Fun with Grandma

We had a super time while Robert's Mom was in town -we did a ton of fun stuff and the weather accommodated us perfectly - here are a few pictures of her trip. Thanks for coming Grandma! Come again soon!!
We went to the Children's Museum and had a fabulous time! Here are a few of the things we did - look at that big bubble

One of the first things we did was to paint our faces - the kid REALLY liked that!




We also made some headbands - nice, huh?

And last but not least - that day they had "Black Light Art" - you went in this room with black lights on and did a bunch of fun art projects that showed up super well in the black light. The picture is a bit funny - but it really was fun!
We also spent some time at the park - this is the "Spider web Park" as Peter calls it. Grandma climbed around with the kids for a while - I think we wore her out!

Trick or Treat!

I am pretty positive that we have never had better weather on Halloween! I remember the one year it snowed 20 inches on Halloween...this year it was almost 70! The kids had a super time...




Bumping into cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Awesome Halloween Pumpkins

Robert's Mom was in town over Halloween and we had a fabulous visit with her! I need to get caught up on a couple of posts, but here is one with about the first thing we did after she arrived. Grandma and the kids:
These pumpkins were really huge and took some cleaning out. However, the pumpkin seeds that Grandma roasted after were spectacular!
Annie loving her pumpkin and Peter loving his
Here we have Peter and Grandma carving...let's just say that this year's pumpkins did NOT disappoint. Unfortunately I can't take much credit - Robert did most of the work and his Mom did a lot of the helping/carving.

Peter was not so sure he liked the insides
Annie and Dad working on one
And the final products! The cat and the skull turned out really pretty nice - large pumpkins make carving even more fun!

Fall Parties

This past weekend we had two Fall/Halloween parties to go to - one put on at Robert's office and the other was the Ward Trunk-or-Treat - both were super fun! Here are a couple of pictures...
Peter is not very into costumes so here he is as a Pirate - pretty ferocious! Annie is a Good Witch.

"Arrrrrrggggg Matey!" Peter's pirate voice is cute!

At Robert's work party they had a face painting station and Annie picked to have the spider painted on her forehead. It looked pretty cool and it was nice she got it right before the ward party.

Here we are at the ward party - lots of cousins!

At the trunk or treat the van next to us had quite the set up! The kids went in through the back and they had black lights with big painted pictures in the van (that is the picture above of Peter). Then the kids climbed out the side of the van and up a ladder to the top of the van where a makeshift slide had been built off the front of the van. The kids slid off on to a mattress - it was quite impressive! I think Annie slid down it 20 times!

Happy 89th Grandpa!

We had fun celebrating with (Great) Grandpa last week -


Great Grandpa really is a party animal - look at that grin!

Peter and Grandpa talking about important things.

Apple Orchard

Yeah for Fall! This past weekend we headed to Apple Jacks and had a great time picking Honey Crisp Apples (the best kind!), the fall raspberries, and picking up some amazing pumpkins! It was a super time - we love this tradition!

A family picture, they are actually rare on the blog :)

Annie and Dad going after the best apples.

Peter and Dad getting apples - Peter thought it was great fun

Annie and Dad REALLY going after the good apples...hum, never mind those perfectly good looking apples just to the left of Robert...
Okay, so I had to get in on the fun too! There were just so many that looked fabulous at the very top - it was worth it, believe me! We have overdosed a bit on apples this weekend but there are worse things, right?

And last but not least, check out these pumpkins! A couple of years ago Sarah and I discovered a place right near the orchard that has really inexpensive pumpkins. At the orchard they are 40 cents a pound (pricey!), but these babies were each $3!!! They all weighed between 45-50 pounds and are beautiful! I don't know what it is about huge pumpkins but I love them! When I was a kid we could get as big a pumpkin as we could carry...I think the pumpkins this year take the cake. We are going to have to recruit help to carve them...watch out if you come to visit around Halloween (you know who you are!)!

The Great State Fair

We love the state fair! This year the weather was beyond perfect, the once-a-year-foods did not disappoint, and we saw all the crazy things we had hoped to see. Enjoy the pics!

The aunts took the kids on the merry-go-round and of course it was a hit!

And the kids had a great time sitting on the big tractors - what is so fun about tractors? I dunno, but we love it!

And the Giant Slide - we love the giant slide!If you look closely you can spot Lisa, Grandpa, Mary, Peter, Robert, Annie and Jane (someone had to stay and take a picture - right?)

When Will had just about had enough, we plopped him in with Peter - the two had a good time!

Annie and Grandma working on some wood building project.

Annie and Peter are always up for free shoulder rides. They had a much better view that way in the barns. (I liked it too - easy to spot them and they didn't touch everything in the barn - gross!)

Peter loved the animals and was pretty fearless - he and Grandpa went in to see the baby cow. It was sort of funny that the cow happened to be named Annie
And the next one is sort of a random one. Peter recently has figured out how to cross his eyes. The picture doesn't capture it very well, but it really is funny.


Will's Dad let him get his hands on a chocolate chip cookie - he was one happy camper with that!

And last, but not least, my favorite picture from the fair!

Oh and I have a great story from the fair. We sat down for a minute at an outdoor concert. At the end of the concert Annie and I were only a few of our group who were still around. Annie looked around and saw a "real" Santa clause - you know, one of those guys with a really white, bushy beard and white flowing hair. She said, "Mom! Can we please go talk to him!" Since you and I know Santas are not on duty in August, I told her we could sit closer and look for a minute. We moved up closer, but were still quite far away to where the man was talking with his friends and she started waving excitedly. He saw her and waved back and called her over. She ran over and this is how the conversation went...

"Well, Hi there! So, what do you want for Christmas?"

"Um... I don't know" - we haven't been thinking about Christmas much lately

"Well, that's okay, I am really off duty right now anyway. Will you come back and see me in the mall in November?"

At that point he hands her a picture of himself dressed up as Santa and she is so excited she can hardly contain herself - it was really cute.

All in all the fair was a smashing success! You should all come next year...