Dad invited us to his office's Halloween pumpkin carving party. It's just tradition to carve pumpkins with Dad. He is known for his creative carving 'visions'. This year I think he was feeling a bit stifled by the kids' inability to 'get outside the box'... but he handled it well and the kids had a great time.
For Troy's birthday we took a last minute mini road trip. We headed north to one of Arizona's hottest tourist spots...Payson. :) And we left no sight unseen. Our first destination was the old bike shop that you pass on the highway. We'd always wondered what the heap of junk was...and we found out it was just that. "30 years in the makin" the toothless woman told us. Over 10,000 bikes! She even let us climb the old car trailer to get an aerial shot. It was actually quite impressive, and once we started walking around we found that there was some semblance of order in the lot. There is just something cool about large amounts of things, collections of any random sort become novel.
Next we hiked Natural Bridge which was absolutely beautiful. We went all the way through this time since we didn't have the babies on our backs. 
Everything was so lush and green and the waterfalls made you feel you were somewhere exotic. We couldn't have asked for better weather and the company was ideal. It was fun just talking with Troy using uninterrupted sentences. 
We enjoyed lunch at a little roadside diner and walked through The Old Randall house. Then we went up to Pine and visited the graves of Troy's grandparents. Next we were off on the hunt for my "starter cabin"...unfortunately, it's just not meant to be...yet! :) After inhaling our brownie sundaes we headed back into the valley.
We stopped by Troy's office and I tried to do a little housekeeping while he worked, much to his irritation. Apparently setting up shelves and filing is not what he wanted done on his birthday. Go figure.
And no birthday would be complete without a trip to the local pawn shop. ??? Troy heard on the news, that with all this economic mess, pawn shops are being infiltrated with good stuff. So he wanted to go check it out. What makes this even more random is this is SO not Troy's style. First off, he doesn't ever buy anything, second, if he ever did buy something, he would know exactly what he's going to get, style, color, price etc. So randomly going to see what a pawn shop had to offer just threw me for a loop. But, it was his birthday... he ran the show (and I almost got a new platinum diamond ring out of the deal!) :)
Heather & Colby are always so good to invite our crazy crew to all the fun birthday parties they have. We look forward to them even more now that we barely see each other. It's always nice (and rare) to have friends that both husbands and wives equally enjoy each other. They have been a unique find for us! 
It was a great break from the everyday routine and always fun to hang with the Bowers!
Usually when we make things I tell the kids what we're making and we follow my directions, this time I just gave them popscicle sticks and glue and they were in heaven! Among my favorite creations were Ella's model of herself and Dallin's 4 wing-fighter. 
4 tablespoons canola oilWe met all the Stapley's at the Pumkin Patch for FHE.
The girls loved the little chickies. And I'm sure Dallin & Ella had something they loved as well, only I wouldn't know because they were so busy playing with their older cousins, I didn't see them once.
Why are white silk curtains the favorite hiding places for peanut butter and banana covered fingers?
Karen did such a darling job on Carter's Tie-Dye Party! 
They also made their own tie-dyed crayons and had psychadelic cupcakes. Good job K. Happy Birthday Carter.
Back story being told, Saturday I ran to the Dollar Store to pick up some things for Dallin's humanitarian project. While I was there I spotted large cans of IBC rootbeer. (I LOVE rootbeer!) So I bought one for Troy and one for myself. Later that day I drank them both. When Troy came searching for his afternoon treat he promptly called me on my "tuna sandwich" behavior. So to rectify my faux-pas, Monday morning the fridge was FULL of Troy's own personal stash of IBC rootbeer. I think I'm forgiven.
After two years of shuttling Dallin to and from preschool and having to watch from the car window, Ella was more than ready to finally get out of her car seat and go inside of Miss Christy's preschool. It will be extra fun because she already has friends to go with!
Ella has been so into ballet this last year; all she sings is the music from The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and any other classical music she hears. When she does her "ballet" that means she holds onto something (a couch, your finger etc.) and puts her leg out in an arabesque. So when I was driving her to her first day of dance she was quite put out that I wasn't going to be in the class with her so she could do "ballet". She finally decided it would be o.k. because her teacher would hold her finger. When I explained there were lots of other girls in her class and the teacher wouldn't be able to do that she looked perplexed and said, "then we need to go back because we forgot to bring our couch."
Now to look on the bright side... Dallin and Ella were fabulous and all the other kids really took them under their wings. They loved finding rocks to add to the ever growing collection and digging in any sand pile they could find. They were filthy and blissfully happy!
I'm still not emotionally ready to write this post. The fact that we strung Whitney's (& Bryan, Christopher, Bono, & Fritz) departure out for days and days did not help matters either. Whitney and Bryan are heading to Lubbock, Texas where Bryan will be starting law school. Although we are trying to act supportive.. we're not. We're selfish and want them here. But.. Que va hacer? 
We started the marathon farewell Sunday with a Texas style dinner at our house. The kids even made a bunch of Texas flags to hang around the kitchen. 
It was fun having everyone together... and I just love watching other people (Neil) try to do the twin thing. It makes me realize I have learned a few pearls of wisdom along the way.. like don't ever think you are going to sit down and enjoy your own glass of water with twins on your lap!
Monday consisted of Nertz. This has always been our family game. It's great when we play it at reunions or somewhere with others, because our family always dominates! But when it's just our family (the in-laws don't even bother trying to play anymore) it's pretty cut throat. We're not going for personal bests or anything like that, although we would recommend that for poor Dad who can't seem to keep his score in the positive. We are all just going after Karen. Now to properly give Mom her credit, she is the all time champion.. but somewhere in those lonely junior high years, Karen caught up. She would probably even be that good if she didn't cheat... but we'll never know now, will we?
Then Tuesday we went to Grandma's house before Whit left for the airport. We were just delaying the inevitable. Then it happened. We said goodbye.
The first week was an adjustment. All-day school was a bit long for a little guy who still took naps! The first couple days I picked him up he was on one. He was irrational in his irritations.. "Why did you park in this parking spot." "Ella is looking at me!" "Why are the babies in those seats?" all said in the most ornery tone. By Friday I was convinced I was going to have to pull Dallin out of kindergarten and he would just have to start school when he was 8 or something. But as time has passed he has adapted and is doing great. His penmanship is awesome and it is fun seeing him learn all those phonograms just like I remember doing. OUGH: "o..oo..uf..off..aw..ow"..that's always been my favorite!
We got out and supported our local lemonade stand today. It was quite picturesque with the table and chairs under the shade tree, kids eating hot dogs & sno cones. (In real life it was sweat dripping down your back, give me more sno cones now...I don't care if I have to spend a dollar for shaved ice, hotter the Hades.) 
