"Dark Mater" & Pirate

We started the Halloween fun a week out with Trunk-or-Treating at the Strate's church in South Ogden. Elisabeth took the boys to all the trunks, and Zach informed me after three trunks that he had enough treats and was all done, very unlike him but I wasn't going to complain!

Karissa, Jarom, Kylee, Elisabeth, Brenton, and Zach

After the trunks, we enjoyed choosing from a wide variety of chili with warm fry bread and honey butter. It reminded me of a meal my mom would make for us when we were kids at this time of year. Following dinner there were fun games for the kids to play. The big hit was the fishing game. I lost count how many times Ben went through the line. It was a fun night for both the kiddies and the adults!

Last night we were a little disorganized and didn't know where we were taking the boys to Trick-or-Treat. We ended up in Ogden to visit Connie at work so Joy could retrieve her giant bear head, and while we were at it we got the boys stocked up with winter clothes. Since we were at the mall, Joy took the boys to T-or-T at the stores while Darius and I shopped for their clothes. I knew people visited malls to T-or-T, but I'd never actually been to one to participate. It was fun to see all the costumes in a well-lit area.

As we headed out, we got in touch with Clair and met up with him and his girls and the girl's cousins on Stacey's side. It was fun to walk around their neighborhood with a group. The boys definitely love to T-or-T, and it was very amusing to watch them and their cousins run up to doors and see how excited they were when they'd come away with a treat. Zach was his usual outgoing and very un-shy self and a number of times he'd invite himself into houses (probably to scope out the toy situation). Ben's highlight of the night was the set of vampire teeth he got from one house. He had a pair from the Trunk-or-Treat the week before and unfortunately dropped them in the toilet while doing his business. He was upset to say the least when they promptly got tossed.

 

Sarah was the cutest little witch!

I forget what Hope was, but I loved her costume.

Growing up it was the norm to have snow on the ground by the time Halloween rolled around. I remember being disappointed that we'd have to wear winter coats over our costumes. This year the snow hit last week, so I thought it would be no different for the boys. We were all surprised with a very warm and mild Halloween. It was definitely a treat!

 

Utah

We've now been in Utah just shy of 3 weeks, and it's been a very busy 3 weeks! Darius started working at the SL airport on the 1st, just a couple days after we arrived. I spent the same day looking around the SL area for a new place for us to call home (which luckily I did) with Joy and Carrie in tow. A day later I flew to Louisiana and back again to pick up Ben and Zach from Nini and Papaw...thanks again for watching them for us Margaret & Alfred!

While waiting to move into our apartment, we were fortunate to be able to stay with my sister Michel's family in our parent's room (Thanks again for opening your home to us!). The boys thoroughly enjoyed their cousins and their cousin's toys! We made dinner for everyone a few nights, and the boys and I went with Michel and her family on a beautiful hike and enjoyed some beautiful colors in the foliage.

 

 

This is the first year we've really experienced a traditional Autumn with the boys. Even when we lived in Alaska, there wasn't that distinct change in season. When we visited Joy's place last week, the boys were curious about the leaves in the driveway, and I was caught a little off guard when I tried to explain Autumn to them.

After a week of staying with family, we moved into our apartment in North Salt Lake last week. We're really happy with our apartment, but the one downfall is that it's on the third floor. I had come down with a cold from the trip out to get the boys, and Darius loaded up the rental truck the morning of our move by himself. Once it came time to haul everything up three flights of stairs, we were both already dreading it. Lucky for us we had Joy to help us out and two extremely nice neighbors that pitched in to help us. All the extra hands easily cut our time in half.

The days following the move were full of unpacking and getting settled into our new place mixed with getting ready for my sister Carrie's baby shower this past weekend...another post.

This week started out with a visit to Black Island Farms. My sister-in-law Stacey invited the boys and I along on a field trip her daughter Hope's preschool class was having there. It was a massive farm with corn mazes, fields of pumpkins, farm animals, tractor rids, and lots of fun stuff for the kids to do. We had a great time, and the boys were very sad when it came time to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to all the help Joy's given us with the move-in and unpacking, she's also been over to hang out a lot. She's my workout buddy, company at night when Darius is at work, and is now my cooking/baking student. I'm no expert in the kitchen, but she wants to learn, so I'm game to teach her what I know. Yesterday was pie 101. We made 3 apple pies here, 2 for our helpful neighbors and 1 to keep. We then moved on to Clair & Stacey's where we made 4 more, 2 apple and 2 banana cream. She did most of the work, and her pies came out beautiful and super tasty! Awesome work Joy!

If you would have asked me a couple of years ago if I'd ever live in Utah again, I would have firmly said no. When I first moved away over 10 years ago, I thought that there were better options out there. It wasn't until marriage and kids entered the picture that I began to realize the importance that family plays when raising kids. Knowing this I still had my reservations about living in Utah until this past Spring/Summer. After the trips I took with family this year to some of the national/state parks, I realized that Utah has so much more to offer than I ever thought it did. It's sad I grew up here and never appreciated all the great stuff to see and do here. I'm glad that I have the opportunity now to rediscover this state with my own family.

Dinosaur Park

How it escaped me that there is a cool dinosaur park in Ogden is beyond me. Clair filled me in during our stay, and we planned to meet up there with the kiddies one afternoon.

Ogden's Eccles Dinosaur Park is located near the mouth of Ogden Canyon and features over a 100 full-sized dinosaur sculptures, which all looked very realistic. Also featured at the park is the Stewart Museum which houses some dinosaur skeletons and a couple of robotic dinosaurs among other cool stuff.

The boys were super excited at the start of our walk through the park, and then mid day meltdowns started. Despite the ups and downs in moods, we had a good time hanging out with Clair, Hope and Sarah at the park.

Over the river and through....

...Yakutat, Juneau, Seattle, Portland, Boise, Idaho Falls, a drive south to Brigham City, and to Grandmother's house we went!

Are we there yet?

...not really, Zach's a very good traveler!

My parents had planned a two week trip to Utah, and I'd been debating for months whether to go with them. When my mom was talking with my grandma before their trip, Grandma asked whether I was coming. I had decided I wasn't, but immediately felt guilty knowing I had the opportunity to see her and was passing it up. So, like most of our recent trips, this one was kind of last minute.

Why so many stops along the way to Grandma's? Well, despite the awesome flight perks we enjoy (courtesy of Darius...thanks love!), we're still limited to standby travel. Our "milk run" flight leaving Cordova always has 2 stops before reaching Seattle. From Seattle we were hoping to get to Boise and connect to Idaho Falls, but after checking flight loads I knew chances were slim to none. Portland was our way to get to Boise. From Portland we barely made it on the flight we needed to, enabling us to make our connection from Boise to Idaho Falls. As usual, Connie is good enough to make the drive up to Idaho from Salt Lake to pick us up. James and Brooke were also at the airport to meet us, and we had lunch with them before heading down to Brigham.

Zach with his Great Grandma. This alone was worth the trip!

I opted for just one week in Utah instead of two. Unfortunately I think the process of actually getting to Utah sucked up most of my energy and patience, so I think I got things started on the wrong foot. I did enjoy seeing Grandma and the rest of my family, but I'm so glad to be home now! Darius wasn't able to come with us, and it was hard to be away from him.

Ben and his cousin Hope, hanging out at Strate's abode.

On Sunday most of the family congregated at Grandma's house in Brigham City, and Dad barbequed some halibut and salmon that we brought with us from home. I was busy being a helicopter mom, so unfortunately I wasn't able to visit with everyone as much as I would have liked. Ben & Zach unknowingly enjoyed wearing out me, their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. I counted in my head and I think there were at least a dozen of us that pushed the boys around in a play car.

Zach loved this car! He must have been it for an hour or more.

The rest of our time in Utah we spent at Carrie & Bobby's home in West Valley. Ahhh....if I must go slightly nuts on "vacation", there's no other place I'd prefer to do it! Thanks for putting up with us Sis!

Carrie & Bobby got a puppy just a couple of days before we got there. His name is Skoog (Carrie, correct my spelling if I'm wrong) and he's a handful, but so adorable! Of course, puppies like to lick, nibble, and jump (sometimes tackle) so Ben & Zach mostly enjoyed his company. They also had fun in the sprinkler, and the mud it made in the garden. Hopefully the chives they trampled made a full recovery.

I was lucky enough to have help on the return trip home. I was expecting to fly solo with the boys, but Joy was able to come back with me. We got off to a good start, but things got pretty hairy at the end. Fortunately we did make it home in a day...and managed to skip Idaho Falls, Boise, Portland, Juneau and Yakutat.

Love you Grandma!

Utah - Hogle Zoo

Wednesday morning I took Ben and Zach to a zoo for the first time. They have always enjoyed looking at animals in books and on DVDs, so I was excited to see what their reactions would be to live animals.

There was a good sized group of us that went. Carrie and Joy came with me and the boys and we met up with Clair, Stacey, Makenna and Hope at the Hogle Zoo. The first animals we saw were the monkeys and the elephants. Their eyes got all big watching the elephants and Zach oohed a lot over them.

The carousel in the zoo was great and I think it was probably the biggest hit among all the kids. Looking back on it now I wish I would have taken the boys on it. I wasn't sure how they would react, but after seeing how Hope enjoyed it I think they would have had fun.

By the time we reached the giraffes the boys fell asleep. We spent some more time walking through the zoo with everyone before we headed out. Carrie had a staring match with a giraffe and Joy got drooled on by a sloth...good times!

It was great to see Clair and his family and I appreciated the time they took to come down to Salt Lake to meet up with us.

After leaving the zoo Carrie navigated us to Lone Star Taqueria for lunch. The little taco joint has some massive burritos and I'm all about a good burrito, so I was excited to try one. I wasn't disappointed, but my belly could have gone with the half size rather than full.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping (yuck). I really dislike shopping, but in Cordova your shopping options are slim, if not altogether void. I had a modest list and stuck to it pretty good, which made it a little less painful. Carrie was a great help to me and watched the boys when I had clothes I needed to try on. I was able to get pretty much everything I needed for myself, Darius and the boys in one area, and was happy to have it out of the way.