Halloween 2019

Faith and Tristin took the reigns (no pun intended) to throw the annual teenager Halloween party.  Elinor was in attendance, but declined organizing and hosting.  Faith and Tristin did a great job!  Here are a few pictures of the more punctual guests:)

These four beauties are in our neighborhood.  They are rather short in stature, so sometimes I forget how old they actually are!

One of the highlights of the season is the Wasatch Arts Center Halloween Party.  Here is George with his good buddy, Taylor.

Cannon with his friends Liliana and Bethany.

Greta, Ethan, and Andrew

George spent a lot of time at the arts and craft table.  My mom would be so proud.

The cupcake walk is a traditional favorite.

Here are pictures of the actual Halloween evening.  There are so many Halloween festivities before the actual Halloween night arrives, that it's almost a relief to get the actual night over with.  Even still, it was great fun with great family and friends.

Juliette and Greta.

Aly and Greta

Peter and Eric

George and Dallas with Beth Miles-- their Cub Scout leader and half of the mastermind behind the BEST Halloween house in the neighborhood.

Kate and George by the scary werewolf.

Cannon, Jake, and Ryder

Ryder, Cannon, and Jake again because I like them.

David Pumpkins along with the other half of the mastermind-- David Miles.

David Pumpkins attempting to abduct a small child!  

Kidding.  Just Abe and my beautiful nieces.

My brother testing out a new look.  

I enjoy the fun and frivolity of Halloween. October is a glorious month full of family and friends and fun and I'm never in a rush to see it come to an end.  Even so, I gratefully welcome the month of November!  It means that Clark comes home NEXT MONTH!!!  It is a month to breathe and prepare for the insanity that is December.  It is time to be a little still (well, relatively still) and focus on gratitude for the blessings in our lives.  

Who's David Pumpkins? His Own Thing!

Fox Family Halloween 2019-- David S. Pumpkins and his entourage of dancing B Boy Skeletons.

What?  Who is David Pumpkins?  I'm glad you asked.  You'll need to watch the following comedy sketch to understand.   And even then, you might not really get it.  That's okay, we thoroughly entertained ourselves!

Oh, my.

Abe and Bethany

This is my favorite David Pumpkins picture. 

Little Kids Are So Much Fun

Presenting:   THE 2019 JACK-O-LANTERN COLLECTION!  Once again, I take absolutely no credit whatsoever.  This is all Abe's handiwork, with a wee bit of assistance from some of the children. 

It's not so much that any particular pumpkin is that impressive... rather the sheer numbers makes them a sight to behold.

Many years ago Clark made a vampire out of cardboard and then staged a wedding of two year-old Faith and the vampire. 

Fast forward eleven years and Greta married a cardboard vampire created by George.  Life changes fast-- its good to have some continuity:)

Little people are really a lot of fun to have around:)

Elinor turned Greta into Joker on Halloween.  Mind you, this was not Greta's Halloween costume; this was just for fun.  

They say candy can be a drug.

You know what wasn't fun?  Getting all that makeup off!

Water Polo Wrap Up Fall 2019

The high school fall water polo season wrapped up last weekend.  Elinor played on both the Varsity team and the JV teams.  This picture is the Varsity team that took third place in the tournament. 

The JV team won the championship!  

Her varsity team voted her the sportsmanship award for the season.  

It was a good season with lots of improvement and lessons learned.  

Faith finished her 14 and Under water polo season this morning.  Her team didn't place quite so well in the tournament... but no matter!  It was great fun to watch Faith further figure out the game and enjoy it so much.  

The 14U team was co-ed and quite a big team.  There is a lot of cross over between the teams-- kids playing 14U, JV, and Varsity.  I don't really understand why they organize the teams like they do, but I figure, I have enough things I am in charge of.  I kind of enjoy not being in charge of the water polo teams.  My job is to just go cheer and enjoy.  How refreshing!

Now the girls will swim hard all winter and then don their polo caps at the end of February for the spring season.

She Came Home!

Bethany came home for the weekend!!!! Oh, it was so good to be with her again.  She had a Riverton City event on Monday evening she wanted to support, so we were the lucky ones who got her home from Friday evening to late Monday night.  At which point she took a very late night shuttle van back up to Rexburg during a snowstorm-- YIKES!  Thankfully, she made it back safely and got back into the swing of school this week. 
But we got three plus days of her wonderful company:)

I wasn't the only one happy to see her again!  She was a good sport and spent Friday evening and much of the day on Saturday at water polo games with us. 

Monday night the city did a Halloween event at the main city park and Bethany went to help out.  Elinor was also helping out as part of the Riverton City Youth Council-- which she is totally enjoying!

It made my heart feel so happy to have them together again.

A little blurry, but I feel the love.

I adore this picture.

The Spooky Arena at the rodeo grounds was pretty creepy.

Donuts and hot chocolate afterwards.

Abe is a very proud papa.

Because of Bethany being Miss Riverton, we have participated in several city events we never have gone to before.  They have not disappointed -- maybe with the exception of the haystack dive on the 4th of July.  This one was no exception. Actually, this one was quite delightful and I would happily take kiddos to this again.

It's been really cold lately-- a few days ago was record breaking cold for this time of year.  The dryness of living in Utah combined with the furnace working over time has made for a lot of static electricity in the house!