A Fun Fall Weekend

 About a year ago we started getting together once a month with other couples that Cass went to high school with.  It has been a fun way to stay in touch and learn about these boys growing up :)  I realized we haven't ever posted about it and I don't want to forget these fun times as we are starting our young families.  This month Mike and Sarah planned a hot dog roast up American Fork Canyon.  It was a great way to enjoy the last of fall and a good excuse to have smores one more time.

The best group shot I could get.

Alden loved the fire and sat content in his bumbo just staring at it for quite a while.

Family shot

  The next morning we let Alden sample one of the marshmallows.  He really enjoyed sucking on it for a few minutes.

 That was Friday night and Saturday we headed up to LaWayne's to watch the BYU v Notre Dame game.  

 We were a little bit worried it would not be a fun game to watch since Notre Dame is ranked #5 and BYU is not ranked at all so we brought an alternate activity if we needed it.  It turns out BYU played awesome!  The led for most of the game and only ended up loosing by a field goal so we did the alternate activity during half time.  

And what is the other activity you ask, pumpkin decorating!  We painted them since it is still about 3 weeks until Halloween and we didn't want them to rot.  I have limited color choices and only foam brushes so don't judge us too hard please.

 The finished products.  LaWayne was a good sport for going along with my cheesy idea. 

 Alden had a good time at Aunt LaWayne's house too I think :)

After the game we headed up to North Salt Lake to see an old college roommate and her new baby.  It was a great fall weekend which was good because it looks like winter is going to be here sooner than we expected.  We hope you all are enjoying this fun time of year as well.

Camping in Las Vegas???

Ok so we weren't really camping in Las Vegas, but it kind of felt like because BJ's hot water heater was broken so there were few showers taken and you had to drive all the way to Jamie's to take one.  We went to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago with my dad and aunt LaWayne to visit for fall break.  It was a pretty relaxing weekend with not a ton going on, but it was fun to around family we don't see all of the time and to watch Alden and Jonathan interact.  One of the things on the agenda was to get some good pictures of Alden since we haven't had any nice ones since he was a week old.  Thankfully BJ was happy to oblige and here are a couple of the great pictures we got of him. 

 We also had to get a picture of Alden playing with his dad and few family pictures.

 Rudy had a birthday while we there so of course there had to be cake and singing.  I think he got a little annoyed with the trick candles though.

 The night we celebrated Rudy's birthday the girls decided it should be a pumpkin night so we had bread out of pumpkin bread bowls (sorry no picture) and made rice krsipy treats that looked like pumpkins. 

Just hanging out with my peeps :)

 We also took this opportunity to visit the St. George temple.  None of us had ever done a session there so we left the boys with BJ, Shawna, and LaWayne and headed to St. George on Saturday morning.  Cass and I are now down to only 3 temples in Utah that we have not been to together.

  Finally there was quite a bit of time spent at the park across the street from BJ and Shawna's house.  Alden decided he loves the swing and will tolerate the slide. 

The slide is down the back of a whale, how cool is that?!

 I think grandpa enjoyed the weekend with his two grandsons, what do you think?

 BJ, Shawna, Jamie, and Rudy thanks for all of the great food and fun we had.  Next time you come to Utah we will return the favor and maybe take you for a short walk :)

Idazoo

We were able to tag along the other weekend with Cassidy's parents on their trip to Idaho Falls.  I think the weekend was a lot more fun for the girls than the boys, but we had a good time and are grateful to be able to see our families so often.  

While the men were busy working (more on that to come) the girls hit the Tautphaus Park Zoo.  Jason and Laura have lived next to this zoo for years and have bever been.  We were excited at how much this little zoo had.  Both of the babies and their moms.   

We were having a lot of fun now that Alden and Sam are getting more interactive.

There was a small petting zoo were the kids had fun with the donkeys.

Our sort of new little hatchlings in their nest.

And I just loved the lion.  

After the zoo we went to lunch and then shopping with grandma.  Meanwhile the men spent the day at home helping Jason build his deck.  Here is the before shot.  Jason had posts in, but that was it.  

And here is the project at the end of the day.  All that is left is hand rails, but it got dark and chilly before they had time for that.

Jason also has some very big dogs.  Alden loves dogs so we thought we would introduce him to Bruce.  Bruce's head is bigger than Alden's entire body, but Alden loved him and just kept laughing and wanting to pet him.  

And then just a bonus picture.  October is when post season of baseball happens.  We are trying to instil a love of baseball in Alden early so on October 1st we dressed Alden in his sports pajamas and Cass read him Take Me Out to the Ballgame for his bed time story.  It was really cute especially since Cass was so excited to read this book in October :)

Depot Fire

Alden turned 8 months old on September 27th.  Some milestones he drinks out of sippy cup by himself, can walk a few steps holding your hands, sit up like a chap, and can splash all of the water out of the bath tub.  He seriously is the best behaved child in all of the world.  He hardly ever cries and sleeps all night.  He will eat anything and smiles and plays well by himself and with others.  I drug him all over the place the other day and he never even acted cranky.  We are so blessed to have such a sweet boy with a mellow temperament.  He is also super cute as evidenced in the picture below.   

In other news we recently discovered that the Home Depot nearby has a free kids craft on the first Saturday of every month.  We had to check it out because it is free.  Apparently this was their big activity for the year, fire safety awareness, so besides making our own firetruck there was also Smokey the Bear, face painting, and a fire truck and ambulance for the kids to go in

Our little builder at work.  They also give the kids a free apron.

 Just hanging out with Smokey.

 Practicing his driving skills :)

 And here he is at home withe the completed project.  I think he looks pretty happy with his new free toy.  Can't wait for next month when he builds us a napkin holder :)

Mighty Cougars

 
As has become somewhat of a tradition in our family we attended our annual BYU football game on September 8.  They played Weber State and won by a landslide so we left the stadium happy campers :)  It was fun to take Alden to his first football game and even better that we got to sit in the second row.  Alden loved to watch the cheerleaders run by with the BYU flags every time we scored :) Here are some pictures from our fun day .

2 excited boys heading in to the stadium.

Look how close we were to the action.

No trip to BYU is complete without a picture by the Cougar!

 The mall in Orem does a shuttle bus to the games for free if you eat at one of the mall restaurants during the week.  We love this option so we don't have to worry about traffic or parking.  After the game though it did take a while to get back to our car so we had fun with the camera.  What a great model we had.  I can't believe aunt LaWayne did end up in ay of the pictures on our camera, but we are grateful she came with us.

 After the game Alden got his first sippy cup so we had to try it out.  He wasn't too sure about it then, but he is a pro with it now.  We had a great day and love our BYU Cougars! 

Not so much Labor on this Day

 This year for Labor Day we went camping (if you can believe that :)  )  We went to Palisades State Park with the Peterson family.  It was a pretty relaxing weekend with a couple of four wheeler rides, a little nature walking, and mostly just hanging out enjoying each others company.

  

Alden was so tired when we went for our walk he spent most of it like this :)

Dane and his baby, a super cute puppy names Zues

We walked around the reservoir that was really low so some of the group went down to check out what the ground was like where the water normally is.  This picture was taken shortly before Chris ended up ankle deep in the weird mud.

Tryegann was a little inconvenienced by the walk

Camping must really wear this kid out :)

Alden and the new puppy playing in the trailer.

And this was a couple of weeks ago, but here is our cute boy at 7 months old.  He is getting such a fun personality now.  He smiles and interacts so much.  Alden is truly a great blessing in our life we learn so much from him everyday and can't imagine him not being in our lives.