It's Autumn Time

Note to self: When Dahlia wants to quit dance class and take horseback riding lessons instead, just go with it. She'll love riding. And no one will miss dance class.

Lily Lake

Despite our best intentions, we never made it camping this summer. (Kids, say it with me: We can't do ALL the things.)  But Jason had an itch to go fishing last weekend, so we made a quick afternoon trip to Lily Lake. It was a beautiful day. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to sing "Fishing in the Dark" for hours even though it was very much daylight the whole time we were there. You can't beat that. 

Surprisingly, Rooney was pretty well behaved on this outing. I think he knew we were testing him. He liked playing in the muddy water, exploring in the trees, and he didn't bark once at our fishing buddies. He may have earned the right to go on an overnight campout next summer. Maybe.

Mickey and Dahlia both caught a fish. Or, more accurately, Jason caught two fish and each of the kids reeled one in. (Or rolled one in, as Mick would say.) 

I can't even tell you how proud I am of capturing the moment when this little fishy decided to start dancing. That's quality, right there. I call it "When good fishing goes bad." And it's my new favorite.

Witch Fest - We Salute You

One of my new favorite fall traditions is Witch Fest at Gardner Village. I noticed the witches were out early this year when I went to get my haircut a couple of Saturdays ago, so this weekend we went on a witches scavenger hunt and earned our discounted cookies.

It's possible we also got some non-discounted cotton candy, because Jason thought he could buy some for Dally without any of the other kids noticing. That's funny. They noticed. So we all got cookies AND cotton candy in our favorite colors.

It was a sunny day, as you can tell from these pictures. 

Although I prefer to think the kids are all giving a special witches salute.

Witch Fest - We Salute You.

Rooney Tunes

I love that Lauren included Rooney on her heart of people she loves - and that she spelled Rrony with cheese in the "o."  Definitely the correct spelling.  Some of the others, we'll work on.

Tanner Man

When a broken wrist means unlimited screen time....

Lauren's Baptism

It's hard to believe Lauren is eight - but apparently she is. She was baptized on Saturday. She was the only one being baptized from her ward, so the baptism was just us, which was really special and so nice for Lauren.

Grandma Vonnie made Lauren's dress from fabric from Heather's wedding dress. And I led the music for the songs at the baptism, which is practically the same thing. Right?

My favorite quote of the day was at Tay's house after when we had lunch to celebrate Lauren's birthday and baptism. I told her I was proud of her for being so brave and making good choices and she replied, "It's mostly fun to come home and play with everyone and eat cake." Which is true. You can always count on Lauren to tell it like it is.

Speaking of cake, these two (and Tay) made the Costco run to pick up the cake.  Could they be any cuter in that cart? Their personalities are a bit different, but they are remarkably good friends, and it's so fun to watch them play together. It was a great day for family fun.

Utah Olympic Park

On Labor Day, we took advantage of a 50% flash sale at the Utah Olympic Park. Jason and the kids are, not surprisingly, more adventurous and more coordinated than me, so they were super excited. The summer activities at Utah Olympic Park include extreme tubing, zip lines, ropes courses, and a 65 foot drop tower. Lots of climbing, jumping, and falling. And standing on scales and taking awkward harnesses on and off in front of lines of people with the help of teenage kids from Slovakia. All of my favorite things.

Obligatory bobsled shot.

The ziplines and the tubing were my favorite. Much to Dahlia's dismay, she wasn't old enough to do the taller, steeper tubing hill, so I stayed back with her while Jason and Mickey tackled it. I was perfectly ok sitting in the shade at the bottom of the hill to take pictures. The shorter hill was plenty fast for me.

I love a good selfie fail.

Drop tower. You think you want to do it until you're actually there standing on the edge of the platform where you just have to walk off and hope for the best. But we all did it together as our final activity of the day. What a rush! Great way to spend a day off. Especially if you can go home and eat ice cream and watch a movie after to recover.