October

October...ahhh October.  October brought Fall full on and with it fall break.  For fall break we went camping down at Zion's with Matt's brother Mike and his family.  We had a great time.  It was cold, but with the help of hand warmers, beanies, gloves, lots of layers, and plenty of hot cocoa we survived just fine. We drove down on Thursday and arrived in time to eat dinner and set up camp.  It was cool watching the moon rise that night and so fun to be able to see the stars.

Matthew and Nathan watching the moon rise...that big bright dot is the moon

 It was pretty funny the next morning when we all met at the campfire...most of us were wearing BYU gear...pj's, hoodies, sweatshirts. etc.  You could definitely tell what team we supported:)

 Friday morning we set out to do the Angel's Landing hike.  What a beautiful hike!  It was steep, but everyone did a great job and the views were AMAZING!

 We stopped at scout's lookout and chose not to go all the way to the top of Angel's Landing.  It would have been way to tricky for the kids and it was quite crowded. The view from there was pretty amazing though.

Nathan, Tyler, Matthew, Holly, Owen, and Brooklyn at Scout's Lookout

 The kids loved finding little nooks to hang out in along the trail.

We saw some cool wildlife on the trail too...a lizard...

 and a tarantula..CRAZY!  It was a bit freaky seeing one in the wild, but luckily it kept to itself.

 After finishing the hike and taking an ice cream break at the lodge we decide to hike to the Emerald pools.  At the middle pools we ran into the Ruppers (Matt's sister Laura and her family).  The kids thought that was so cool to randomly run into cousins on a hike in Southern Utah.  We did know the Ruppers were in Cedar City--Mike and Jen had hiked with them the day before, but we had no idea what they were doing that day so running into them really was a surprise. 

 It was a surprise that called for a big dinner:)  The Ruppers finished the hike with us and followed us back down to our camp site and joined us for dinner..tacos..one of the easiest camping dinners. 

 Then, of course, another night of s'mores, because what camping trip would be complete without s'mores?

On Saturday morning we packed up the camp site and headed back home the long scenic way through Hatch, Utah.  We stopped at a few places before leaving Zions to let the boys explore and climb..areas that we will for sure get back to.  On the way home, Tyler got to try out his skills driving on a highway.  He did fairly well.  There were some nice straight empty stretches for him to practice on there. Kind of crazy that our third child is so close to getting his licence! We all headed home on Saturday because Ron and Ria had their mission farewell on Sunday.  They did a great job speaking and some of their kids and most of the grandkids sang a song that Josie arranged.  So, grandma and grandpa have officially begun their mission--a stay at home mission in the Utah Provo Mission working in the family history center.  I'm sure they will do great.  It will be a good thing for them and a great example for their grandkids.

Halloween: Well, the only other exciting or shall I say photo worthy thing this month was Halloween.  Yes, I had a birthday, which was great, but not too photo worthy.  Actually, my class, friends, and family spoiled me this year.  My birthday was a great day, but back to Halloween.  Halloween was a fun crazy day.

Miss Piggy and Princess Natalie 

Princess Natalie

Yes, my silly son dressed up as a princess.  What made it better was the fact that he wore his running shoes, had a very dirty face, and the dress itself (straight from grandma and grandpa's dress up box) was very dirty too.  But, what really made it the best was the fake British accent he used all day.  What a goon:)  This year we had had parent teacher conferences the two days prior to Halloween.  So, two 13 hour work days followed by trying to teach/wrangle 50 some odd ruffians pre-Halloween party, smiling through parent and treat induced craziness at the actual class party...let's just say, by the time I made it home that day I was wasted.  Luckily Matt handled the trick or treating and I passed out candy to the few trick or treaters we had in my pj's.  A good but very tiring end to October.  Lucky for me, we were off school November 1st.  

I slept.