The Beginning of Holiday Extravaganzas

To celebrate fall, we went on a little hike on the Mormon Pioneer Trail up in emigration canyon.  The trees were breathtaking and Luke enjoyed facing forward in the baby Bjorn, taking in every sight.  We then went to the tailgating party hosted by Dallin's work which blew most college tailgating out of the water.  They had two big screen TV's, catering from one of Dallin's favorite places to eat here in Salt Lake, Moochie's and just spoiling fun all around.  We are blessed to have him working for such a great company at this time in our lives.

 

Luke was not so sure about tailgating

The Clearlink tailgating setup

We kind of celebrated Halloween early with Dallin's mom's side of the family, the Lehmitzs and Malmstroms, at their annual Halloween Party.  Every year, the family has four parties: Easter, Labor Day, Halloween and Christmas.  Each member that is able, is put on a committee to help plan and execute each party.  If you remember, last year we were put on the Christmas Party committee and birthed the awesome replica of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story.  This year, we got to be on the Halloween committee, which is probably the biggest and most involved of the four parties.  We had to giggle a little as we realized that the three families with infants got put on the Halloween party.  However, we were all troopers, as were our little babes, and we put on quite the production.

The best picture we got all night of our costumes: Potato farmers with their sac of potatoes

The theme was "The Addams Family Plane Hijacking."  Basically, the Addams family took everyone on a trip to the Bermuda Triangle, with Morticia and Gomez as pilots, when Cousin Cackle, who only appeared in one episode, hijacked the plane, stole all the candy and told the passengers they had to win his unwinnable challenges to get the candy back.  The challenges consisted of an impossible iSpy game, human darts, hangman and an electric maze.  Dallin was the human strapped to the dart board.  He died four times in one night.  In the end, the little kids who stayed on the plane and played their games were the only ones who won so they got the candy back for everyone.  Luke and I ended the night at Dallin's aunt and uncle's house with his cousin and her little 2 month old, but the rest was a lot of fun!  We are blessed to be a part of such great families.  In fact, funny story.  There is a one letter difference between my email and a girl's in California.  There has been multiple mix ups where she gets emails meant for me from family members, so we have built a little email relationship.  Anyway, she was getting the planning emails and just forwarding them to along with little messages that read, "I am jealous!" and "I wish I lived in Utah so I could come to this," and "My family NEVER would do anything like this."  See?  Great family.

Dallin after a dramatic death on the dart board

On Friday, we went to the Petersen Family Farm to get our pumpkins with our good friends, the Smathers.   Luke loved the pumpkins and screamed all the way home because he was so sad to leave... Maybe because he was tired and hungry... Either way, it was fun to go and start that little tradition.  We did miss apple picking in New York with those amazing apple cider donuts, though.
 

Pumpkin heaven

While Terri was visiting, she got Dallin a little excited about the Bronco's.  Because of this, we have been watching the games each Sunday, which I am happy about.  If you didn't know, we are a little backwards in our relationship in the fact that I am a fan of football and Dallin could care less.  My family are big sports people, football being at the top of the list.  My grandpa coached high school football for years, my dad coached my brother's youth football league for a few years, and the Bronco's were always our team.  It has been fun to watch them again and see Dallin get excited about bad passes and close calls and teach him some of the ins and outs of football.  Of course, we had to dress up Luke for the big game against the Colts this previous Sunday.

In his Bronco gear

Our cars are fixed, I have been repaired and have started working about 7 hours a week, which is perfect for now and works well with a close friend we have to watch Luke when I work and I watch her little 16 month old when she works about twice a week.  It has been quite the adventure caring for a little toddler and an infant at the same time.  Fun, but an adventure!

We are excited for the next few months.  Coming up: Thanksgiving in Colorado, visits from Green siblings and so much more.  We love you all and hope all is well.