Like September, October has also been a whirl wind of activities with the kids. We literally had something every night and it was pretty busy. We have been running around with football games, mountain biking, cross country, Halloween, and more.
The boys decided to do flag football again this year. I actually really like the flag football program Nibley city puts on because it is really well organized. I also love that the boys get to play football but not get tackled and concussed. They love it as well.
Logan's team this year was the 49ers. He made some good friends on this team and his coaches were really great.
Logan has been doing flag football for a few years now and loves it. Every year he get better and better. The first couple of years the coaches put him in the back field to run and get the flags on defense. On offense they gave him easy jobs to run and distract the defense. This year was different though. Something clicked and he played quarterback and running back. He threw for touchdowns and ran for touchdowns. He was so excited to make multiple touchdowns and throw passes. He is really fast and loves to pull the flags.
Colby's team this year was the Ravens. He played with quite a few of the kids he has played with in past years and it was awesome to see them work together. His coaches were also really good.
Colby also loves to play flag football. It is fun to see his personality. This year was totally different from years past. He was more aggressive and worked hard in the positions he played. There was one interesting play that one of the teams did every game. They hiked the ball and everyone ran to the quarterback to make it look like they are shuffling the ball around to confuse the defense. We were all confused but we yelled to the defense to get the offense flags. When the other team did that play again, our team was ready and ran and grabbed every flag not knowing who really had the ball. That killed the play and the other coach said the Ravens rushed too soon. Russell told Colby's coach that once the ball has left the QB's hands, there is no issue on rushing. The Ref agreed and went on laughing.
This season has been really nice because instead of coaching, we just got to watch the games and enjoy the plays. The boys said they want to play again next year and the way the ages are set up they can play on the same team.
Emily had some more cross country meets this month too. The first one was at Sky View High School. This was another good race for her.
She was able to finish strong with a time of 24 minutes. She placed in the top 8 on her team. Emily has loved running cross country because of the fun girls on the team. She has made a lot of new friends through this experience.
Tyler and Ashley's littlest girl, Eloise, turned one. We had a great time at the party. It was fun to hang out with them.
Elosie was not afraid of her cake at all and dug right in when it was time for her cake smash. I think she ate the whole thing or at least tried real hard to do so.
After the party, we got to hang out with the Stewarts a little longer by going to the Corn Maze with them. Before we tried out the corn maze, though, we decided to get scared by going through the Haunted Hollow! Emily had been wanting to go through this all year long and Logan was not going to miss it either. Colby, on the other hand, was not to enthused about it and watched Charlotte and Brooklyn while we went through. Alex, Annalynn, and James went to the Haunted Hollow with us too. It was really hyped up to be scary but I thought it was pretty funny. I can see why people get scared but it was just fun for us. The best part was when we walked under a huge spider. I looked up and thought, "Oh that is going to fall on us." Just then the spider dropped and landed right above Russell's head and he screamed. It was so hilarious.
When we got out of the Hollow, we headed over to the Corn Maze.
The kids just took off through the corn maze while us adults hung back and tried to figure out the maze in the dark. We definitely got turned around a bunch of times because we were not paying attention to the map and it was hard to see in the dark. Corn Mazes are easier in the daytime. Finally we figured out where we were on the map and could figure out where to go from there. We ended up walking a mile and getting out of the maze in about a half hour. The kids were much quicker and probably did the maze twice in that time. Then had a blast hanging out with cousins.
The Bridgerland Band Festival is always on the first Saturday in October. Even though Emily is not doing Marching Band this year we were still able to go for the first part because Colby is in the 8th grade band. His band played the National Anthem at the beginning of the band festival.
Colby likes being in band playing the trombone. I don't know if he will do marching band in the future but this was a good experience for him. We stayed and watched a couple of bands play before leaving. I asked Emily if she missed being in Marching Band and she said a little but she likes cross country better.
Her next cross country meet was Region! This race was back at the American West Heritage Center on the same course as Cache Box. This time the weather was much better and it was a perfect day for running.
Emily was excited for this race because she loves this course. She ran her hardest yet and was able to pass a lot of people. Emily ran her personal best time of 22:50! Way to Go!
Emily placed 19th overall girl in the JV race. She was pretty stoked about that placement but then found out that they only give awards to the top 15 so that was a bummer. But still good job! Now on to State!
Emily as also inducted into the National Honor Society at Mountain Crest.
This is a great accomplishment for having good grades and being involved in the school. She is not sure all that the Honor Society does yet but I told her that just having this on a resume or college application looks great.
Logan was able to go on an overnight camping trip with some of his friends. His friend, Brock, invited Logan and their other friend, Bennett, to go to his cabin with his family for the weekend. The cabin was in Idaho near Lava Hot Springs and the boys had a great time.
They went on many adventures while there like roasting things on the campfire, petting horses, going to a corn maze, and spending time chilling and watching movies. Logan came home excited to tell me all about it.
The antique fire engine turned 100 years old this month. Because of this, the city and the fire department put on a lunch and viewing party for the engine.
We were able to go eat and see the engine. The kids even got to sit inside and work the siren. The siren is actually a pedal or lever of some type on the floor board and you step on it to make the siren work. Russell also gave us a tour of the new fire station. He will start working at this new station at the beginning of the new year.
Charlotte and Brooklyn love being twins.
My mom made these dressed for the older girl cousins and they have been passed down and worn by all of the girl grandkids. Now these two are wearing them and they love it.
I have been working at the Heritage Center a lot helping with school groups and teaching them some of the chores and things farmers and pioneers used to do during the fall back in the 1850-1920s.
My favorite rotation is the cider press. I like talking about how farmers would use the cider press to process their apples into juice. The kids really like turning the hand crank to send the apples through the grinder to get all of the juice out. It is a hard job and my arms are sore afterward but it is still fun.
Emily got to go to the Little Bear Bottoms Corn Maze with her young women group.
This activity was a combine Young Men/Young Women activity so Colby got to go as well. They had a blast running around with their friends. Then Colby decided to roll around int he straw fort and corn pits and his allergies started acting up. Normally he is fine if he just gets out of the straw and gets into open air but this time the fresh air was not helping. He started wheezing and having trouble breathing. They called me and said I needed to come pick him up. I said I would and asked if anyone had Benadryl or something to give him in the meantime. He was able to take a Zyrtec and by the time I got to the corn maze to get him he was already breathing better. When we got home I made him get right in the shower and that seemed to help a lot. Now we know he is allergic to straw!
It was Ag Day at the Elementary school and Logan's teacher sent home some fun pictures of the day.
It looks like Logan had a good time riding on the hay wagon and learning to lasso. Charlotte also had fun at Ag Day learning about seeds and petting the animals.
Over the past year or so Colby has been having trouble swallowing. Some days he is fine and other days food gets caught in his throat and he has to basically throw up to get the food out. It doesn't block his breathing or anything just his esophagus so he can't swallow. It was getting so bad that our doctor referred him to a pediatric gastroenterologist. The closest one to us was Dr. Mizell in Murray. We made an appointment and headed down for a consultation. We talked to the doctor and told him all of the symptoms and things and he suggested a scope of Colby's esophagus. Which we scheduled for a week later.
While we were in Murray for the consultation we decided to take a detour on the way home through Tooele. Okay this was not really on the way home, it was more like out of the way but it was worth the trip. While in Tooele we were able to go to the Deseret Peak Temple open house.
This temple is so beautiful! I know all temples are beautiful but I really liked this one. The Deseret Peak Temple is really similar to the Red Cliffs Temple in its layout but it has its own color scheme and details. I love taking the kids to temple open houses because it lets them see the beauty and sacredness of the temple. Their favorite parts of the temples are the baptismal fonts. My favorite places are the Celestial Rooms. One thing I liked about this temple tour was instead of just walking through all of the rooms, they had us stop and sit in each room and the guides or missionaries told us what happened in each of the rooms we were in and how that was important to our covenant path. I especially loved when they took us to the Celestial Room and encouraged us to just sit and ponder in the quiet beauty of that room. It was really nice. I am glad we made the trip out to Tooele to see the temple.
The annual North Logan Pumpkin Walk is one of our favorite Halloween traditions.
We love seeing all of the pumpkins decorating different scenes. I am always amazed at the creativity of the people who build the scenes. This year the theme was "When You Wish Upon a Pumpkin." All of the scenes were from different stories where wishes came true. Our favorites were Bluey, Olaf in summer, Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Boxcar Children.
Emily is on the Hyrum Youth Council and I am one of the Youth Council advisors. Over the last couple weeks we have had a lot of youth council activities and helped with a lot of Halloween parties in the city. The first one we helped with was the Griffin Auto Trunk or Treat.
Emily and I manned the Youth Council's booth with the other Youth Council members while Russell took the rest of the kids around to the different trunks and activities to get candy and prizes. At our booth we played Plinko and Ball Toss.
The other kids had a good time taking pictures, trying out the climbing wall and getting lots of treats.
It was a good night to be out in the community. This was also the first time we got out our costumes for the year. We do need to add a few things to our costumes before Halloween but they were fine for tonight.
The next day the Family Place did another Trunk or Treat drive by. The Youth Council also helped with this.
This was a much more low key event and we just had to give kids candy and prizes as the parents drove by. It was super cold though because it was threatening to rain the whole time. Luckily it did not rain but we were glad we had hand warmers and bigger coats.
Emily drew out for the deer hunt this year. She was the only one to draw out so she was pretty excited to hopefully get a deer.
Russell and Emily drove and hiked all over the hills during deer hunt week and sadly did not see any deer. We even went out with them on one night to see if we could find anything. We went up passed Hardware Ranch and hike around for about a mile or two. Then we sat and glassed for a while. While glassing, we did see three deer including one buck on the mountain side across from us. Unfortunately, it was way too far away to shoot. We watched the deer for a while before they finally went away.
The next day Russell, Emily, and Colby went out again this time up Left Hand Fork. They rode the four wheeler up this trail they thought would be a perfect place to see deer. And it was. Emily even shot at one buck. Russell was sure she grazed it but it ran off. While they were following the deer trail to see it they hit it, a guy came up to them and told them they were trespassing on private property. Russell apologized and said they didn't know or see a sign. He told the guy they might have shot a deer and they were looking for it but the guy was kind of getting mad and told them to leave so they did. They still don't know if they hit the deer or not but it was not worth getting a trespassing ticket. No wonder they were able to see a deer in that area!
A week before Halloween Colby went in for his Esophagus Scope. They did this surgery at Odgen Regional and it took about a half an hour. Come to find out his esophagus was full of eosinophils, or white blood cells that play a part in protecting the body against allergens and other things. Basically something Colby was eating was causing an allergic reaction. The buildup of these eosinophils is what was causing his esophagus to swell and making it hard for him to swallow. Colby was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis or EoE. EoE is an allergic condition that causes inflammation in the esophagus. There is no cure for EoE, but it can be treated with a combination of diet, medications, and stretching the esophagus. Others may benefit from a diet that eliminates the most allergic foods and then slowly adding them back in.
So that is what we are doing. Colby did not need to have his esophagus stretched but the doctor did put him on a steroid to calm the swelling and also put him on a strict diet. Right now we don't really know what is causing the allergy but Dr. Mizell told us to avoid the major foods that usually cause this and see what happens. Right now Colby cannot have any dairy, eggs, or soy. I have also taken him off of nuts like almonds. This has been a hard change because we have had to revamp all of our cooking and food we buy. We have started reading labels and all of the ingredients in everything we buy now. It's really hard because a lot of Colby's favorite foods have those three ingredients in them. This is definitely going to be a learning curve.
Our ward did a Chili Cook off right before Halloween and it was fun to get together as a ward and eat some good food. This was the first big food outing for Colby and his new diet so I made sure to bring something he could eat. Luckily chili is a good meal for avoiding those three things.
At the party, the Young Men and Young Women did different activities for the primary kids.
Brooklyn loved getting wrapped up like a mummy. She especially loved having her friend, Madi, paint a spider on her face.
JV State for Emily was held in Murray. I didn't get to attend but I wish I could have because Emily did amazing!
Emily was able to run the race in 23:38 and placed 7th overall! She was also the second Mountain Crest girl to finish. They gave out medals to the top 15 so Emily was able to bring home a medal!! She was so happy. What a great way to end the season. Emily also found out that she will be able to go to the State Meet as an alternate.
With the cross country season about over, Emily and I decided to do a fun run together. We participated in the First Dam Scary Run 5K.
This was a fun race to do together. She taught me all of the pre race workout stretches and warm ups her coach makes them do and it may have really helped. We both did really great in this race. We both ran the course in 24 minutes and I crossed the finish line just seconds behind her. It does pay to be old though because I was able to pull off a blue ribbon coming in first in my age group. She was placed in the age group with all of the USU cross country girls so even with her fast time, she was further down in the placement. Oh well, she did win a free t-shirt in the raffle. It was a fun race.
That night we went down to Lehi for a family Halloween party with the Stewarts and other Farnsworth cousins. We all had a great time playing games like three-legged race, donuts on a string, and dressing up Russell and Chase in funny costumes.
The party was just nice to get together and hang out with family. It has been a while since these cousins have gotten together to hang out.
The state meet for cross country was held at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake. This has been the home of the state meet for years. Emily was able to go to the meet as an alternate runner. So if one of the varsity runners got sick or hurt, she was running.
Because of this, she needed to dress out and warm up with the team. She was happy to do that. Emily was glad that all of the girls were health because this was a hard race.
Emily didn't have to race this day which she was glad about. The weather was terrible. It was cold and drizzly. I think there were even a few snowflakes. Because the course is all grass hills, people were slipping on the wet grass. In the end though, our girls did amazing and ran their little hearts out. Our team did not place but our top girl was in the top ten. This was a fun experience for Emily and she was glad she was able to go and cheer for her team.
Colby's Halloween band concert was really short.
I think they played two songs and that was it... Oh well he did a good job on the trombone.
Finally we get to Halloween. Our fun tradition of carving pumpkins has produced some interesting pumpkin creations. This year's pumpkins were equally creative.
I love that everyone is old enough to carve their own pumpkins. Even Charlotte used the little saw to create her pumpkin face. I still help Brooklyn with the carving but she dug out all of the guts and drew her own face on the pumpkin. I love how they all turned out.
School on Halloween is just one big party. Russell and I helped with the parties in Charlotte and Logan's classes and then went outside to watch the Halloween costume parade.
I love seeing all of the kids costumes but I especially like cheering for my own kids.
Halloween Trick or Treating was a little different this year because everyone went out with their friends so we only had Charlotte and Brooklyn.
The kids decided on their own costumes this year and put them all together. Emily was an M&M with her friends. Colby was a basketball player, Logan was of course Harry Potter, Charlotte was Minnie Mouse, and Brooklyn was Cinderella.
Logan and his friends ran around the neighborhood getting all of the candy they could. Colby and his friends were smart and rode scooters so they could go farther faster. Emily and Hahna hit all of the good houses and a few others. Charlotte, Brooklyn, and I just walked until we got cold. Brooklyn loved Trick or Treating. She did not want to stop. She loved running up to doors and knocking. She liked getting the candy too but the real thrill was knocking on the doors.
At the end of the night, the kids came home with mounds of candy! We filled multiple gallon Ziploc bags full of candy. We forgot to turn on our porch light so nobody came to our house. When we got home our candy dish was still clear full so we even had that candy too. We are going to be sick...
Well there you have October! On to November and hopefully some peace now that all of the fall sports have ended.
