October

On Sept 27, 2012, my beloved Grandpa Dan Keller passed peacefully from this life.

 Grandma and Grandpa at their favorite place, Fish Lake. Grandpa taught me a lot of things, but the most important thing he taught me is that family is everything. He wants us to be an eternal family and I know I want to do everything in my power to make that possible. He gave us the wonderful gift of a family cabin at Fish Lake so that we can gather together often and build bonds and create wonderful memories. Love you Grandpa!

 

The funeral was held October 1, 2012 in Price and he was buried later that day in Manti

 

Grandma and Grandpa's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren

 Daniel presenting the flag to Grandma

 Grandma Athlen and her twin Sister Aleth

 My dad and his siblings

 

On our way home from Manti we stopped for malts

 YUM!

 Drew mooched fries from everyone

 

Applefest! Cedaredge, Colorado

 The best part of going to Applefest is the quickie pie dinner at Karen and Greg's house!

Dave got this cool shot of icicles on the fence after the sprinklers had been going on a cold morning

 We took the long way home and drove over the Grand Mesa so we could enjoy the fall leaves and get a hike in

 As we passed Crescent Junction I happened to look out the window and thought I saw Lightening McQueen. We wanted to stop and let Cole see but there wasn't another exit for about 10 minutes. But we decided  it would be worth it to backtrack. Cole was thrilled to see Lightening!

 The boys both had a blast climbing all over the car and were completely covered in dirt by time we were done :)

 

 

I thought this was a cute picture of Cole and his entourage. He loves his baby and all of his stuffed animals. Here they are watching a movie together.

 

 Bath time for these little monkeys!

How we got our playhouse

So one Friday afternoon I was driving down the street we live on and the truck in front of me was hauling a trailer with a playhouse it in. I thought "that is such a cute playhouse!" Then I noticed it was sitting on top of a bunch of tree branches and I thought "is this guy taking that cute playhouse to the dump?!?!?" So I decided to follow him :) And yes, he drove right to the dump! I thought about pulling up behind him and asking him if I could have it, but I was too embarrassed. I thought I would just call my dad and ask him if we could get his trailer and go out to the dump and pick it up. Well, he didn't answer his phone so I drove to my parents house and my mom told me he was out of town but was on his way home. So I told her about this cute playhouse and she wanted to help me get it. She was able to get a hold of my dad, but he told us that they don't allow salvaging at the dump. Shoot. I was sad. My mom suggested we drive out there and just ask if they would let us have it. So we did and there was a nice lady working there and she told us if we could pick it up by 6 then she wouldn't tell anyone, but if we didn't get it by the time they closed, the next morning everything would be bulldozed. Well, it was after 5. So we had less than an hour. First we called my brother who has a truck but he was still at work. Neither one of us has ever hauled a trailer before but we contemplated going and hitching up my dad's trailer. Then we decided to go see if we could borrow my brother in law's truck. It was at a nearby warehouse and he often leaves the keys in it. So we found the key but it wouldn't start the truck. And now we were really running out of time. My mom suggested asking her neighbors (and good friends) who have a truck if they could come out and help us. So we drove to their house and Erin was happy to help. She put her 3 kids in their ginormous truck and followed us out to the dump. We got there right at 6 and the nice lady waved us in. Somehow the three of us women hefted the playhouse into the back of the truck and we were on our way!  I was amazed at Erin's ability to back her huge truck into my narrow driveway! And then again, somehow the three of us lifted this thing onto my front lawn. We were so proud :) It was a crazy hour but we pulled it off and look what we have to show for it! Later Dave and my Dad moved it to the backyard and they wondered how three women had lifted it because the thing is HEAVY! I guess our adrenaline was pumping :) The kids love it. The first thing Drew did was walk up to the front door and push and little button that I hadn't even noticed and we hear "Ding Dong". It has a working door bell! How cool is that? So THANKS to my Mom and Erin for helping me "acquire" this adorable playhouse!

 

Dave always has Mondays off so one Monday in October we wanted to go hiking and take in some fall color. We decided to head north to Payson Canyon.

It was a beautiful day! Cole loved hiking...

and Drew loved riding!

Grotto Falls

Then we stopped at this park in the canyon for some more pictures

 

I had so much fun at Gardner Village's Witchfest a few years ago that I wanted to go again and bring Dave this time. We met up with Lance, Angie, Jana, Karen, Heather, Soren, Steph, Caroline and Grandma.  We had a blast looking at all of the fun displays, checking out the shops, and eating dinner at Archibalds!

 

Pumpkin Carving

Who gave the baby a knife?



We went with a Drew theme - a.k.a the one tooth on top look

This picture of Drew and the pumpkins actually won us 4 tickets to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. They had a pumpkin carving contest on facebook and whichever picture got the most "likes" won! I petitioned my friends and family to "like" the pic and we ended up winning!

 

HALLOWEEN

 

Trick-or-Treating

Drew LOVED this thing where you knock on doors and they hand you candy. He was the most die hard 1 year old trick or treater I've ever seen!

 Dave and I as Mr and Mrs Potato Head. My plan was for each of us to be Toy Story characters (the boys would be Buzz and Woody) but Cole refused--he wanted to be a skeleton (I ended up making the costume a few days before Halloween and I think it turned out really cute). And I had this pumpkin costume that I got on clearance last year for Drew which actually worked out well because of his cute little jack-o-lantern smile. Maybe NEXT year we can pull off the Toy Story theme.

 Koen also decided last minute that he wanted to be a skeleton (where do they come up with this?) so Magen and I were both scrambling to pull off costumes, ha ha!

Drew refused to wear his pumpkin hat...

 so Grandpa wore it instead :)

 Right before we left the house to go over to my parents house Cole found this old paci (pacifier) and really really wanted to be a "baby skeleton". It wasn't worth a fight, so I relented. He does make an adorable baby skeleton.

 Mom and Dad as Cleopatra and Pharoh

We had a good dinner and then Kristin played some fun games with the kids on the patio, like digging in monster brains

 And then, because the kids obviously didn't already have enough candy (cough, cough) we had a pinata to end the evening

It was a FUN HALLOWEEN!