September and October 2019

Hey!  I'm almost caught up to less than a year behind!  Wahoo!  

It was only a couple of weeks after we got back from Disney that another exciting thing happened!  That's right.  FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!  Look and these beautiful/handsome/cute stinkers!  

Arden had her second year of Junior High.  Dax had his official last year of Elementary, and Cora was in 5th.  Summer wasn't officially over yet, as we went to the cabin over Labor Day.  Arden's friend Ava came too.  We went to the beach, and I reluctantly let Arden and Ava take a waverunner out by themselves.  They were gone a really long time, and I was sure something horrible had happened and they were capsized somewhere in the middle of the lake.  I was about to initiate a search pattern with the other waverunner when I finally saw them.  They had been making "Tik Toks" on Ava's phone and that is what took them so long.  *sigh*

We also went to the pool, and had it to ourselves for a while, it was BEAUTIFUL!

On the way home, we stopped to visit Kohl, who was going up to school at Utah State.  His phone was broken and Preston was helping to fix it.  While Preston worked on it, he played on the swings and played hide and seek with the kids.  What a good sport.

Fall soccer season was upon us!  Arden usually would opt out of watching, but sometimes she came along.  

Dax would also come, especially if bribed with a drink from Fizz (which Preston was a VERY FREQUENT customer).  Dax is not as good at pulling cute faces as Arden is.

So, this happened.  We adopted a kitten!  His name was Sherriff at the adoption center, but we decided we didn't like that.  We named him Loki, after the character from the Marvel movies, you know, the God of Mischief.  What could go wrong?

Arden and Ava decided they were in love with Steve from Stranger Things (in addition to Tom Holland from Spiderman for Arden and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) for Ava).  They begged me to draw a picture of him for them.  I thought it was hilarious so I obliged.  I even put blood on him, cuz that was how the picture I was working from was.  You know, Demogorgons and stuff.  Arden hung it on her wall immediately and there it stayed for a few months.  Silly girls.

So, while I was in my "no-running-broken-ankle" purgatory, I decided that in order to keep from losing all my fitness I better start biking.  The only bike I had was a free one that was like 14 years old, so I got a new road bike!  Not too fancy, but good enough for me.  

Olive got a haircut.  Olive hates getting haircuts. Have you ever seen such a pretty but sad doggie?

Cora's soccer team went to a U of U soccer game and painted their faces and ate a bunch of junk.  It was super fun!

More soccer shenanigans!  Coras team finished the fall season in 1st place!  Good job girls!

We headed up to the cabin pre-Halloween.  It snowed!  We snuggled in to watch Hocus Pocus, an annual tradition.  

Olive and I love to go on Fall walks, cuz...leaves!

Guys, I LOVE fall leaves!

Syracuse Pumpkin Walk is always fun too.  

Cora made some cute Halloween Oreos.  She is my most culinary child.  

We had a trunk or treat at the church this year!  I decided to try and dress up a little.  I was a witch, and Loki was my black cat.  Cora says we have matching green eyes.

Arden and Ali and Emily were the three little pigs!  How cute are these girls??  I love it.  Such flattering costumes.

Another pic of Loki being a Halloween decoration.  

Olive was a fairy princess.  Clearly she is super excited about it.  

Daxton dressed up as a guy riding a dinosaur.  

And Cora was a cute snow leopard!

Another annual tradition was our pumpkin carving!  The kids mostly did their own.  Cora's is the Cheshire Cat on the top, my sweet Arden's is the screaming one (it actually has fake blood on it and a knife in its head, but it's too dark to see), Dax's is the minecraft one, and mine was the skeleton on the bottom.  I totally can't remember what the heck the other one is.  But it is always fun scraping out pumpkin guts! 

It was a cool night, but the kids all stayed out Trick-or-Treating for hours, and had more candy than they knew what to do with!  I stayed home and manned the doorbell, which is my favorite thing to do on Halloween (as opposed to escorting trick or treaters up and down hills).  I love Halloween!