School is in full swing and we are (mostly) loving it!! Katelee is excited to be in her junior year and was welcomed home to the Riverton pack at Homecoming with Hudson!
She and one of her besties, Rian, were in the same group and they had a fabulous time. They carved pumpkins up the canyon, had dinner, the dance and hung out after.
She's hyped to be in the prime of high school-knowing what she's doing and not burned out or ready to move on yet!
While she is in the middle of her HS years, she may have already hit the peak of all high school experience with championship in the Powder Puff competition!
Boom!! Seriously some of the most fun games to watch in all her sports careers. She had some awesome runs, interceptions and was a start flag football gal!
Grant and Dave were eating up the tackle football game with BYU.
They got to connect with Brian and Gattlin, so that was extra fun.
Brenna and I had the most exciting date night at the Taylor Swift Era concert movie. We watched it in the IMAX surrounded by other swifties dressed up ready to party and boy did we. The theatre was a real concert...minus real Taylor, but there was dancing, screaming, conga lines etc
It was the best date-besides the time I ran back to our seats for a quick break/drink and looked over at a little girl staring terrified at me because I sat in the wrong empty seat! haha! I moved up to my row quickly, before I drank out of her beverage, don't worry!
We still try to continue our Sunday traditions of one person has a lesson and one person gets to have the Sunday. We have a rotating list of whose Sunday it is. Whoever the lucky person is, they get to choose an activity that is mandatory for others to participate in (within reason- and it can't be anything everyone will hate) A month or so ago, Harrison chose basketball out front with each of us wearing a team jersey. It's best you don't see Dave and I squeezing into the ones we had on! We were lucky enough to have Grant around that day and he wanted in on the game!
These awesome autumn days people keep choosing canyon walks/drives and we are loving it.
Of course in the age of Digital Phone Photography, we stop soooooo many times to snap pictures.
I am never the one to say "lets take a picture" but I hear a lot of "take a picture of me" from these pretty faces, so I consent to their demands...and then I get sick of it and say 'no more pictures!' Speaking of cute faces....
This girl got her braces off and talk about an instant glow up!
We walked into the ortho office with a cutie patootie and came out with a beautiful babe! Brenna got her dance pictures shortly after so luckily they were brace free too!
Her team this year is called Ventra and has mostly the same girls as last year, with a few new additions to take the place of a couple who moved on to other endeavors. These girls have been so great to Brenna.
For years I have been suggesting one of our trips should be to South Dakota to see Mt Rushmore and go to the Badlands. I was a wee gal when I went, but I had fond (but vague) memories of the place. My suggestion was often met with scoff (especially by the older two children) saying they didn't want to go see faces on a rock. Well, I finally convinced Dave we should just go and I thought everyone would be pleasantly surprised at how fun it would be! Grant is officially graduated and an adult, so our trips now are by invitation that he can accept or reject. He had to work and so he politely declined...probably not really disappointed anyway. Katelee pointed out that when Grant was in high school he got to miss our road trip to Colorado, so we negotiated that she could opt out of one trip. This is the one she was adamant that she wouldn't mind missing. So, for Fall Break, we packed up the other two kiddos
(who have no choice in the matter) and headed to good old South Dakota. We drove straight to Mt Rushmore the first day and LOVED it.
It was perfect timing- we got there late afternoon and got to see the sunset as well as we finished our walk abouts.
The weather was fantastic, the little visitor center was informative and provided a great place for Dave to snooze while we watched the fascinating movie on how Mt Rushmore was planned and built. It really is so cool and in a gorgeous area.
The next day we explored the Badlands. South Dakota has miles and miles of literally nothing. We had planned to visit Wall Drug-an old west shopping mall of sorts and for every mile that had nothing there were dozens of signs hyping up the glorious Wall Drug.
It certainly lived up to the expectations of every western gear, supply, souvenir you could ever desire. It also provided some great entertainment with the cowboy puppet bands and great places to continue our trip filled with jumping pictures.
As soon as Dave had experienced all he could take of the western world, we made our way to our hikes in the Badlands.
They were so fun! It was like we were on another dusty planet.
The best hike had this giant ladder to climb and it was our favorite part. Well, going up was our favorite part, Harrison took a bit of a spill at the bottom coming down. It was hard to tell when to stand up and it was super gravely. But, some kind English grandparents helped him until Dave finished his descent.
When we had stayed in Montana on our way to Idaho this summer, we had eaten at a Pizza Buffet called the Pizza Ranch. Harrison was beyond thrilled to see this chain restaurant also had a location in South Dakota and couldn't wait for Dave to partake in the deliciousness the Pizza Ranch had to offer. I still regret that decision as I was the only one without lactose intolerance problems that had to endure the next few hours in the hotel room listening/smelling the effects of the Pizza Ranch.
The next day was spent in the Black Hills looking for animals on the Wildlife Loop-
Hiking around Sylvan Lake,
driving through the exciting tunnels and taking the breathtaking scenic routes on our way out towards Jewel Cave. Dave was certain he was not going to be okay with this part of the itinerary. But, I explained to him it wasn't a cave you had to crawl through, but he would be in awe of it. I was totally right.
Claustrophobia never set in and all of us were blown away by the cave and just imagining what was below us as we traveled to our next stop in Deadwood City. It was super rainy and we got in late, so we didn't do much there but go to dinner, which was a-ok. We got up the next day to make the drive home and made a stop at Devil's Tower.
We hiked around Devil's Tower and even got to see rock climbers scaling one of the sides, which was so impressive. We drove home and hugged the two we missed. After showing them pictures, I am sure they wished they had come ;). We definitely missed them. It was such a fun trip- the world is full of unique places and we can cross that one of our family trip bucket list.
We got back in time for Halloween and it's activities. Harrison and I went to the Rodeo Grounds for the spook alley. We are getting so brave.
We hit up the pumpkin patch near our house. We are still missing our old pumpkin patch that used to have a little corn maze and a tractor pull. It is now a new home development. Boo. But, we at least got some fresh gourds and a pic of a little vampire.
We are down in numbers in most activities, including the Witch Hunt. But, these two had fun for half a second until they fought as you can see on Harrison's face-he was not thrilled to be in a pic with his sister. True to life memory right there folks.
Brenna capped off her final Lagoon visits (I think she hit 16 with this one) during Frightmares. It gets so crazy busy, but it is always a good time there during spooky season.
Halloween night finally arrived. This stick figure man was ready for trick-or-treating!
But first, it was our neighborhood eat before you treat. Harrison and I went...see if you can spy him in this photo!
Brenna was a yeti- thanks to Grant's old pajamas we pulled out. She did go trick or treat for a bit with friends.
Katelee had a party and all her gals were dressed up like deer. So adorbs.
These are the faces of Halloweeners before the excess sugar and miles of walking got to them!
Harrison got lots and lots of candy. It's slightly revolting. But, better candy than paper. Yes, you read that right. I saw him put a little piece in his mouth. When I asked him why he was eating paper, he started moving in slow motion and replied, "You didn't see anything!" I think he was focusing on the trick part of Halloween...but I know it was no illusion! Yay for another fun October!
No comments:
Post a Comment