Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  This year has been pretty scary as it is but it got scarier as people talked about not celebrating Halloween or going Trick-or-Treating because of Covid-19. We were not having any of that.  The kids were planning on going Trick-or Treating no matter what!  So we planned out our costumes and did all of our favorite Halloween traditions.  Our first tradition was the North Logan Pumpkin Walk.

We were so happy when they decided not to cancel the Pumpkin Walk.  We headed out there with our friends, the Sunada's.  The Pumpkin Walk was a little smaller this year.  There were not any photo booths, or witches at the end.  That was okay with us though because we still got to see some pretty amazing scenes made completely out of pumpkins.  Here are a few of our favorites.

We loved the Mario Brothers, Toy Story 4, and Hocus Pocus  scenes.  Our favorite though had to be the Cinder-rona.  It was full of funny spoofs on the whole Corona Virus thing.  The pumpkins had masks on, signs everywhere saying 6 feet apart, as well as gloves and hand sanitizer.  We all laughed at this one.  There were a lot of other good ones too.  We love seeing all of the decorated pumpkins.

Next we carved our own pumpkins.  We love going to the local farmers and pumpkin patches to get our pumpkins because they are less expensive and the kids get to pick out their own personal pumpkin.

This is one of the kids' favorite traditions.  They love pulling the guts out of the pumpkins.  A few days before we carved the pumpkins the temperatures dropped and froze.  Because of this, the pumpkin guts were so cold!  Our hands were freezing as we tried to clean them out. 

Each one of the kids had their own ideas about how they wanted to carve their pumpkins.  Charlotte's was a smiley pumpkin, Logan's was eating a smaller pumpkin, Colby's is a mean pumpkin, and Emily's pumpkin's mouth was saying "Boo!"

They turned out so spooky!  I really like how they looked with the candles lit and all of the lights turned out.  Creepy!

For part of Colby's costume, I made him this awesome beard!  How do I look?  I am not really a fan of facial hair especially beards but beards do keep your face warm when its cold!  I may have to make myself one for the winter.

Finally Halloween came.  Because Halloween was on a Saturday this year, we kind of got two days to celebrate.  On Friday, the kids got to wear their costumes to school for Halloween parties and the costume parade.

They all looked great in the parade.  Emily coordinated with her friends to play Little Red Riding Hood.  She was Little Red, her friend, Ayzleigh, was the Big Bad Wolf, and their other friend, Kyler, was the grandma.  They had so much fun at school together.  

The next day was officially Halloween and we counted down the hours until we could go Trick-or-Treating.  Finally it was time to dress up and go.  This year the kids picked some fun costumes.  Charlotte loves Frozen as much as Emily did at this age so, of course, she decided to be Elsa.

Logan wanted to be a bat this year.  He loved running around and flapping his wings like a bat.  He even hung upside down like a bat for his picture.  

Colby couldn't really decide what he wanted to be but then we saw a picture of a lumberjack and we though it would be perfect for Colby.  He looked so tough with his ax, flannel shirt, and beard.  

Finally, Emily wanted a costume that would go along with a dog.  She decided Little Red Riding Hood would be perfect.  That way, Truly could be the Wolf/Grandma.  Truly was not so sure about wearing a dress.  She kept trying to bite it off.  We decided it would be easier to go Trick-or-Treating without the dog so we left her home.  I think Truly was happy about that too because we took the dress off of her. 

The kids made a killing on candy during the night of Trick-or-Treating.  A lot of the houses just left bowls outside their door this year because of Covid.  There were also quite a few that did not participate because of it.  That was okay with us because we were able to hit more houses in a shorter amount of time.  We were also grateful it was not freezing cold outside.  We had a lot of fun hitting every house we could.  Charlotte was the one that kept us on track.  She pointed to every house telling us which ones we had been too and which ones we hadn't.  By the end, Colby thought we were going too slow and started running to every house leaving us in the dust.  Charlotte noticed all the houses Colby was hitting and wanted to go with him.  We had a great time.  The kids told me that next year they are going to find bigger treat bags so that they can keep going and get even more candy.  

Happy Halloween!

Fall Fun

There are a lot of fun things to do in the fall.  It seems like we are always on the go in October enjoying the cooler weather.  

The best thing to do in the fall is jump in the leaves of course!  Charlotte and her new friend, Everett, have a blast playing together and burying each other in the leaves.  

The next tradition we always do in the fall is go to a corn maze.

The maze at the American West Heritage Center is always the best one.  This year we tried to go through the maze without a map.  We mostly just ran around searching for the next right corner to turn on.  Finally we pulled out the map and found out where we were.  The kids still wanted to do it without the map so I just kept a hold of it just in case.  We had a blast.

The American West Heritage Center also puts on a Fall Festival every year and we love going to it.  While there we learned how to shuck corn, make apple cider, and see all of the animals.  

We also got to play on the fun yard games they had near the corn maze.  This year, along with the fun hay fort, slide, and other yard games, there was a corn catapult.  The kids loved trying to get the corn to fly into the buckets.  Colby even tried to shoot the corn over the hay barrier.  We told him to be careful and not hit anyone on the other side.  

We love riding on the trains and ponies too.

This year Charlotte and Logan were the only ones that wanted to ride the ponies.  Emily would have but she is too old now and Colby is too cool now.  Oh well, the two littlest had a good time. 

Finally we learned how to make corn husk dolls.  Once again Logan and Charlotte were the only ones that wanted to make them.  They had a good time making their little dolls and they turned out really cute.  I guess we are starting to out grow the Fall Festival but we will still go for Charlotte and Logan.

Russell did not draw out for the deer hunt this year but his dad did.  We headed down to St. George so he and the boys could go hunting with Grandpa Farnsworth and Uncle Tyler. 

It was a lot of fun to hang our with my boys, Tyler and my Dad. We went up to Pinto area first and saw one really small two point early in the morning. I was kind of bummed. We got up early enough, but we could not find the road we were looking for, so we got to the area later than we expected. I bet we would have seen more if we were there before first light. Oh well it was a great time four wheeling and trying to find the thirty point buck. We next went up to Enterprise where Dad wanted to try out. It was a great area and a lot of fun trails. Dad was tired, so we found him a great shady spot and the rest of us went hiking up the mountain. We found a really cool overlook and the boys found a really cool hide and seek place.

They had a great time four-wheeling and riding around searching for deer.  Unfortunately they did not see any bucks so they didn't get deer.  That seemed to be okay with Grandpa Farnsworth because I don't think he really wanted to get a deer.  One crazy thing they did find though was a huge tarantula!  While out in Enterprise, they went to the Holt Cemetery to see Great Grandpa and Grandma Farnsworth's grave.  

During October I did another mileage challenge.  I participated in the 35 Mile Breast Cancer Challenge.  I needed to do 35 mile of walking, running, or riding in the month.

At first Charlotte and I were walking the dog about every day but we couldn't get enough miles in with her little legs and walking takes a long time.  Then my doctor said that it would be okay if I started riding my bike again.  This was great because I was able to add more miles for this challenge.  I have definitely missed riding my bike.  The best part was riding around and seeing all of the fall leaves and fields.  The rides were much slower and more leisurely than before but still great.  I was able to achieve my goal of 35 miles this month and raised $225 for Cancer Research in the process.

Another fun thing we have been doing this month is a little bit of hiking.  

We have lived here for 5 years and we have never been on the Blacksmith Fork River Trail until now.  We have definitely been missing out!  This was a good little trail that Russell and I took Charlotte and Truly on while the other kids were at school.  We walked a little over a mile up the trail and back.  The trail keeps going up the canyon so we will have to go back with the kids and go further.  

We are enjoying the Fall and the nice weather.

Football and Soccer Season

GO STEELERS!!!!!!

Colby wanted to play flag football again this year and it was a great opportunity to see if we could get the same coaches and team from last year. The head coach Bric and I tried to get the same boys but we were only successful with three boys. We were able to keep the Steelers team though. It was a great season with a lot of excitement. 

The head coach and I had a goal to go undefeated again this year. We worked the boys hard and also had a lot of fun. Each of the boys worked hard to get us through the season. We had our all star players who ripped it up. One of the most amazing all star players was Colby. He played quarterback for the majority of the season and he was really good at it. But he kept telling me that he wanted to run the ball so the head coach put him in as running back, and what happens? He gets a touchdown on one of his runs! All of the boys had their own special skills they brought to make the season great for the team. There were some games we were not sure if we were going to win, but the boys pulled through on the defense and held the offense so they did not score. I told the boys that the defense had two rules, no first downs and no touchdowns for the other teams' offense. 

It was a great season with a goal met. The Steelers went undefeated for the second season. Colby loved it and he hopes to play again next year with the Steelers. At the end season and for the last game we had a party for the boys for doing such a great job. We also were able to give the boys a certificate with a nick name on it. Colby's award was for his Fast Hands being a quarterback. He was really good with hand offs and getting the ball where it was needed. He worked hard this season and now we can't wait for next year

. 

This fall was a busy time for Colby. Not only  did he have football practice and games, he also had soccer practices and games. Due to Covid-19 in the spring, the Spring Soccer season was cancelled and then it was put off and put off until of course right during the football season. Colby stepped up to the plate though and worked hard in both sports.  

It was awesome to see how good he was getting in both sports. He is a really good ball handler with the soccer ball. His favorite position I think was a defender but he was also a great forward and could get the ball down the field.  He loves to go out in the backyard and play with his soccer ball. It was a great year and I think they also won the majority of their soccer games. One thing for sure this kid can sprint really fast. I think he will be even better in track and field as a short distance runner.  Nice work Colby!

Fire Safety Training

One cool thing about having a firefighter for a dad is that he gets to come to school and do awesome presentations.  Logan's class was talking about Fire Safety and safety plans at home and at school.  As part of their learning, Logan's teacher asked Russell if he would come and do a little demonstration and fire safety lesson for the kids.  Russell likes doing things like this so of course he said yes.  Because of all of the mask mandates in the school, we decided to do the lesson outside so we didn't have to wear a mask.  

First, Russell walked into the classroom in his full turnouts and told the kids there was a fire and they needed to follow him and their teacher outside.  They were so surprised.

Outside Russell gave his little speech about fire safety.  He also told the kids how to stay safe in case of a fire in their house.  He told them to not hide, place blankets under the door, and get low to the ground.  As part of practicing getting low, he set up an obstacle course where they had to crawl on the ground under some ropes.

Then he had one of the kids try on his turnouts.  Because of the Covid restrictions, he decided Logan would be the best one to have try them on.  That way we would not share germs.  Logan loved it and was totally drowning in the uniform.

In the end all of the kids received fire fighter hats and were excited to pose for a picture.  It turned out to be a good lesson and hopefully one the kids remember.