Halloween 2020

Halloween looked a little different this year but we were fortunate that it wasn't too different.  We had a fantastic day and I kind of wish Halloween was on a Saturday every year.  I still took the kids trick or treating, and Elliot and Andrew stayed home to give out candy.

In the end Andrew set up this table outside and made sure there was always candy there while he and Elliot watched Harry Potter 4 for Elliot's first time.  Elliot read all the books this summer (we finally let him) so he's been looking forward to seeing this movie since he turned 13.

Classic front porch photo.  It's tradition!  It's also the only group photo we can see Elliot's face.  The kids trick or treated around our neighborhood by evergreen and back by the stake center.   A lot less trick or treaters this year, and fewer houses handing out candy but still a lot of fun.  Then we went trick or treating in the north part of our stake by uncle Ammon Opie's parents.  we've gone there for years now.  Such a great neighborhood!

Elliot was an army soldier.  I took the girls to thrift costumes at Goodwill with Kristy and Lizzy and scored this green jumper for Elliot, hoping it would fit.  We got lucky!  He's so hard to find clothing that fits or he likes. ;)  We ordered the hat on Amazon and the neck scarf/mask Andrew already had.

For Avery we were so excited to find this pretty white dress for $10!  We found some scrap fabric for the veil, and dug up the flower headband in my stuff.  For the makeup I also used what I already had and looked at inspiration photos on pinterest.  We were impressed with how well it turned out!  Such a transformation!  She felt really special and we all kept looking at Avery thinking how she doesn't even look like herself with this makeup.  She was a really good Emily for The Corpse Bride.

Zara wanted to be a Roman.  We lightly turned her hair and then dug up this headband in my things that I had forgotten about.  Another thrifted dress from that day.  Zara just wanted mascara and lipstick.  It's hard to tell but Zara has the prettiest long, curly eyelashes that the mascara just magnified.

Rupert's, Zara's and Baa's costumes were also from Goodwill.  We really lucked out!  But shopping mid September really helped.  Rupert's night in shining armor costume also came with a cape that he didn't want to wear this time. ;)  Because he got the costume for his birthday he asked for and received a shield, helmet, and sword as presents that he's played with a ton, just not on Halloween.

Be a actually has several costumes we thrifted including an Anna dress from Frozen, and old witch costume, and a yellow sparkly dance dress, but this is the one that was clean Halloween night.  All the dresses are in constant rotation.  She likes feeling pretty.  I went a little extra with the makeup with a burnt orange eye shadow all around her eyes.  I though it was very Halloween like, and bright orange lips.  We took her in the wagon this year so she could eat to her hearts content between houses.  The girls even grabbed the candy for her sometimes to go faster.  She was in heaven.

Beatrix stayed home for the second part of trick or treating.  After a few houses Rupert and Zara stayed at Ma & Pa Opie's house since Ruth and Ammon's kids were there watching a movie and their legs were tired.  I took Avery the last stretch.  This is her last year trick or treating because she'll be 12 next year.

Andrew and I didn't dress up this year, maybe next?  It was a great day, even with Covid precautions.

 

Navajo Bridge & the North Rim

 

(not sure why this is blurry)

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim with this group.  I started training three weeks before.  It really wasn't enough but I did my best with the time I had.  We set off last Saturday from Rachel Willis's house.  She's my running buddy.  We hike with her brother Ben, his son James, his daughter Marianne, her friend Brigette, and Gary (Ben's father in law) was the driver.  He's hiked rim to rim many times and it was great hiking with him the last few weeks and having someone experienced there.  Ben and Marianne were also experienced rim to rim hikers.

After a lunch break in Flagstaff we headed north.  This was our stop at Navajo Bridge.  There's the bridge for driving and a bridge for walking. 

Look at that background!  Those are the Vermillion Cliffs behind me.  I have memories coming here when I worked at Jacob Lake Inn the summer of 2005.  So nostalgic!

This was looking down from the bridge.  Just stunning!  And that water was moving pretty fast too.  Just north of here is Lee's Ferry where a lot of rafts get started but we didn't see a single floating device all weekend.  The Grand Canyon North and South rim visitor centers closed the week before so we were there at the beginning of off season.  

Thankfully the weather was perfect! It got much colder a couple days later.  I live in such a beautiful state!

Here's where we camped near the entrance to the north rim.  It got nippy as the sun went down and was a low around 35 degrees at night.  My bum was called all night but warmers kept my feet warm.

Loving the fresh air and ponderosa pines!  Arizona has the most beautiful forests!  There must have been a fire a few years ago because some of the drive south of Jacob Lake had burnt forest.  It was strange having a view down to the vermillion cliffs.  Normally there's forest in the way from that drive.

Rachel and I shared a tent and she made some yummy soup we shared too.

I brought the cookers, Trader Joes corn chips, and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  It would have been nice to have a camp fire but the fire was only a ring of rocks, not a metal ring, and with the fire hazard we had to do without.

As usual the moon and stars were so pretty at night.  It was so windy, the wind blowing in the trees kept me up much of the night but we tried to have an early start to bed since we needed to be up early.  I went to bed around 8:30 and had broken sleep all night.  I ended up not being able to sleep past 3:30 which wasn't too bad since we had a 4:00am start anyway.

Wish I slept more and drank more, but not a terrible way to start the hike.  Such a pretty day!  I was surprised how fast it felt getting to the north rim in one day.

2020 primary program parts

This year for the primary program instead of singing and sharing in person during sacrament meeting it will online.  We were asked to submit each child's parts where the primary presidency gave some suggested prompt questions, and we practiced the songs at home too.  Here's what we submitted: (this is Avery's last time)

 Avery: "My family has grown closer during this unique time by watching out for each other while we stayed together during quarantine."

Zara: "I like the Book of Mormon story of when Jesus Christ came.  He healed the blind and sick, and taught. I love it when Jesus prayed with the children because I feel closer to Him."

Rupert: "I liked helping my daddy plant winter grass.  I feel Heavenly Father's love when I serve others.  I just like doing like Jesus and doing Come Follow Me."

^ ^ Rupert's self portrait of thinking about Jesus. ^ ^

We have amazing Primary leaders who have been so good about reaching out and planning Covid - friendly activities this year.  I can't wait to see how the program turns out!

a Rupert birthday

 

Rupert is such an easy going boy with a big smile, he just so fun to be around.  For his birthday I couldn't muster up motivation to plan a party with invitations so instead we invited friends over so a special playdate/party.  We kept it simple and Rupert was happy, which is the most important thing.

Teddy, Rupert's cousin came, and his cousin Knight Sowards in our ward, as well as Leo Patterson who lives down the street.  Mack Whiting came later too.  We love having amazing friends who live close by and go along with our last minute birthday playdate.

We decorated cupcakes, ate pizza for lunch, and played Halloween bingo. 

Rupert had some specific ideas about what he wanted his cake to look at, and the ideas kept changing based on the pinterest photos we looked at. ;)  It was loosely based off this photo and I'm super happy with how it turned out.  The inside of the cake was a funfetti box mix but I want to try some of these recipes after stumbling on it.  Love a good recipe bake off!

To end the day Rupert wanted to go the place with rice and spice chicken.  He meant Panda Express. :)  I I took him on a little date to get it.  Next time we're going somewhere with free food because you can only do that once a year!

Upper Canyon Creek with friends

 Two weekends ago some amazing friends who moved out of our ward a few months ago invited us and others to go camping with them.  Since we had just gotten back from New Mexico that Wednesday Andrew wasn't thrilled about the idea of packing up the car for another trip but I knew it would be fun for our whole family, and worth it!

There was the Kyle & Laura Cook family, who invited us, Kyle's dad who brought some other grandchildren, and the Thomas & Carrie Brown family (who moved out of our ward a few years ago), Kyle's brother Shawn (who used to be in our ward), and we were the last to arrive Friday night.  We shared light copters with the kids which were a big hit, and many got stuck in pine trees.  We had a campfire, even though we weren't supposed to because of heat warnings.

Kyle helped us set up the big tent which was so needed since it was the first time using Chris & Kristy's.  We're holding on to their camping gear while they live in England.  Elliot had his own two man tent that Rupert was going to sleep in but Rupert changed his mind and slept next to daddy.  Thankfully we had room in our tent for Elliot's who tent so he could be a little warmer.  It was a little chilly at night, about 48 degrees, but perfect when the sun was up.

There were so many kids there that everyone had a friend or group of friends.  There was hot chocolate, s'mores, and a lot of fun camping food.  Lots of dirt and even the adults had each other to chat with.

The best part is Andrew actually had a good sleep!  This is rare while camping.  He was sandwiched between Beatrix, Rupert, and me on the other side of the air mattress.  Avery & Zara shared their own air mattress.

Zara had this creative wood store collection.  She sorted the wood out in categories like burnt, only bark, pinecones, etc... :)

The last thing we did after loading everything up was to head over the the creek.  Kyle Cook promised $1.00 to everyone who dunked their whole body under water, and the water was cold!  You'll have too see the video below to find out who in our family actually did it.

Beatrix really took to Thomas Brown their for a minute.  She even chose Thomas over daddy at one point.  It reminded me of Uncle Chris, who she also really loves.  Thomas has 7 kids of his own so he's used to having little ones around. :)

* spoiler * Avery got wet head to toe!

We loved this trip and want to plan another friends camping trip this fall before it gets too cold.  Andrew wants to camp in Globe next time since this was our second time in a row at this camp site.

               

This was a fun quick video to put together.  Another form of photo, or rather video, journaling and the kids love to watch them. It's also been a good creative outlet for me to make videos and edit photos.  Hope you enjoy!

Rupert lost his first tooth!

^ ^ tooth hanging by a thread ^ ^

A couple weeks ago Rupert told me "Mom, I have a rock in my mouth, under my tongue."  Turns out there was a tooth coming in before he even lost a tooth.  When he found that out he was so excited!  Being the fourth child he's seen his older siblings all loose teeth and get money from the tooth fairy and couldn't wait for his turn.

^ ^ see that new tooth ^ ^

 It took a good couple weeks to finally get that tooth out, meanwhile the new one kept moving up.  Rupert was very patient. ;)

I love seeing those dirty boy hands holding that baby tooth.  Rupert is all boy!

Presenting Rupert's new smile!!  Rupert turns 6 in a month and a few weeks ago he started kindergarten.  When we registered him for school earlier this year we had no idea his classes would be online at home.  

This year has been something else, no wonder its taken all year to get to tis first post.  Hoping to drop in more often and share all the fun and chaos we call life. :)