Fall in the Mountains

In mid-September we were seeing beautiful colors in the mountains, though the trees down in the valley were still very green.  We decided to drive up to Squaw Peak one Sunday after Church and get a closer look, plus collect a few leaves to bring home for projects.  Check it out.

Yes, this was our living room within about 12 seconds of getting home.
The kids must have been trying to re-create the "throwing leaves" picture.

A couple of weeks later we wanted another dose of beautiful fall colors, so we took a drive along the Alpine Loop.  We just took a few pictures from the windows of the car, and only stopped when Eliza needed to take care of some business in the forest.

The fall colors here are beautiful!  We will definitely miss nature's rainbow if we end up moving back to an area that doesn't have much of a fall.  I'm glad we took some time to enjoy it this year!

Two Dates in One Day

One beautiful weekend in September an outdoor mall near our house had an event called "Chalk the Block." Artists could buy a parking space to draw on and the proceeds were donated to charity.  The name "Chalk the Block" is a bit misleading because, as I learned while talking to the artists, they don't use chalk.  They use chalk pastels.  Big difference.

Did you get a good look at Eliza's right foot?

I brought Eliza to Chalk the Block late in the morning while Ben had Cat and Jack at Cat's soccer game.  The goal was to be able to do something fun, then get her home for a nap before everyone else came home from the game.  It was wonderful to just have one-on-one time with Eliza.  It doesn't happen very often.

The artists were still working on their artwork during the day, so we were able to talk to some of them and see works in progress, which was cool.

After we made the rounds, we saw a water table.  Eliza probably enjoyed this more than viewing the artwork, haha.

Then I let her help me choose one snack/treat from one of the street food vendors, and she chose to get something from the Italian Soda & Fresh Lemonade guy.  We ended up getting a Creamosa, which is basically an Italian Soda with cream mixed in.  Ohhhhh it was good.  I seriously considered going back to the mall later in the afternoon just for another one, but didn't do it.

That night Cat and I had a date planned.  We were going to use her coupon for free dinner at Applebees, then go to the Museum of Art at BYU.  She really wanted to invite her friend Makayla to come along, so she and her mother joined us at the last minute.

After dinner we drove to BYU to go to the art museum, only to find out that it closes early in the evenings on Saturdays.  But they still looked cute walking up to the museum together.

We decided to take the girls to Chalk the Block, and it was particularly cool for me to go back and see the previously unfinished artworks now finished.  I love that there was such an awesome variety!

Fantastical

Inspirational

Classical:
Rendition of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

Disney/DreamWorks-Inspired

This one was our favorite though!

And here are a few before & afters, from my trip with Eliza and then later in the evening with Cat.

What a cool event!  Cat and Makayla loved it, and it was neat to see really impressive art in such a familiar setting.  It was also cool that the event was so popular - by the time we were there in the evening, people were walking through the parking lot more or less in single-file fashion, there were so many viewers.

Timpanogos Falls

The weekend after Labor Day we were finally able to get together for a fun evening with some friends from the MBA program.  We'd been trying to coordinate a camping trip with these families, but 2 of the families had been in another state doing their internships over the summer, so this was the first chance we all had to hang out.  With so many people and so many kids playing sports and attending birthday parties and yadda yadda yadda, we settled for an evening of hanging out in the mountains instead of a full camp-out.  We hiked to Timpanogos Falls, then had a potluck campfire dinner near the parking lot.  It was lots of fun and we were so glad we were able to make it work!

The hike!  Once again, Ben ended up carrying two children at a time for a good portion of the hike.
It was labeled an "easy" hike, but it was somewhat steep and uneven.  It took longer than we thought it would, especially with all of those families (two of the families, who have the youngest kids, decided not to do the entire hike).  In our case, having the other kids around seemed to motivate Cat and Jack to have a better attitude and hike more ambitiously than they do when it's just us.  That's what I call positive peer pressure.

We made it to the waterfall!

So pretty.

The whole family, with Jack enjoying his must-look-as-spastic-as-possible phase.

When I finished the hike I saw this funny looking bug and wanted to show the kids.
It took some work, but I was able to get it onto a stick without touching it - I had no idea if it was poisonous or anything - and the kids thought it was pretty awesome.  It kept their attention for a while.

We took exactly one group picture using the timer on my camera and look how
well it turned out!  Pictured here, in addition to my family, are the families of Matt & Lindsay,
Krista & Eric, and Tiffany & Troy, plus their kids.

We all cooked our hot dogs over the campfire, except Eliza, who pretty much just sat
in that chair wrapped up in that blanket.

At about this point in the evening, the kids discovered an old outdoor theater near where we were eating and it was hard to get them to eat dinner because they just wanted to run around and play in the theater (which had two levels - so cool).  There was even a box of costume pieces someone had left out, which made it all the more fun.  I didn't take any pictures, but just imagine 11 kids (okay, maybe not the two young toddlers) running around, having a blast, and their parents not wanting to leave the warm campfire to round them up.  I think it was probably the highlight of the evening for all of them.

Then, of course, s'mores!  The reason for a campfire dinner.
Mmmmmmm.

So, I felt quite Utahan after this.  Because this is how you're supposed to get your kicks when you're 20 minutes from amazing hiking trails in majestic mountains, right?  Well, I think these Utah folks have the right idea.  It doesn't get much better than being in the great outdoors, getting a little exercise, and enjoying good food, all with a group of good friends.

Labor Day

We had a great Labor Day, which included fresh fruit, another reunion with friends from Tallahassee, family togetherness, and America's favorite pastime.  What could be better?

In the morning we headed down to Mapleton to meet up with Misty and Colby, a couple who were in our first married ward in Tallahassee.  Back then Colby was working on a PhD at FSU, Misty was my VT, and they just had two little toddlers.  This was the first time we'd seen them in 7 years, though we have exchanged Christmas cards and seen pictures as their family has grown to include 2 more children.  It was still a bit surreal to see those two little toddlers as bonafide big kids though.

First, we met up and picked raspberries at a U-Pick berry farm near Misty and Colby's neighborhood.  Then we all went back to their house for lunch, playtime for the kids, and a good catch-up visit for the adults.

Jack and Eliza decided they'd had enough of raspberry picking after a little while, and hung out in the sandbox instead.  Cat even joined them at one point.  Cat and Misty and Donna enjoyed cutting some flowers to take home once we'd collected as many raspberries as we could.

We had a great time hanging out with friends we hadn't seen in so long.  It turns out that Colby now teaches
in the same building where the majority of Ben's classes are held and they get to see each other occasionally.
After a long visit at Misty and Colby's house, we came home and I washed the raspberries while trying (unsuccessfully) to keep Jack's hands off of them.  Then I froze them for later use in smoothies.  Yum.

That night we decided to finally use the free tickets we get to our local minor league baseball game (part of the water park passes we got).  It probably sounds weird, especially for someone who doesn't follow baseball or anything, but it kind of nagged at me all summer that we hadn't seen a baseball game.  It's just not summer without a baseball game!  So thank goodness I was able to cross the last item off of my bucket list on Labor Day.  Go Orem Owlz!

We were pretty sure our crew wouldn't sit and watch a game for very long, though, so we didn't worry about being there at the beginning.  But Jack's favorite song at the time was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" so I insisted that we arrive before the 7th inning stretch.  When we sat down, it was the bottom of the 6th.  Gotta love it.

"Wow - that family must really love baseball.  They're even wearing baseball hats!"

"For it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game..."
I'm so glad I captured this moment - the kids' first 7th inning stretch.

As it turns out, Utah is pretty family friendly.  Have you heard?
And of course, there was a playground in the stadium (which is owned by UVU).
Don't tell my kids, but there was also a bounce house.  They deflated it before we got over there to try it out.
The kids didn't end up watching almost any baseball because they were either playing on the playground
or running races in the grass beside the playground.  At least they had fun.

We saw this mascot when we were walking around and I thought it would be fun to take a picture with her.
We waited for a few minutes and the kids noticed immediately that the mascot was swiping all the kids' baseball hats.
I love how Jack is holding on to his hat so that she can't take it.  And Eliza is trying to morph herself into Ben, who is sizing the mascot up.  Our 7-year-old neighbor told us during carpool that he has a friend whose hat was taken by one of the Orem Owlz mascots and he never got it back.  (Cue scary music.)  Good thing Jack was holding on so tight.

I'm not kidding when I say that Utahans love their fireworks.  We saw more fireworks this summer than I've seen in the last 3 years or so.  Unfortunately, Jack became more and more afraid of fireworks as the summer progressed.  By Labor Day, he refused to look at them, but instead laid down on Ben's lap with his head covered by his hood.  Poor guy.
The rest of us really enjoyed them.

It was a great Labor Day.

Hill Aerospace Museum

Ben and I have some friends from our singles ward days named Danny and Stephanie.  They got married shortly after we did and even lived in a condo unit right behind ours in Tallahassee.  They were fun neighbors and we've continued to exchange Christmas cards since then.  Well, Danny and Stephanie now live in the Logan area, about 2 hours from us.  We've talked about getting together a few times, but finally decided to make it happen Labor Day weekend.  Our original plan was to meet up at Antelope Island to experience the Great Salt Lake together, but wouldn't you know, the forecast was calling for rain.  SO we decided to meet in Ogden and take all of the kids to Hill Air Force Base to see the Aerospace Museum.  Many people had recommended it to us, so it was on our bucket list anyway.  And actually, Ben had taken Jack one day when he had an errand to run in the area, and really enjoyed the planes (yes, you read that correctly, Ben really enjoyed the planes).  Anyway, we'd been planning on going as a family, so it worked out just fine.

I thought this sign was cool.
Especially if you're wondering how far these places are from a random spot in Korea.

I had to include this picture because it shows Ben's favorite plane, the B-17
(green one on the left side), a WWII plane.

Cat was particularly interested in this little exhibit about women in the Air Force.
And, no, I didn't even try to pique her interest in this.  She just noticed it and wanted
to read all about it.  What do you think, Grammy?  A budding feminist?
I found it interesting that there were women pilots during WWII.  Very cool.

Jack's favorite plane.  Don't ask me what it's called.

A replica of the Wright Flyer.
The kids were more interested in the Wright Brothers' fake dog, ha ha.

Cat being Presidential.

Cat and Jack ready to march to duty.

The kids did a good job of walking through the museum and staying in the designated areas and trying not to touch things (other than the Wright Brothers' fake dog).  They thought the planes were interesting and even learned a thing or two.  But the real fun began when we found ACE, the Aerospace Center for Education.  It is a hands-on, made-for-kids, area, complete with costumes uniforms, flight simulators, and science experiments.  As you can tell, Ben thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

When we were finished at ACE we made our way outside to see the really big planes.
Jack and Eliza were more interested in the rocks...

I thought it was cool to see how big the tires were on the Globemaster II, a plane from the 1950's

And here is a group shot because we were, in fact, all together.
Danny and Stephanie have their two little ones, Parker and Paisley.
The Globemaster II is behind us.

We'd planned ahead of time to have a picnic for lunch, but since the weather was, ahem, supposed to be rainy, which it wasn't, we opted to grab lunch out instead.  It was great to just sit and catch up with Danny and Stephanie and for the kids to have some more time together before we went our separate ways.  Danny and Stephanie, hopefully we'll get to see you a couple more times while we're in Utah!