levi because he didn't see enough animals.  Eye Roll.  So we stopped in Provo on our way up to Salt Lake City to visit the Bean Life Science Museum at BYU which is stuffed with animals. (Pun Intended).  He saw lions and tigers and bears and alligators and eagles and giraffes and.....you get the idea.

We went to a live animal presentation and Levi had his hand in the air literally the whole time so he could answer every question.  I was torn between embarrassment and pride. 

I had to tear the kids away from the museum so we could make it to temple square that afternoon. We have rushed through temple square in the past, but I wanted to spend some time there this time.  I never get tired of looking at this beautiful temple.

We wandered through City Creek Mall afterwards because.......Levi wanted to find some animals.  He remembered the fish pond from last time! Most people go to the mall to shop.  Not my kid.

As we left Salt Lake headed to Alli's house, Levi noticed that we took the freeway ramp marked "To Las Vegas" and asked incredulously, "Are we going to Las Vegas?!"  I said yes, assuming that he would know I was joking.  About five minutes later he pipes up from the back seat, "Are we going to eat in Las Vegas?"  

Rather than eating in Las Vegas, we ate at our favorite place, Pizza Pie Cafe.  While there, I took Liberty into the bathroom.  I was almost done when I realized Liberty hadn't gone into a stall so I called out her name and asked what she was doing? She sheepishly answered, "I'm dancing to the music."  I'm telling you, this girl dances literally everywhere she goes.  

After dinner I tried to show the kids where Rock and I got engaged in Provo, but due to a pretty hefty thunder storm and the growing darkness I couldn't find my way up to the spot.  When we got back to Alli's house her roommates were having a party and invited my kiddos to play Catch Phrase.  My two social butterflies joined in happily, not caring that they were the youngest by far or that they didn't know anyone.

Finally it was bedtime.  Liberty loved sleeping in Alli's purple mummy bag.

The next day we headed home by way of every temple I could easily stop at.

Draper

Jordan River

 Bountiful

 Brigham City

And that was our whirlwind trip to Utah and Colorado this summer.  

Miss Wesel Goes to Grand Mesa

Day 2 of our trip to GJ this summer was Grand Mesa.  I've been looking at it for years every time we go to GJ and finally we got to go!

An up close look at Mount Garfield on our way!

 We took a beautiful hike up on top of the Mesa.  

Levi and Cade went up ahead so this is the last picture I got of them.  

 Hiking with Grandma

Ok, one more picture of Levi.  He found a dead salamander and thought he'd died and gone to heaven.  Look at those eyes sparkle!  

Yuck.  Not my heaven.

Making plans for the hikes they will take the NEXT time Alli comes to CO.

 Picking Wildflowers.  

Cade and Grandpa really got into this puzzle while we were there.  They worked for hours on it.  

Levi, Liberty, Alli and I left the next day but Cade stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.  They played in Grand Junction for a couple days and then they took him to Salt Lake to see the fireworks on his birthday/Pioneer Day.  After seeing some sights in SLC, he flew home.

Feeding the chipmunks on the Mesa.

Levi was very jealous and is counting the days till it's his turn to stay with G and G Hymas.

After staying up late every night they finished puzzle just minutes before leaving for SLC.

Coming up; Levi and Liberty in Salt Lake City.