Goofy kiddos

Trey just cracks me up.  He's got such a personality and I just adore him.  Look what he's done now. :) 

Speaking of goofy... although I HATE haunted houses and places that scare me intentionally, I went through the Nightmare on 13th Haunted Castle again.  I know, I'm crazy.  It was even more scary the second time through and I thought for sure that I wouldn't be as scared because I already knew what was happening, but it was definitely worse. :)  Thankfully my mom and brother Wes were there to protect me. :) 

Goblin Valley Trip

Ever since we've been back in Utah Brian's been itching to take the kids to some of the beautiful parks here.  So over UEA weekend we hit our first one.  

On Friday we drove out to Green River to camp for the night.  The kids had a blast.  Once the tent was set up Trey wanted nothing more than to lay down and smile at us.  Such a goofy kid.  We played games, had a camp fire, roasted marshmallows and had some good family time. 

The next morning we packed up the tent and headed to Goblin Valley (about another hours drive from where we were).

Right as we reached the park entrance Kenya yelled out that her stomach hurt and she thought she was going to throw-up.  Brian quickly pulled over and I jumped out and got Kenya to the side of the road just in time for her to loose breakfast all over the pavement.  Thankfully there was no mess to clean up.  

At that point Brian and I had to decide if we should stay and play or drive the 4 hours home with a possibly sick child.  We decided to stay and if she needed to loose it again we'd still be outside.  

Remarkably, Kenya did really well.  She was pretty close to normal and we were able to run around, hike and have fun.  Enjoy the pics below. :) 

At one point we climbed up pretty high and deep into a crevasse in the wall.  The kids did great and we will definitely be going back again. 

Nightmare On 13th

It's been a long couple of weeks and it seems like almost constantly someone has been sick.  There was finally a breather and so the four adults (Britt, James, Brian and I) decided it was high time we went on a double date.  Somehow Britt and Brian convinced James and I to join them in going to the Nightmare on 13th Haunted House in Salt Lake City.  You see, both James and I are wary of going to scary places like this, but Britt and Brian wanted some good Halloween fun, so off we went.

My favorite part of this photo is Brian's face!  It's AWESOME!

As we walked through the maze of turns and twists (Brian in front, myself gripping his hand and my sister's hand, Britt's, who was behind me and James bringing up the rear with his head buried in Britt's hair most of the time) I was utterly terrified more than a few times.  It was like the spooks new that I was the one to target (which they probably did considering I was gripping hands for dear life).  We had some good screams and fun though and in the end enjoyed ourselves... for the most part.  

It was nice because before we went to the Haunt we joined our little brother Wes for dinner at a place called Noodles & Co. which was actually really good food.  It was fun to spend time with Wes and hang out. 

A Work in Progress

I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere on the house decor and whatnot.  After what has seemed like forever (but really just two long months),  I am very close to finishing one room in our house.  

See, I'm taking the remod room by room; painting, furnishing, decorating.  It's a slow process, but I'm enjoying it.  So here is the almost finished mudroom.  I only have a few pictures left to hang.  

Just about everything was made/done by yours truly.  I made the light shade (I didn't like it at first, but I'm actually really in love with it now.  I made and installed the wainscoting on the walls, painted the whole room including doors, installed the flooring, etc...  I really enjoyed almost all the work (I had to repaint the bottom half of the room 3 times and that got tedious, but it's done and it looks great! 

The mirror was a great buy at Gordman's (Love that store!) I got the two basket's and red bin at DI and lined the out side of the baskets with yarn to match the light shade. 

 

I'm actually kinda proud of this particular art piece.  I saw something similar on Pintrest and decided I wanted to make something to match my decor.  I really liked how it turned out. 

 

And there you have it.  My first room accomplished.  Now on to the next.  :) 

School

I'm going to backtrack a little and post pictures about the kids first days of school.  

 

Kenya is in a dance class right now and here is her on her first day of dance. 

 

We also had the privilege of entertaining Brian's good friend from Hong Kong.  They were missionary companions and it was great to meet Calvin.