Whirlwind trip to Utah

Oct. 25-27th

Provo/Alpine Utah

So, we made a SUPER quick trip up to Utah last month.  We drove up on Thursday, stayed Friday, and drove home Saturday, to visit Emma, Melanie and Jade up in Utah.  Melanie had the lead role in a rendition of "Tell-Tale Heart" so we came up primarily to see her in her performance of that Friday night.  

Thursday night we hung out with my Aunt Melody and her family whose youngest kids are about the same age as my three oldest.  (Melanie was still at rehearsal.)  We picked up Emma after her last class and brought her back to have dinner with all of us.  Then we went over to Melanie & Jade's place to spend the night.  

Friday morning, we headed down to BYU to get Emma back to class, and while we waited for her to be done, Melanie showed us the amphitheater where her performance was.  The actual little room was locked up, so we didn't go in there, but this is the outside of the Provo Castle Amphitheater.  

Jade outfitted us all with a pair of Cassettes--so here we are all sporting our new sunglasses.  

The kids were all pretty excited about them.

Then we checked out BYU's Paleontology Museum which was pretty cool.

Daph and Syd next to a prehistoric crocodile.  

Wow--glad they don't get that big anymore!

Arthur by a cast of a triceratops fossil.  Again, bigger than I thought . . .

Sean and a T-Rex skull

Here's something new I learned--there are even Poop Fossils!  The kids thoughts this was pretty funny.

Sitting on a big ole' dinosaur bone

Hayden and Sean checking out a big dinosaur mural.

Just killin' time waiting for Emma to be done with her class . . .

Go Cougs!

When Emma was done, we went to lunch at the Creamery on 9th, stopped at the Bookstore, and then headed back up to Mel & Jade's place to drop the kids off at the babysitters, and then head over to her show.  

It was a perfect creepy show to watch for Halloween, and Melanie was completely amazing as "Heather," a psychiatric patient who's only problem to begin with are night terrors.  But by the end of the show she ends up killing the doctor and then turning herself in when she can still hear his heartbeat.  Anyway, Mel did her part (which made up at least 80% of the show's dialogue) phenomenally--you loved her and feared her all at the same time.  

Melanie covered in blood and holding bags of body parts.  

Yikes!

Saturday, we packed up and drove back to Albuquerque.  So it was super quick, but we had a great time and were really glad we got to go up to see Mel in her play and hang out with Jade and Emma too!   Love you guys!  And as Hayden says, "You're gonna mith uth!"

October Quotes

Sydney:  Dappy's so pitty

(translation:  Daphne's so pretty--I loved this because Daphne was nowhere in sight, but for some reason, Sydney was just thinking about how pretty her older sister is.  It's probably because Daphne is so kind to Sydney--sings her songs, paints her nails, plays with her curly hair etc. . .)

Sydney watches a Princess movie every afternoon, so her brothers are pretty familiar with them, and have plenty of time to analyze and offer commentary on them.  Here are a few they've said recently:

Hayden's commentary on Cinderella:
When Cinderella gets her blue poofy dress--"Whoa, she has LOTS of underwear on.  Like Belle."
When her new father-in-law blushes bright red after she kisses his forehead-- "Ha, ha!  Look, he got sunburned!"

Sean's commentary on Little Mermaid:
When the chef gets all his teeth knocked out at the very end of the movie--"Wow, that's gonna be a LOT of money from the tooth fairy."

Hayden's commentary on Beauty and the Beast:
"It'th her own fault that she'th getting chathed by wolveth.  The Beatht and EVERYONE told her not to go in the Wetht Wing, becauthe it'th forbidden, but she thtill did.  Tho that'th the conthequenthe.  She got thcared and ran into the foretht and got chathed by the wolveth."

Sean:  What if I was famous?

Me:  What would you do if you were famous?

Sean:  I would get screen time for free for as long as I want.

Me: You think if you were famous, I would let you have free screen time?

Sean:  Maybe.

Me:  You think famous people don't have to do any chores?

Sean:  Maybe not  . . . What if I was the Mayor?

Hayden, in a singular act of generosity, reached into his cup and pulled out some ice to offer to his cousin Lily.  "Here Lily--free ithe."  I said, "Wow, Hayden, very nice of  you to offer her that ice for free."  He replied, "Well, I know she doethn't have any money, tho I gave it to her for free."

One night we were headed to a football party.  Because the game started so late, only the grown-ups were invited.  When we told Hayden where we were going that night he said, "Well I'm not inviting ANY grown-upth to my birthday party!"  touche`.  I guess he's planning on serving the cake himself.

As she was unwrapping another Reece's Peanut Butter Cup, Sydney solemnly instructed Dallin,"No more candy, Dallin.  Dallin--No more candy.  Okay, Dallin?" A girl who gets bossed around by as many people as she does is well versed in the arts of bossing.

Hayden:  Why did God make the wind blow tho much that the Balloon Fiethta wath canthelled?!

Sean:  What if Darth Vader knocked on our door?

Daphne:  We would invite him in!  He could sleep in my room. (after a little thought)  I hope he doesn't pee the bed.

Sean:  He doesn't.  Star Wars people don't pee.

Sydney:  NO WHINING!

Daphne: Mom, a boy at school used his "smolder" on me!

A boy on Sean's soccer team:  Which one is your mom?

Sean:  My mom is right there--the one with the fat tummy.

(nice.)

Sydney:  Don't break it, okay Mom?  (handing me a headband for me to wear, and stretching it open wider than a headband is meant to stretch.)

At the breakfast table one morning, everyone was telling knock knock jokes.  Sydney didn't want to be left out so she joined in.  We started telling her a knock-knock joke and here's how it went:

Me:  Knock-knock
Sydney:  Who there?
Me: Orange
Sydney: (thinking . . . ) and YELLOW!
me:  And RED!
Hayden:  And PURPLE!
Sean & Dallin:  and BLUE!
Daphne:  and PINK!

here's how another one went--
Sydney:  Knock-knock
All of us:  Who's there?
Sydney:  (getting upset)  No, I just say KNOCK-KNOCK!
me:  Okay.  Do it again.  (I whispered some instructions to the other kids)
Sydney:  Knock-knock
All:  COME IN!
And we all (Sydney included) died laughing.  And then we had to run out the door to get the kids to school.  (They had already missed the bus, of course.)

Hayden was waiting outside the bathroom waiting for Daphne to finish so he could use it.  When she opened the door, he was standing right in the doorway and said, "Well hello there, young lady," in his silliest voice.  Just made me laugh.

Daphne:  I love the piano.  I'm so glad I'm talented.

Racing to church one morning, the kids were all chanting "Come on light, do your thing, turn green! turn green!"  After a few times, Sydney said, "Turn PURPLE! Turn Purple!"  I guess she just got tired of green.

Hayden: Mom, can you put in the password for the computer?

Me:  Oh, I guess so.

Hayden:  And, "I gueth tho" meanth "yeth," right?

Emma: I'm so sick of school.

Dallin:  Because school is treating you like trash?

Melanie:  Okay, you have to eat one:  Would you choose brownies with dirt in them?  Or brownies with boogers in them.

Sean: . . . (says nothing)

Hayden:  (points to his noise)  Becauthe my boogerth tathte pretty good.

Halloween Costumes

To theme or not to theme . . . that is the question.

Well I had decided not to theme this year because it was just too much work for the amount of energy I'm operating on lately.  But a couple of weeks before Halloween, when the kids still didn't really know what they wanted to be, Dallin convinced me to do a theme after all.  He said, "Mom, there're too many options without a theme.  I just can't narrow it down.  Maybe I won't dress up this year."

So in a moment of insanity, we sat down and decided on a costume theme after all.   And curse my obsession with homemade costumes, of course I had to make them . . .  (or at least most of them--I ordered a couple of wigs and hats, but other than that, the costumes are pretty much homemade).  Well, to make a long story short, it's November 2nd, and I'm still recovering from staying up late too many nights in a row to finish the blasted costumes.

But here they are, and for what it's worth, the Gariety costume theme tradition is unbroken for at least one more year.

And the costume theme for Halloween 2012 was 

Alice in Wonderland  

(A mix of both Tim Burton's, and the animated versions . . .)

 

Alice

Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dum

(aka the Fat Boys)

Queen of Hearts

Mad Hatter

Dallin and Daphne got close-ups because of their special make-up.  :)  

Anyway, I was pretty happy with how the costumes came out.  I think the kids looked awesome.

The jury is still out on whether or not it's worth all the hassle . . .  

And below are the Jack-O-Lantern pictures.  Sydney had gone to bed early that night, so she was sleeping through the carving festivities.

Happy Halloween!

Balloon Fiesta 2012

October 13, 2012

Balloon Fiesta Park

Albuquerque, NM

The first Saturday of Balloon Fiesta was cancelled due to high winds.  During the week, we enjoyed absolutely gorgeous weather and the kids loved seeing the balloons every morning as they were heading to school.  Sydney and Hayden especially loved pointing to all the balloons!  

So it was really sad, when the weather for the second weekend was questionable also.  We were worried the weather wouldn't cooperate this year, but the second Saturday ended up being PERFECT!  We got there a little after 6, (we lucked out in the traffic department and didn't have to sit for too long in the car.) 

 Here are all the kids bundled up and ready to go onto the field.

We enjoyed homemade breakfast burritos and hot chocolate while we waited for dawn.

By the way, a little piece of trivia I learned this year--Breakfast Burritos were invented for Balloon Fiesta in 1978.    So if you love a good breakfast burrito, you have Balloon Fiesta to thank!!

It was pretty cool to see the balloons firing up when it was still dark.

And the first ones were off!

the "insides"

Sydney loved the balloons from a distance, but when we got too close, the sound of the fire bursts startled her every time, and she just buried her head in the shoulder of whoever was holding her saying, "too scary!"  Poor thing!  

LOVE this!

Special Shapes!

These two were new to me.  I loved that Horton the Elephant Balloon.  

The bees

Air-a-Belle

Sydney kept calling the shark balloon a "dolphin."  :)  

Darth Vader is still a huge favorite of our family.  This year the kids even got their hands on a couple of  Darth Vader cards--usually it's so hard to get close enough to that balloon to talk to any of the crew who have the cards to pass out, so that was pretty exciting for Sean and Hayden. 

When we got home, we found we had just missed out on the excitement of a balloon landing on our street!  They were just packing up the basket when we pulled into our driveway!  And our cameras battery had died by the time we left Balloon Fiesta, so I don't even have any pictures of them loading up just two houses up from us.  Our cute next-door-neighbor, Simone, said she was ringing our doorbell and knocking on our door for us to come out and see it!  Too bad we weren't home yet!  This is the first year since we've lived here that the wind blew the balloons over to our neighborhood.  Most of the time they seem to head west.

Happy Balloon Fiesta!

As always, friends, mark your calendars for the first two weekends in October, 

and come visit us next year!    

You will not find a ballooning event to equal this one in the 

whole WIDE WORLD!

And, we promise to make you some amazing breakfast burritos.