October Happenings - grandparent dates, fun with neighbors, hiking, cross country, and a TV show

All the little (and big) things I didn't get around to blogging about this month:

My parents took the three oldest kids out for fabulous cultural experiences.

First, Grammie took Ashton to see James Taylor perform at the Conference Center. As Ashton plays guitar, this was totally inspiring for him and he loved having some special time with his Grammie (and look - he's actually taller than her now!)

Grammie took Eliza to see amazing teenagers play at the annual "Salute to Youth" concert at Symphony Hall. We were all inspired by such devoted, talented young people. Eliza started violin a few months ago so this was perfect for her.

I got to tag along for Salute to Youth. Such a fun date with my mom and my daughter.

Grandfather took Isaac to see a wild and wonderful circus involving a huge live orchestra playing wonderful music while crazy acrobatics and motorcycle feats were performed. Grandfather even got his face painted by the wife of the guy who crossed the Grand Canyon on a tight rope a while back - they were both in the performance. Isaac was very impressed.

It was so great to be with my dad for his birthday. Sadly, it was raining like crazy so we couldn't jump in the leaves together. But we took this picture with the leaves and I showed my dad the "Poem in Pictures" I did for him. And the kids showered him with homemade cards and love. Plus we had some nice soup and birthday cake. He seemed pretty pleased. What a great guy I have for my dad!

  

I took Silas out for a special little date and he just had to have me take a photo of him riding this horse. There are these horses up and down 25th Street for months every year and the kids love them.

After a cold snap at the end of September that got me scared that we were in for an all-too-early winter, October turned out to be gorgeous weather and the changing leaves made me happy every single day.

Here's my view from where I do my Power of Moms work every day while the kids are at school.

One day a kind friend dropped off a box of donuts for us as a surprise. The kids were so excited! Nothing like enjoying a tasty treat on the front porch on a perfect autumn afternoon...

All the kids in the neighborhood did a lot of hanging out together during the precious warm, golden afternoons.

Here are most of the girls of the neighborhood, having a spontaneous trampoline party (wow, has that trampoline and the whole backyard over-haul been a wonderful investment!)

Eliza doesn't have sisters but she sure is blessed with great girl friends up and down our street!

I've had such beautiful runs in the mornings lately, listening to podcasts and enjoying the crisp air and the beautiful colors as I crunch through the leaves and feel so happy (and sometimes so achy - my hips have been bothering me which is pretty annoying). I like to run through the peaceful, beautiful cemetery nearby and up and down the streets of our neighborhood.

One morning a week, I go hiking with a friend. We do a really hard hike that goes straight uphill for a couple miles and takes us 2 hours round-trip. I love the exertion and the fresh air and the great conversation. I come home exhausted but so happy.

Fall was gorgeous up on the mountain:

Here's the view from 1/2 way up the mountain:

And we hiked through the snow for the first time this week.

We'll strap some special spiky grippy things on the bottom of our shoes (I think they're called Yak Tracks) and keep hiking all winter. I've decided this is my winter sport. It's great exercise, I love being outside, and I love accomplishing a mountain in the beautiful snow.

Isaac had his last cross country track meet which sadly wasn't his best race. He had a horrible side ache and felt like he was about to die but kept running anyway and still made a pretty good time - but was sad it wasn't quite good enough to qualify for state. He had so much fun running this year, though. And wow, that kid is fast.

That's him at the front, practically flying.

Sunday before last, my dear friend Allyson Reynolds and I got together to eat the most delicious (and spicy!) Thai food and have a good old-fashioned slumber party with great talks at my parents' condo in SLC so that we could be there bright and early the next morning for a segment on the morning news about our new Power of Moms book (Allyson and I are 2 of the 12 main authors).

Here we are, somewhat blearry eyed after a too-short night of fitful sleep, capturing the moment in the mirror as we headed out to the TV station (it was a bit nippy outside so Allyson wore my mom's lovely circa 1980 mink coat - we were laughing pretty hard):

It was beautiful and peaceful as we walked the two blocks to the KUTV studios:


Here we are on the set - so excited about the book!

(I guess Allyson was more excited than me...)

I'm SO grateful Allyson was there to do this with me - I get SO nervous about these things and having her there beside me was amazingly comforting and helpful.

Here's the clip if you care to watch it:

And there's way more, but that'll do it for now!

Halloween 2013

So Halloween was pretty busy and stressful for me. I made gallons of our traditional black bean soup for our third annual neighborhood Halloween parade and dinner, I helped all the kids with their costumes (including some serious tears from one particular child). At the party, I tried to make sure all the kids were engaged in fun games and all the adults got introduced to each other so no one was left out. I helped get the annual photo of all the kids organized and directed traffic (kids and cars) during our parade. And somehow in the midst of it all, I think I messed up my back a bit - it goes into little spasms when I move wrong sometimes.

Being the mom while hosting a party can be pretty darn exhausting.

But the kids and the whole neighborhood had a wonderful time and that made everything worthwhile. We had a grand turnout (ALL my gallons of soup was gone and luckily a neighbor had some extra soup to bring over for those who missed out). It was cold but luckily the rain held off. The kids made a great spook alley in our scary basement and had a great time on the trampoline and the tunnel hill in the backyard. It was great to catch up with some neighbors and meet new neighbors. Such a good evening. Definitely worth the effort.

We played some games. (Ghost, Ghost, Goul instead of Duck, Duck, Goose)

Then we lined up all the kids for a picture - wow - there are getting to be a lot of kids!

Then we paraded up and down the street, stopping for generous treats at some houses.

Then we came back to our front lawn for our traditional black bean soup and just all hung out for a while until everyone went off in little groups to trick-or-treat.

The neighbor's fire pit was a big hit since it was a bit nippy.

The kids created a spook alley in the basement. It was very well attended. They were cute about making sure they asked kids how scared they wanted to be, then they divided them up and had them go to either "light" "moderate" or "intense" version. Here they are waiting to go down into the basement to get scared by everything from people banging on boxes to people jumping out at them to a vacuum ready to scare them with suction. Simple. But oh-so-fun.

After the party, everyone went off to trick-or-treat. Here's what we sent out this year: a nerd, a guy who just got out of bed, a mummy/skeleton, a ninja, and a fox (who sadly got mistaken for a cat quite a bit...)

I think my favorite part of the day was enjoying a nice casual conversation with my neighbor while we sat together in our shared driveway, enjoying the last of the fire from the fire pit we'd set up there for the party while passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. We figured we might as well enjoy the fire a bit longer and not sit separately inside our houses, waiting for the trick-or-treaters.

The crisp starry night, the glowing fire, the fun of complimenting kids on their costumes and giving them candy and the chance to simply sit down combined with the nice mellow feeling of being done with a crazy day was just plain nice.  When our kids got back from trick-or-treating with their dads, everyone gathered around the fire to share stories of awesome decorations and unique treats they'd received.

The kids got some serious loot even though they didn't trick-or-treat that long. They gave me some of the stuff they weren't crazy about (some amazing cheese from this lady who works in a fancy cheese shop, some nice almonds from some kind soul who was trying to offer something healthy, sadly, no dark chocolate...) and set aside stuff no one particularly wanted for the Halloween Fairy. Plus they ate a LOT of candy. I figure we eat so healthily around here that it's totally fine to gorge on candy on rare holidays. I'm trying to decide whether to let them keep their bags of candy in their rooms. Usually I keep it up high and they can get it down and have a couple pieces a day until it's gone. But maybe I should just let them eat it all at their own pace and be done with it...

After tucking the kids in bed, Jared and I watched a zombie movie until we fell asleep, totally tuckered out from a great day.

Pumpkin Carving 2013

What a pleasure it is to have kids old enough to completely carve their own pumpkins now! Jared helped a little with technicalities and I just took pictures and oohed and awed over their great creations. My hands stayed clean the whole time - no goopy pumpkin stuff to wash off after helping them clean out the "guts."

Here are the results: (Excuse the poor-quality photos - I had to use my phone since my real camera - which isn't that great anyway - was out of batteries - as always. But you get the idea.)

Ashton's Minecraft-inspired pumpkin:

Oliver's awesome pumpkin with lots of scars:

Silas's very toothy pumpkin (he wanted to show off his own gappy teeth for his picture with his pumpkin):

Eliza's very cute and happy pumpkin:

Isaac's huge and heavy pumpkin/gourd - someone brought all the produce from their garden to church last Sunday and Isaac was thrilled to find this huge warty thing. He carved faces on 4 sides.

Face #2

Face #3

Face #4

Happy Birthday, Dad!

You ask for a poem for your birthday every year. And often I wonder what more I can say as I sit down to right. But there's always plenty to say as I start thinking of all the things I love and appreciate about my amazing dad.

For my gift to you this year, my dear Dad, I've created a "poem in pictures."

On my run this morning, on this perfectly blustery golden autumn day, I thought of how you first introduced me to running and how I do much of my deeper thinking (something you're quite an expert on) while I run. Of course, I also thought about how amazingly beautiful the leaves were since autumn leaves will always be tied to you and all the lovely memories I have of jumping in the leaves for your birthday ever since I was a little girl.

I stopped to take photos of beautiful leaves and realized that the pictures I captured nicely represented some of the things I love about you.

A Poem in Pictures for my Dear Dad

You're all about contrast (like the bright yellows against this dark trunk). You a man's man with your love of sports and cars and all that good stuff. But you also love the finer things in life - classical music, great art, good food.

You can always find a way to do just about anything (like this little path that persists through the grass). You know how to make things happen and you don't take "no" for an answer if you think something really can and should work.

You've got the beautiful yellow of maturity, great wisdom and peace with yourself and with life, combined with the the bright green of youth that will always be with you since you're still a kid at heart in so many ways. I love seeing you be so silly and fun with my kids!

You personify pizzazz - whether it's your crazy outfits or your brilliant out-of-the-box ideas.

You can find the bright spot in even the hardest things - you've taught us all to see all the wonderful things about every hand we're dealt and every situation we find ourselves in. Where some people just see dead brown, you see interesting patterns and an interesting and lovely yellow streak.

You are amazingly bright. You're so quick and so smart. You've got a good idea when it comes to just about any issue under the sun.

You have a unique ability to combine somber seriousness about sensitive subjects (the darker leaf) with creative and beautiful solutions (the pretty speckled leaf).

You are unique. You fully embrace your uniqueness and are never afraid to be yourself. You've taught us all that "different is good."

You're not afraid to stand alone or to state an opinion that isn't popular. You're true to what you believe and what you know. You're fiercely loyal to what you know is right.

 

You've taught us all to embrace adventure and hard things, to reach outside ourselves to broaden and contribute in ways that are often uncomfortable but ultimately bring us great blessings. (See the solid red of learning and growth in the middle surrounded by the black and yellow marks of hard work and challenge and excitement - they go together to make such beauty.)

You feel and express deep and beautiful love for your family (especially your amazing wife), your faith, and all your blessings. You constantly strive to "love more." I loved watching you tenderly take care of your dear mother and seeing you work hard through prayer and action to help each of us as we go through trials. (This red and pink leaf made me think of love. And it's orange edges made me think of the determination and strength of your love.)

You surround yourself with interesting people and beautiful things - some of which anyone would find beautiful, some of which might not appear beautiful to many.  You seek after goodness and beauty constantly and treasure it where you find it.

 Sometimes you're flashy, but deep down, your testimony and goodness is simple, solid and true. 


We're excited to jump in the leaves with you this afternoon and really celebrate! The wind has blown off tons of leaves and we've got some perfect spots picked out for jumping.