Trick or treating!

Like in previous years my kids had some costume changes this year.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at the trunk or treat because Chase was not cooperating.
But I did manage to get some on Halloween night.

Chase started out as Elmo,
but he didn't like the heavy Elmo head
on top of his head.
(Can you tell?)
So he had a little costume change before we went trick-or-treating.

Chase as Elmo, Ethan as a soccer player, Julia as a Revolutionary War soldier, and Daphne as a princess.
Luckily I had this little dinosaur costume from when Ethan and Julia were little, and it fit chase perfectly. We went trick-or-treating with Char and Andrew, Daphne, and Kristen, so we had more adults than kids. The kids were great, and the weather was amazing!!
Chase didn't quite understand what he was supposed to do at first. He would carry his little bucket and march right up the steps holding Ethan's hand, and then want to go back down before he got any candy.

But he caught on quickly and would walk up the steps, put his bucket down, grab a piece of candy from the person's bowl, put it in his bucket and go back down the stairs. His little dinosaur tail wagged from side to side as he walked, it was sooooo cute! And he held firmly onto his bucket the whole time!

Here they are at the end of the night. It was way past Chase's bedtime, can you tell?

Fall leaves

We're alive! Just super busy (isn't everyone?), but I really am going to attempt to catch up on the blog. We have 2 trips I haven't even blogged about yet! But for now I wanted to do something recent.

Just over a week ago we drove up to American Fork canyon to see the leaves. (Just in time too, since it snowed up there just a few days later.)

It was gorgeous up there!!!

We stopped at Cascade Springs, which I don't think I've ever seen before, and absolutely loved it. The cascading waterfalls there are breathtaking!

Chase kept trying to run away, but he held still for a minute when we told him to fold his arms.

Derek gave Chase this leaf and he clung to it for quite a while. It made an appearance in several picture attempts, ha ha.

He let go of the leaf right after this picture as we were leaving.

Aren't the leaves incredible?!

I love this picture but the shadows on our faces just ruin it.

Isn't autumn a glorious season? It just seems to fly by though.

Hiking the Y

Several weeks ago in preparation for our hikes at Zion's we decided to hike up to the Y. It was supposed to be overcast so we thought it would be perfect weather, and not too hot.

Hmmm, doesn't look overcast to me! It ended up being a little warmer than we had planned, but it was still an enjoyable day.

Most of the trail looked like this:

There are 11 switchbacks along the steep trail, and we rested at many of them.

The views of the valley were great from up there.











Almost there:

And we made it!

The mountain was so green!

This hike was a decent hike. It ended up being a little harder than the hikes we ended up doing at Zion's, but it was great preparation. And the kids did great!

But I do think they liked the walk down the trail a bit more than up...

Photo book

I am way behind on the blog still, but I just finished this photo book of Chase's 1st year and wanted to share it.

Click here to view this photo book larger

It took forever to finish, but I'm happy with it now that it's done.