Halloween 2010

This year, Kaylen was a bumble bee AND a bunny rabbit! There was actually a third costume, a Dalmatian, but she was a little weirded out by putting on a dog, not quite what we were expecting! Just like last year, we were in no shortage of costumes! My Mom sent the bumble bee and dog and Gregg's Mom sent the bunny rabbit! It was pretty great when my Mom said, "Target has a great sale on costumes now that Halloween is over. You should go check them out!" And I made sure to let her know that I didn't see a need for buying a costume for Kaylen yet considering that every year, the Grandmas can't seem to help themselves!!

Kaylen as a bunny rabbit= CUTE!

Kaylen trying on the bumble bee costume= CUTE!

Kaylen and her pal, Weston, playing before the daycare Halloween parade through the VA nursing home across the parking lot! It was fun for Gregg and I to be there to walk with her and get to watch her play with her friends beforehand. This is actually Kaylen and Weston doing their moves to the song, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"!

Heading to the parade!!

Daddy's little bumble bee!

Kaylen got LOTS of candy!!

Kaylen's class, Lilly, Kaylen, Miss Monica and Weston

We carved the pumpkins the Saturday of Halloween. In Utah, Halloween is not celebrated on a Sunday if it should happen to fall on one. So, we had a great Saturday! Started our day off with pumpkins, played outside, went trick-or-treating and even made it to a party!

Daddy and Kaylen..Kaylen making a mess!

A REAL mess!

Touchdown!!

Mommy hard at work

Our masterpieces!

Love of our lives!

Kaylen trick-or-treated in her bunny costumes! She's just doing a little playing with her kitchen before we go!

Too darn cute!

Gregg had some great ideas for us all to get dressed up for the party! Gregg was a patient, complete with head bandage, neck brace, hospital gown and catheter filled with Mountain Dew! Let's just hope Kaylen gets his great creativity!

Kaylen, her friend Carissa and... the creepy guy in the background! :-)

Our masterpieces all lit up at the end of the night!

We had a great Halloween this year! It actually worked out really well! Gregg had to work that Sunday, the 31st, but being that Utah won't celebrate on a Sunday, we got to spend it together on Saturday! We definitely made the most of it!

We were also fortunate enough to be invited to our friend, Henry's, Baptism that Sunday. Because Gregg had to work, it was just Kaylen and I, but it was a great ceremony and we had a wonderful lunch afterward! Kaylen and I were very happy to be invited! She got along famously with Judy's nephew, so she made a new friend as well!

Sep/Oct 2010 in pictures!

Had to start the blog off with this picture taken at the Jones house in Star Valley... "It's cool Mom... just swinging like a big girl".

My parents came to town and we headed up the canyon to Oktoberfest. My parents can definitely get down with the German festivities!! And I've never missed an opportunity to polka with my Dad!!

The family- Oktoberfest at Snowbird

While my parents were here, the Ringling Bros/ Barnum and Bailey circus was in town. We were trying to think of something else fun to do while my parents were here and then I came to find out, Gregg had never been to the circus!! Grandma Cherie is a little eh hem... afraid of clowns!) So, we headed to the circus for Kaylen AND Gregg's first time at the circus! And it was actually a really great show! My Dad actually said it was the best circus he'd ever been to!

Kaylen did pretty great... but totally crashed on Grandma Ruby by the end!

We will definitely miss some of our pre-daylight savings/ warmer weather playtime outside!

Our cutie pie in the courtyard house

We met up with our friends, the Harts, to go to Red Butte garden one gorgeous afternoon! Kaylen and Dane loved all there was to play with!

Kaylen and Daddy

Kaylen and Dane

More outdoor playtime in the jean jacket we could rarely get off of her!

Kaylen playing on the bike Grandma and Grandpa Jones bought her for her 1st birthday! Her feet STILL don't touch the pedals!! I think she's going to get her height from her Mommy!

Kaylen hanging out with a few of her friends!

We went to Star Valley for the Columbus Day weekend. Grandma and Grandpa had a GREAT idea to head to the hot spring just outside Jackson Hole to spend a little time! It was a pretty nice day to do it! The water was quite warm, so Kaylen had to take a couple breaks, but it was my first time and they're pretty cool!

After church on Sunday, Gregg and I like to talk the family into eating at Juan's House of Tacos... a little restaurant/house in Thayne (VERY small town where Gregg's family lives) that serves some yummy Mexican food! So, we stopped there after church this Sunday and Kaylen soon created a little game that she found quite funny! She would pull her straw out of her kid's cup and fling it at Grandpa Waz! They both got lots of laughs!

While we were there, Kaylen and I were outside at the fence looking at Grandma/pa's horse, Dodger, when Grandpa wondered if Kaylen might enjoy her first horseback ride!! And she DID!! She didn't want to get off! First, she rode with Uncle Ian and kept saying, "more, more, more". When we tried to get her off just long enough for Grandpa to change the saddle so she could ride with Mama, she was pretty distraught! But soon enough, we got her back up! She absolutely loved it! Hopefully, her love of horses will last her lifetime just like mine!

Kaylen loving on her Auntie Katie

A couple weeks before Halloween, we met up again with the Hart family to pick out pumpkins at a local pumpkin patch! We love to get pictures, plus they have some great things for the kids to enjoy like tractors! This one was one of many!

Daddy and Kaylen

Our sweet punkin

The family

Me and my sweet pea

Auntie JJ came to visit the weekend before Halloween!! Kaylen got lots of great quality time in with her and Goliath (JJ's Yorkie)

Causing a whole lot of trouble, this one!

We love Fall and it was great to share this Fall with Kaylen! She is seeing the leaves, snow and chill in the air like it's the first time!! We'll definitely miss some of the warmer weather outdoor activities, but we'll just have to spend some winter fun outside soon as the snow starts to fall!

Shortly after we got back from Australia, my sister, Julie, invited me out for a little sister time in San Francisco! I knew it would be hard to leave Kaylen and Gregg, but I knew it would also be awesome to spend time with my sister and great for them to have some quality time with each other!

So, I headed out to San Francisco from Sep 17-20. Julie told me that she wanted us to do something I hadn't done out there yet. First, she planned a white water rafting trip... above my ability level! The night before I headed out there, she found out they weren't running the river anymore with the water levels, so she had to come with something else. She came up with spelunking!?! Caving! I'm rather claustrophobic, so needless to say, the idea was a little overwhelming! But I'm never one to want to disappoint, so I put my game face on!'

Friday night, when I got into town, we only had enough time to hang out, chat and look at some of the recent pictures from their adventures. Saturday morning, we visited some friends of theirs, then headed out of town. We stayed the night about 2.5 hours away in a little, tiny town called Mokelumne Hill. It was a pretty sad town and the only thing drawing anyone to the "town" was the "haunted" hotel that we were staying at! It's bar brought all the locals out that night and we had such a great time... hanging, playing pool and being silly... as it should be! Then, Sunday, our Middle Earth tour started at the California Cavers outside of San Andreas at 1:00 pm.

I had been pretty anxious just thinking about it, but ended up having such a BLAST! It was such a great experience! It was a 5-hour tour, but the time flew and I enjoyed... almost every minute! Below are some of the pictures to prove it!

Above is a picture of what they called the "birthing tunnel". I had a TON of anxiety about it! It wasn't something that we had to go through. It was just a little obstacle just a little off our route. The hole was so small that a fully inflated basketball couldn't fit through it. After watching Ron, the only other guy on our tour other than us (myself, Julie, and Doug) and the tour guides, go through it who was a pretty large man, I tried to pump myself up to go into it! You drop into a little room called "the womb". It took a lot of deliberation and a failed attempt, but I made it in! I was pretty proud of myself!

Going through the tunnel into "the womb"

Julie and Doug


Shimmy-ing through the walls

Julie and I

A gorgeous, clear lake in the middle of the gave

Our AFTER picture! We were a muddy mess!

What a FANTASTIC trip! It was so great to have such awesome time with Julie and Doug. We all missed out on having Gregg and Kaylen out so we made a point to plan some upcoming trips out there that would be some great family activities, too! They were definitely missed out there! Gregg and Kaylen spent time at the Zoo and outside enjoying the weather while we were gone. He did fabulously all by himself! He's such a great Daddy and such a wonderful husband for doing that so I could have some quality time with Julie!