Originally, the plan was just for me to take the kids for a week while Steve hung out here doing nothing...just kidding - he had to work like a workhorse. HOWEVER, when we realized how close to Halloween my stay was, we got the idea for Steve to come for the weekend and celebrate Halloween with us in Utah. It was a fabulous plan and worked gloriously.
I was nervous to fly by myself with three very small children, until I realized you can totally have someone come through security with you and take you to the gate - which Steve did - AND you can have someone meet you at the gate on the other end - which didn't work out because we flew in the middle of the night (didn't leave fly out till 10:30PM) - and my dad couldn't find anyone to give him a pass.
It didn't matter though - the kids were so well behaved - I think it was because they were crazy excited to fly on an airplane, AND stay up so late, AND it was only an hour flight. Ruby especially loved that I had a little backpack for her to take - she totally felt grown up and drilled me the ENTIRE 3 1/2 hour car ride and all the way to the plane,
Ruby: "Mom, where're we going??"
Me: "Where ARE we going, Ruby?"
Ruby: "Are we going on an airplane? We going to fly?"
Me: "Yes, we sure are."
Repeat that dialogue about 600 times and you'll get the idea. ;) BUT, since she felt so grown up with her backpack, her own seat, and her own snack, she was actually quite obedient and compliant which was a great win!
Ross was singing made up songs the whole way to the airport about how he was going to get to go on the airplane, and LOVED watching for airplanes while we waited for ours to get ready.
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| I cornered all three of them on the plan in the very back. Brilliant. |
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| Got this one asleep too. Whew! |
Rowland was pretty much how he always is, and pretty much fell asleep in my arms about 15 minutes into the flight, then sleeping the whole time.
I was pretty proud of myself for managing them off the airplane as well. Whew!
We got in super late and so the next morning we headed to the White's for the afternoon. We ended up going to the pumpkin patch and had a terrific time in the corn pit, as well as the slides. We even did the hay ride, maze, climbing on the hay bales, AND picked out pumpkins. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there easy! Ross and Ruby loved hanging out with Alex too. :)
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| Catching up with cousin Alex over Mac and Cheese |
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| This girl can down an entire pot of Mac and Cheese herself if I would let her. |
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| Looking at the animals at the pumpkin patch. Ross is pumping Alex up for the slides. ;) |
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| Rowly just chillin' |
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| MELT..MY...HEART |
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| Slide time |
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| So Ruby and Alex went down together...you can see how this is turning out... |
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| Alex is a champ though and shook it off pretty quick. |
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| Then we went to the amazing corn pit that every child in the world LOVES...and I just don't think about all the fun germs that are probably everywhere. Rowly is wondering what this is all about. |
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| He's thinking about putting one in his mouth...but lucky (or unlucky) for him, his mom is watching him like a hawk. |
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| Burying your head like an ostrich is also a must... |
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| This is the closest I got to getting my kids and me together in the picture looking ;) |
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| Jumping in the pit is also a must. |
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| Also, wrestling cousins |
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| Love this spicy girl of mine! |
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| Love this punkin' |
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| Taking a hay ride |
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| Love this cute kid! |
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| Figuring out the maze! |
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| Me also unsuccessfully getting all three kids looking at me with some pumpkins |
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| At least Alex looked at one point |
Friday morning I went to hang out with my friend Maren for a play date with the kids. It was nice catching up, and being able to see her cute kids. Ross and Ruby still call Ally, Allypop - I LOVE it. :)
We went to the newly opened Chik-fil-a place there in Spanish Fork, with my mom for lunch. The kids scarfed down their food and were mesmerized with the cow mascot making the rounds. Ruby loved it, until it came to our table, and then she started clawing at Grammy trying to get away. Haha!
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| This boy and Great Grandma Staheli just got along like peas and carrots. :) |
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| Ruby cowering in front of the mascot cow ;) |
That afternoon we went to the Curiosity Museum at Thanksgiving Point - which was extremely entertaining - and finished it off with dinner at the Purple Turtle - one of my dad's (and mine) favorite places to eat. He's gone there every since it opened back in the late 60's I believe. The kids did great there too.
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| So naps were often optional during our trip - and usually taken in the car on the way to something fun. |
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| This kid was sure bright eyed though. |
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| Hey! There's a floating head!! |
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| And another one! |
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| Dance Performance! |
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| I think this reporting news room was my favorite with the green screen! |
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| Ross thought the sharks were awesome! |
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| Dinosaur hunting... |
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| in a blizzard! |
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| Love these little explorers :) |
Saturday we visited and played with Grandpa Stan and Great Grandma Staheli. She and Rowland took quite well to each other and enjoyed each other's company every chance they got. :) We went to the White's and did some playing outside.
We got back and watched the BYU game - or some of it, and played outside some more.
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| Found this picture of my grandparents while I was sorting through old pictures. Love it :) |
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| Ruby must always be dressed like a princess...with a Harry Potter wand |
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| Leave throwing! |
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| This girl always has her hair in her eyes! Steve loves it too. ;) |
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| My beloved Maple Mountain. I miss that every day! |
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| Rowland likes to hang with grandpas a lot. :) |
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| Grandma was unstuffing a pillow for some fringe...so we had to have a stuffing fight! |
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| Cousin lounging... |
On Sunday my parents' ward had their Primary Program. Their ward split that evening, but at church earlier, it felt like a whole Stake was meeting together - it went all the way to the back, AND my mom told me they have 235 primary kids. That's almost 10 times as many primary kids as in my ward in Lamar! It was a cute program and they definitely had loud singing voices. ;) We relaxed and took Sunday naps that day too.
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| All tuckered out while churching. ;) |
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| The HUGE primary! |
On Monday we went over to the White's that where I took Ross and Ruby to Mapleton Park while Rowland slept, and had a magical time (seriously). We walked to it - past my old elementary school - even past my old third grade classroom door. I loved that school - so many happy memories there. We said hello to the dragon statue in front of it and then went and climbed and played on the slides at the park. My breath kept being taken away when I would look up and see these golden leaves fluttering softly to the ground along with all the other gorgeous fall colors around me and my beautiful mountains in the background. I DO miss having the mountains all the time, and I thoroughly enjoyed being outside in Utah.
That afternoon, Don graciously watched Ross and Rowland while we got to go do a girls outing to Cheesecake Factory - YUM! I took Ruby and she did fairly well (though I pulled the awesome mom card and let her play on my phone halfway through eating). It was nice to be out with the girls!
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| Ruby's "Getting Married" outfit of choice. ;) |
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| And Rowland started in on the trend of planking! He does it all the time now. |
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| Cheesecaking it up! Hooray for girls night! |
Tuesday, Claudia watched my kids while I got a much needed and loved pedicure. Oh how I love those! Ross got to go with his Grandpa Don to the dinosaur museum and for ice cream - lucky kid. I also worked on our Halloween costumes some more - dying my mom's old pink maternity overalls (yes, you read that right) that I had saved for a good costume someday. I dyed them purple with the help of Claudia and they turned out GREAT!
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| I bought Ruby's dancing leotard and outfit (and squealed like you wouldn't believe) after which Ruby squealed like you wouldn't believe. ;) She LOVES it. |
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| Dressing up is a regular thing obviously. This was dad's D'Males costume from highschool. :) |
So I had been wanting to get some decent pictures of my kids for like....ever. Every time we do family pictures, getting one of just the kids is always an afterthought when they are COMPLETELY over smiling or even looking at a camera anymore. I saw my friend, Michelle's pictures she had done of her kids at a place called Fotofly in Utah, and was determined to get some myself! SO Wednesday, I hauled the kids up to Draper by myself and got them done. I will tell you - the photographer WORKED for her money, but they turned out FABULOUSLY. I will post those pictures separately.
Every time the photographer would pose Ruby, by the time she scooted back, she'd undo it all, laughing thinking it was a game. Ross's ear suddenly started hurting towards the end as well - poor thing, and Rowly was just trying to figure out where the heck he was. Haha. I took the kids for a cupcake and a browse through Deseret Book while we waited for the pictures.
We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling (worried about Ross's ear) and me sorting through old pictures. I was bummed because we were supposed to go hang out with my high school friend, Kirsta and her kids, but it didn't work out AGAIN! BAH.
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| Watching some morning cartoons with grandpa. |
During all of our shenanigans, poor Steve was bored out of his mind whenever he'd get back from work, so we were super excited when the day finally came for him to come! Ross was really missing Steve the couple days before he came, so it was Christmas having him come!
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| Ross saw all these pictures of Daddy and got really sad. I found him whimpering and trying to hug the picture asking when Dad was going to be here. Sweet boy - just two more days... |
Grandma Claudia came with us and so we went to the Aquarium and spent a good 3 hours there. It was super fun. We even timed it right to see them feed the sharks, otter, and penguins. We went to a 4D movie too, but the kids did NOT like the feel of ocean spray in their faces - oh well. ;)
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| Checking out the fish tank. |
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| Daddy's back! |
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| We did a bunch of walking all over the aquarium and found a comfy whale to rest on. Claudia was a trooper even with her bum knee! |
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| Swimming ;) |
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| Whale King! |
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| We actually got to watch them feed the sharks, penguins AND otters. |
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| Ross just might be able to take on a penguin. ;) |
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| Chillin' at the 4D movie - kids not a fan of the 4th dimension effect but still entertaining. |
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| We made a few rounds back to the soothing fish tank. |
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| It was so fun at the aquarium - they had carved pumpkins everywhere. |
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| Rowland taking a time out. ;) |
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| So Ruby loved this rope walk until she saw the giant decorative spider and skeleton on the outside halfway through...then it was all she could do to get across... |
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| After some bribery Ross did it to - and actually liked seeing the spider and skeleton. |
On Friday we roasted hotdogs outside, played in the leaves, and then took Steve to check out the pumpkin patch again. We were playing in the corn pit - burying Steve and his brothers, and when he got out, he realized his wedding ring was missing (this is extremely ironic, because I've lost my wedding ring in our house somewhere - still trying to find it). They looked and looked for it - we even bribed some kids if they would look too, but it got dark too quick. Steve borrowed a metal detector (everyone needs to have a friend with a metal detector) from his dad's friend who owns a pawn shop, and dragged his brother, Michael early the next morning to hunt it down. They were there about 45 minutes when Michael found it!!!! CRAZY right?! Now we just need to find MY ring again (I know it's somewhere in the house...but where??? Prayers are welcome in that department.) *Update: I DID find me ring squished in a pocket of one of my pairs of pants!
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| Rowly's first time in the swing |
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| Rowly investigating the leaves |
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| So this was about the moment Steve lost his wedding ring while getting buried. ;) |
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| Accomplished! |
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| We got a little carried away burying Uncle Michael... |
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| ..... |
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| I would have been completely claustrophobic! |
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| Freeing the captive! |
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| Then we realized Steve's ring was gone...and thus began the search that wasn't successful until the next morning with a metal detector. |
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| Uncle Thomas entertained the kids while we looked. |
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| They are BOTH looking AND smiling! How did he get the to do that??? |
On Friday night I took Steve on a date and we doubled with Michael and his girlfriend, Kristelle. It was actually super fun. We went for some Pho at a Vietnamese restaurant in Provo called Pho Plus. If you haven't had it - you're missing out - it's amazing! And cheap. We then went up to Sundance to go on the Haunted Ski Lift Ride where you see different Halloween scenes down below with a bunch of actors dressed up. It was fun - and only a couple people jumped out at you where the usual ski stops would be. I would totally do that again! We grabbed hot chocolate on the way back and later that night I laughed my head off with my mom (love doing that) watching the Haunted House clips that Ellen posts from her show.
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| Our date was SO much fun. The ride was really entertaining and gorgeous in the mountains - even in the dark. |
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| Michael and his girlfriend, Kristelle. She was a hoot! |
