Halloween and A Five Day Weekend

It seemed like we celebrated Halloween all month with school parties and ballet parties (all four of which I didn't get a photos of) then our second annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Of course, it is the just hokey jokey pumpkin patch down the road but a cute girl in our ward sets up a play date for everyone there each year and Abbie (and now Daisy) really enjoy it. Lindsay and Nate joined us as guests last year but now they get their own full fledged invite. The photo below has Abbie with Nate's friend Hadley (we always love seeing her) and Daisy sitting next to her best friend Nate and her nursery friend Clara on the "train"....don't ask.
Trunk or Treat was a hit this year. Tripp hates it and every year he goes home in a rotten mood. Lindsay said something on her blog about how the three ward event was something new and something crowded (or something like that). I guess it is the only one we've really ever gone to so we don't know any different but it is crazy crowded which is why Tripp is always in a horrible mood by the end. The girls where finally old enough that I could manage them by myself in the crowd without a headache so I parked Tripp in the car to hand out candy (a first for us) and he was in a great mood all night. Even Kyle, our resident grouch, had a fantastic night. He didn't really go for any candy...just hung out all night with his two buddies and a couple of girls. They were outside all night in the view of parents so I'd say a happy Kyle that got into zero trouble equals smiles for me too. Nate mostly hung out with his mom handing out candy so we didn't get to see much of him (but he did eat my hot dog and for that, I am grateful) and Ryan went home early to bed but we did get to snuggle him for a few minutes in his skeleton costume. And, yes, Daisy was a chicken last year too. She was meant to be a bee this year but at the last minute threw a fit and had to be a chicken again. She was a bee for her class party and unfortunately, I didn't get a photo.

With Nevada Day now officially on a Friday, Kyle received 10/29 off school. The school district planned teacher work days for Monday and Tuesday as well so we received a five day holiday. With Halloween landing on a Sunday we decided to skip town and head up to the cabin one last time before it gets snowed in. Tripp and Kyle had Fly the Flag duty Friday morning early then we packed, prepared and left around lunch time. Friday night was spent unpacking and snuggling in. Saturday we did a small service project around the cabin...cleaning up pine cones and bark on our lot and taking it to the dumpster. Then we started out on a what we hoped was a long ride on the 4-wheelers but after about 45 minutes it started snowing so we had to make our way home. We watched movies and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon while it snowed off and on. That evening, we made our way to Cedar City for dinner and Trick or Treating. Lucky for us, many in town were giving out candy on Saturday instead of Sunday. Britney, Curtis & baby Berkley (Jennifer Thompson's Sister) happily let us use their place as home base. It was so fun to meet Berkley and catch up with Britney...we haven't seen her in what seems like a million years.

Sunday morning we made our way to church but it was already closed down for refurbishment (Kyle wasn't too disappointed). We came home and watched Halloween movies and waited for our friends, the Gublers, to arrive. It's a shame when we can only hook up with dear friends, who actually live less than a 3 minute walk from our house, when we are out of town. We try a lot...but can never manage to get our schedules to match up. Finally, we were in luck and they were spending time at their family condo in BrianHead for the weekend so we invited them over for 4-wheeling and dinner. The kids spent some time on the rope swings then we set out. I guess Alora ran into a tree but sadly, I missed that. Luckily, she is fine...just a funny story. Later, the kids played and Sean brought back Aimee and her Oma and we enjoyed dinner then smores by the campfire. It helped us all forget about Halloween. Abbie was really worried that The Great Pumpkin wouldn't know where to find us but he did. The next morning, all three kids woke up to much less candy and stacks of books (and coloring books for Abbie & Daisy) in it's place.

The Gublers came back Monday and we spent the day out on the 4-wheelers again. I'm sure my family will be shocked. I've never really spent much time out on them but now that all my kids are old enough to go and we had room for everyone, it was fun to ride along as well. Kyle likes to drive so I'm happy to ride on the back and just look around and think...I never really get to do much of that. And with all of his arguing and bad behavior, he can actually be trusted to drive a 4-wheeler. I feel perfectly safe to sit on the back and just space out (not something I do a lot of when Kyle is around). We stopped for lunch at the Cafe in town, got to know the owner then headed back home to help the Gublers load up their equipment and say "Goodbye".

We had to get back to Vegas Tuesday morning. Tripp and I both had work to get back to and Kyle was going to meet his mom just after lunch. Unfortunately, I got the worst stomach flu ever so the cleaning, ride home and basically rest of the day was torture. But Kyle made his rendezvous and Tripp made it to work and I was able to send back some emails here and there so I guess alls well that ends well.

We probably won't make it up to the cabin much during the winter but we'll miss it. It definitely was peaceful this time. We missed everyone but it was also nice to have it for ourselves as well. Just when we really got to missing the rest of the family, the Gublers arrived and helped us keep ours minds off of it. A little ying and yang I guess.