Falling Into Autumn

The leaves are changing colors. The air is crisp. My home decor has changed to witches and pumpkins with cute, silly smiles. A big, furry black widow hangs from the kitchen light. Pumpkin topiaries on the mantle. The scentsy warmer filled with "Autumn Sunset". Borrowing and buying Halloween costumes for all of the upcoming Halloween festivities. Hot chocolate with whipped cream. And watching late night tv with the fire warming up the house. It's such a fun time of year!

I love fall pictures. Not the actual part of getting the pictures taken. I hate that part but I love the final result and seeing all of us together. It's quite the challenge to get everyone picture ready at the same time and to keep them that way until the picture taking is over. It takes lots of patience from everyone (Gavin) around me when we are doing family pictures. It's a good thing we only try this once a year. We decided to keep it simple this year. Use clothes already in our closet. And use my own camera. I took pictures of my brother-in-law's family and he took pictures of our family. I am very happy with the results. I think it's the first family picture that I didn't have to photoshop and swap heads. Everyone was very good at looking and smiling at the camera. Except for the shots in the tall grassy fields. It was still really sunny and it was hard to not close your eyes or squint. I love this picture, especially that Ryan and Jack didn't say anything about not wanting to hold hands but when we looked at the picture later we noticed that they were both able to avoid holding hands by pulling their shirt down over their hands.

We enjoyed one last time in the swimming pool up at my parents' home. The air was crisp but the water was warm. It's always sad when the heater is turned off and the pool is closed for the winter.

Jack is always trying to think of ways to earn money. He was excited about starting up a lawn mowing company. Then it changed to refereeing soccer games. And his latest idea was buying my "business" (crafts I am making for our upcoming Freaky Friday in Relief Society) for $10 and making mod podge photo blocks and selling them. I'm not going to tell him that he doesn't need to buy the business from me and can just do it all on his own. He's wanted aviator glasses for awhile and was excited when Gavin got a gift card in his marathon bag for "free" sunglasses online. He ordered a pair and had to pay $12 shipping fee. I guess it's okay because he loves them and tries to find any excuse to wear them. Like mowing the lawn the last time of the season.

We weren't quite ready for the boating season to be over and decided to take the boat out for a late afternoon trip. The water was extremely choppy. The air was brisk. And the water was even colder. But not too cold for these little ones.

I cuddled up with Mia to help keep me warm and I admit I was a little fearful of our boat capsizing in those waves.

Nothing says fall quite like corn mazes and hay rides. We had such a great evening at Hee Haw Farms. The weather was perfect. And we were surrounded by other children with special needs. This activity was sponsored by United Angels Foundation. My big kids, especially Ryan, love to see other children with special needs, especially Down syndrome.

Waiting for the Trick-or-Treat hayride.

Please don't feed the animals.

I love Saturdays in the fall. They are completely filled with sports and I wouldn't have it any other way. I really love spending my Saturdays on 3 different fields, with the warm sunshine hitting my back, watching my 3 oldest excel at their sport. What I don't like is when the fall air turns to winter and I am out in the snow, freezing and watching their games. Not so enjoyable or fun.

Jack shows off his moves during a soccer game

Hadley's been playing keeper quite a bit this season.

Ryan is still playing football and loving it. He's playing Tight End and Corner Back this season. If I had to choose a favorite fall sport to watch it would have to be football. It's just different than soccer. It's incredibly intense and competitive. And Ryan and his team are really good! Undefeated 6-0.

Much of October is spent finding all of the costumes. Calling neighbors. Shopping at the Halloween stores. Looking online. This year most of the family is dressing up as characters from Peter Pan. It's Morgan, Griffin and Mia's favorite movie right now and just seemed perfect.

Mia is Tinkerbell

Griffin is Captain Hook. Argggggh, Matey!

And the rest of the cast? Morgan will be "Peter Pan", Hadley will be "Tiger Lily", Gavin will be Tiger Lily's dad, Jack wants to be a pirate (Capt. Jack Sparrow) and I think I'm going to be a random Native American. Ryan's planning on being "Pedro" and his best friend is going to be "Napoleon Dynamite". Still not sure where he's going to get that costume.

Happy Autumn!

Marathon Weekend

We went to St. George this past weekend for the St. George Marathon. Gavin trained all summer and put in many early morning runs. He started his runs at 5 in the morning so that he could beat the morning heat. He drove me around his route one morning in the car. I was tired just from sitting in the car, driving 20 miles through random streets and neighborhoods. No idea how he could run that far and still function. If that was me . . . well I can't even run a mile without stopping so that would never be me but if I could run . . . I would come home and crash and not move for the rest of the day. He was ready for this marathon and put in all of the training miles recommended. I don't know how anyone can put in that many miles and not get injured along the way. And he did get injured. A week before the marathon he injured his IT Bands on his last big run. He couldn't run without pain that last week but was still determined to run the marathon.

We stayed at Nan and Papa's house. Papa's sister, Joan, passed away a few days before the marathon and her funeral was the same day as the marathon. We got to spend a few hours with them before they left town for the funeral. Ryan stayed home with his friend so he could play in his football game on Saturday. And we took his friend's sister down with us because we really wouldn't know what to do with less than six kids.

The three girls all shared a room and two twin beds. Sylvie and Hadley learned to be patient with Morgan's constant requests of having one of them rotate sleeping next to her.

It was 100 DEGREES! our first day there. We took the kids to the city water park. They loved running through the fountains and wading through the water. We stopped for a frozen custard on the way home.

Dripping wet after running through the fountains

Dinner at Pizza Factory. Carb loading for the marathoners and fat loading for the non-marathoners.

My kids got to see their long lost cousins--Cole and Kamen. And meet their new baby cousin, Shae.

We took lots of pictures of baby Shae Nicole.

Gavin left me with all of the kids on Friday night so that he could go to the cabin in Pine Valley and get a good nights rest. I don't blame him. I would've gone somewhere else to sleep too if that would've been an option. Not a lot of sleeping happens with everyone sharing rooms and out of their own beds.

The 3 marathoners --Monyca, Richie and Gavin. Heading out to the cabin.

Morning of the marathon. I don't want to complain but it really felt like I was the one who ran the marathon that morning. Getting all of the kids and myself ready and finding a place to park and then waiting and waiting for Gavin to pass us so we could cheer him on. All in 90 degree temps. Trying to keep Morgan from running in front of the runners. She did manage to push the stroller, slowly across the road, in front of a runner. The runner just kept saying, "excuse me. excuse me." and then she glared at Morgan. She almost made the runner trip and fall. My deepest apologies to that runner. Jack was in charge for a minute and thought Morgan could cross the road to come over to me. I also need to apologize to Jack for saying the "h" word when it all happened.

Excited to cheer on their dad with their homemade signs

Griffin proudly held his sign up and cheered for his dad. Even though he was concerned about him winning the race. Every time I asked him if he was ready to go to the race and cheer for daddy, he commented, "Yah. I just don't know if he's going to win the race."

The star of the show! We waited on the street around mile 25. We were so excited to finally spot him out of the crowd of runners. He threw his sweat rag from his head over to the kids and Griffin carried it around with him for the rest of the morning. He knew his dad was a ROCK STAR!

Go Gavin Go! 4:14 Final Time!

We found him in the park after the marathon with all of the other runners. It was so hot out there. We looked for some shade and sat down. Gavin always comes out from the running area carrying lots of popsicles and ice cream for all of the kids to enjoy. And enjoy they did. It was so hot. Record heat for the marathon. Still don't know how anyone finished the race in that heat. Gavin wanted to finish in less than 4 hours and was on pace until mile 20. Then the heat and pain got to him. I'm still amazed at his time. 4:14! Way to go "Jack C"!

Morgan helped put the ice on Gavin's sore legs.

Gavin's uncle finished his 27th marathon and Gavin finished his 6th marathon. Way to go, Richie and Gavin!

His biggest fans!

Lots of support! Rae and family, Brendan, Nicole and family. And us.

Nan and Papa live right by the "bubble (boob) pools" and every time we drive by them the kids want to know when they can go swimming there. Hadley made it known that that was all she wanted to do on this trip. So we finally did it. We went to the indoor pools after the marathon. Morgan loved squirting other swimmers by turning the wheel and the frog slide. Griffin liked playing with his cousin. Hadley, Sylvie and Jack liked the lily pads and water slide. And Mia liked climbing up and down the stairs.

We kept up the tradition of going to Pine Valley for dinner with the Thomas family. Yummy steak dinner! Thanks Uncle Richie! We thought we'd try to enjoy it a little more this year and leave the little kids home and have Jack babysit. It was a great idea and we were able to enjoy our meal. Until we got back home. Morgan found a can of non-stick cooking spray and decided to spray it all around the kitchen while no one was paying attention. It took hours to clean up the mess that she probably made in just a few minutes of inattentiveness .

It was a fun weekend but it's always so nice to come home--to our own beds and a child-proofed home!