Octovember....

Here is a short synopsis of our last two months by photos.......

The Great Chirstmas tree hunt! Carrying on our annual Griswald tradition, we headed up to Heber early one morning to get our permits. Kristy and my Ma (Becky) came with us too. It was freezing! Dummy that I am didn't bring anything but a jacket. Well we got our permits and Becky and Neil came up with us this year to cut them down. We went to a place just east of Timberlakes (had a great cabin get a way here with Miles and Kristy too, just no pics, but is was awesome!). Anyway, the weather was great. No snow on the roads and sunny, but freezing cold once again. We came better prepared though and found us a couple dandy trees! Nothing like a good ole tree cuttin' to get those environmental juices flowing! It was a really fun day. We got to see Jess, Lindy and Finn too.

The Festival of Trees with Jacki and Jayne (and kids). This was a great time for us to get together with Teeny's sisters and check out the trees. We did this last year and it was a little crazy, but this year we had baby helpers (thanks Sam,McKenzie, Ariel and Tristan). This is one of the two trees that Jacki and her in-laws decorated. It turned out great.

Hallelujah! What a tree! Did I tell you, or did I tell you! Every year we swear it's the best tree ever, but this year, best tree EVER! We had to cut this baby down a couple feet to get it to fit, but it's still over 10 feet tall. I doubt Griswald could top that. Teeny does a fantastic job of decorating too. Seriously, she is great at it. The lights are my bag and they take me forever (three hours this year).

This was Halloween at Grandpa Neil's work. It was quite the event. We worried that N and T would freak out and hate it, but to our pleasant surprise they loved it! Matter of fact they were pros by the 2nd office. They'd just keep taking candy until someone stopped them. A had a great time too with his cousins Maggie, Cole, and Fisher. Thanks Gpa Neil!

Grandpa Spencer is now 94 years old. Incredible. He keeps saying every year "Hope I can make it to next year....". He's strong and looks pretty sharp on #94! We had a great gathering of Spencers and did some good political talking. Doug, Rach and Ava even made the trek!

This is the boys goofing around after FHE one night. We talked about Thanksgiving and made indian headbands that they thought were super great. Here they are in their native element in the teepee from Gma Shirley.

A is always asking us (and praying in his prayers) to take him to the Dinosaur Museum. Being a gov't employee I got Columbus Day off and we packed up the boys and finally granted A his wish. He loved it, needless to say. He kept acting like a T-rex after that to this day. He wants to go again soon. We think we'll get family passes here next year so we have a rainy day activity when we need one.

After the Dino museum we took a walk around the grounds there. We had to get a pic of the boys here....funny little squirts. They just cared about all the 'punkins'.

This is A kicking back. He just hopped up on the chair and said, "I need a break". He didn't really, but thought it would be funny...it was.

Another Halloween success! Here are what the troops wanted to be. A has been really wanting to be a Pirate, and this is the first year he was actually excited to wear his costume. He still drags is out just for fun. He made a great Pirate. N and T were perfect animals too. They actually decided to be something different and not fight over the same thing. Teeny gets all the credit for making our boys what they are.

Punkin' carvin'! A really wanted a bat on his pumpkin this year and he drew T's pumpkin too. We got our pumpkins from a neighborhood project. They grew the pumpkins and then whomever wanted to could come get them and make a donation to the Perpetual Education Fund. We think it's a great idea and we'll keep getting our pumpkins there. We grew a few of the smaller ones too.

Simpson-IZED...

Jesse had this on his blog and I thought it was pretty funny so....I'll let you guess who is who.

More goings on....

What a bummer when Teeny told me that Sunday was officially the first day of Fall. We had a great summer, but we could keep on keepin' on having a great summer too. But Fall has its perks. We took the munchkins up Provo Canyon a couple weekends ago. It was when they were looking for the Cleverly girl and we saw searchers everywhere. Sad ending. But the boys had a good time getting hauled in the bike trailers and Teeny and I got our workouts for the day. Lugging those guys around isn't as easy as it use to be. The boys all really loved the 'tree tunnels' and would let us know whenever we were remotely close to, or in one.










I guess the biggest news as of late is that A has started Preschool! We thought it would be a good thing for him to get into a school type setting and get him used to that before Kindergarten. So far he's loved it. We were a little concerned when his teacher told us that he was so shy, but the next week she told us nevermind, he was quite the character that same week. we kind of expected him to be a little shy and were hoping he'd come out of his shell like he has. He can be so funny and fun to be around. He brings home his lessons and has a new song for us every week.




We also took the annual haul up to Cascade Springs. We usually wait to go around General Conference, but it was a nice Saturday and we didn't have much on the agenda, so up we went. The fall colors were amazing. I had to drive really slow to enjoy it all. I love to see the one lone bright red tree amongst a bunch of really green ones. Cascade Springs is such a neat area and they have done a great job with all the boardwalks so you can get right up in the springs and check things out. A loved the fish, of course. N and T did too, especially when they actually did see one. They loved reading the signs and playing 'train' all the way up the trail. It's so funny to watch them! We finished the Alpine Loop coming down Provo Canyon and headed home.

Poor N was just getting through a blink on this one....

'Bout friggin' time!!

We've had a great time this last couple of months. N, T, and A have kept us busy and we love it. Here's a run-down list of what we've been up to:

July 24th:

We went up hiking by Brighton Ski resort with Jesse and Neil. Nate and Jodi were there too, but just at a different lake. A hiked the whole time by himself and did so good. N and T had fun too getting a lift by mom and dad. Lucky little buggers. One day they'll be hauling me around just to make things even. Even if I don't need a wheelchair (which I don't aim to ever need) I making those guys do a little make up work for all the times we hauled them around. It's only fair, right? Anyway, we had a great time and the weather couldn't have been nicer. We got out of the blistering heat for a day...nice.

July 26th:

Off to Lagoon!! Bob and Shirley took the family to again and we loved it. We still can't believe how fast that day went by! It was 5pm before we even thought about the time. We got to do a few 'big-kid' rides. Wicked really was awesome. Nothing like shooting straight up @ 40mph! Shooooot dang!! The kids loved it too. We got A to go on the Tidal Wave and he loved it. I was hoping to get him on some other rides, but he is still just a little to short. He kept telling us that he'll go on bigger rides, "when I'm five". Soon enough. Thanks Bob and Shirley!!

August:

We finally got together with Kristy and Miles and their family!! We had a great time and love hanging out with them. Our kids all got along really well and we got to go see Ryan Shupe for free. What a great time!

We love going on walks. It's great to get out with the family, and usually the dog, and mozy along. It's great because it gives us time to talk and chat with everyone. We'll end up at the park usually too, and the kids love that. This is one of the walks we went on down by the Jordan River. It was a super nice evening. A kept pointing out all the sunflowers. We hurried back though as soon as we saw those pesky mosquitos.

The Jensen family also had the annual get together at the Chevron Pool. It was a lot nicer than last year when we got rained out. The kids love that pool. It was a great time. I still wasn't able to convince A to go down the slide by himself.....maybe when he's five.

The kids and I finally went sailing with Neil whilest the ladies went parade of homing. It was a nice sail, but the Tooele Twisters picked up and started throwing us around a little. We got out of there as soon as we noticed what was going on. The lake was pretty low too. Low enought that we hit bottom coming into the marina. Oops.

P-Town was a success!! Between the golf and all the meat Doug purchased it was really hard not to have a great time. It was so fun staying at their place and getting a better feel for Poky. We loved their house and are excited to see the after pics when they get the paint on it. Super nice! Thanks Rach and Doug (Ava too!!).

Orem Owlz Baseball...

We love going to the ballpark to see the games. One nice thing about working for the city is that every now and then a few tickets make it my way. They're not expensive to get in, but I'll take free anyday. So, this is when Finn was in town with his parents and we headed to Orem. They lost that night, but we had a nice piece of America sitting there at the game. We're still trying to get the kids interested in the whole game and get them use to the Orem Owl...scary.

A and Finn and Lindy

Lovin' it...

This last pic has nothing to do with the Owlz, but we can't believe it's almost time that all of our kids sit at the counter to eat now! This was one of the first times and we are still in shock, but they are so funny!!

Utah Diggity-Gone County Fair!!

So, this was a while ago too, but it takes us longer to post things lately. We took the three monkeys to the fair. It was super nice because it was free that day and we like free. It was also not very busy because it was the first night. A loved it, so did N and T. A's favorite thing was seeing the peacocks and their huge feathers. He also loved the tractors and took a ride on a pony! Yee-Haw! He actually yee-hawed a couple of times while he was riding the pony. It was really funny. N and T liked the tractors and getting inside the fire engine and seeing all the animals. N was a little scared by the huge horses that were there. It was a perfect night for that too. We're glad that we live in such a fun place!

NOTE: Kids are happier than they may appear....stinkers

YEE-HAW!!!

A loved petting the animals too!