Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch

Saturday, October 17th

Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch

Rio Rancho, NM

We visited this cute little pumpkin patch out in Rio Rancho one Saturday in October.  Dallin must have had a choir thing or a social engagement or something because he didn't come with us.  But everyone else was there and had a great time.  Daphne and Sydney LOVED the animals, especially the baby pigs.  The boys just love running around from one game to the next, but the favorites are the giant sling shots, and the ingenious rubber duck races.  

Timpanogos Falls Hike

Fall Break

Saturday, Oct. 10

Hike to Timpanogos Falls

On Saturday, after Dallin's blessing, we went for a nice hike up to Timpanogos Falls.  It's a pretty good climb up to the falls but not terribly long, so the kids did pretty well.  Sydney thought she might die a couple of times, and Bennett eventually refused to walk, and ended up in the backpack.  But everyone else did great.  My cousin Brynn, who is Daphne's age came with us, and the two of them had a great time giggling about who knows what.  And several of the kids scrambled up and down the face of the waterfall (not in the water but just next to it) a few times.  It was pretty steep!  Arthur and I played around with the camera trying to get some cool artsy/nature shots.  It's hard to capture how cool waterfalls are.

A Visit to Grandma & Grandpa Packard's House

Fall Break

Oct 8-12

Grandpa Packard's House, Alpine, UT

BYU, Provo, UT

We like to take the kids to BYU campus whenever we visit Utah.  You know, just so they are familiar with the appropriate team to cheer for.  ;)  We stopped at the Creamery, of course, and the Bean Museum, which is tiny, but we enjoyed it.  I didn't get a picture of the huge grizzly bear they had near the entrance.  It had a motion sensor near it which triggered a scary growling sound whenever anyone walked by.  Bennett was so terrified, he hid in a corner and refused to come back past that bear when it was time to leave.  I had to pick him up and carry him out, poor kid.

Of course, the highlight of the trip was waking up early Saturday morning (before the little ones were awake) and meeting Grandpa upstairs for Dallin's patriarchal blessing.  It was a very special experience to hear what the Lord thinks about his son, Dallin, who we've been entrusted with for awhile.  Dallin is a really good kid and is going to great things.  We have it on good authority.

This photo was taken Sunday morning as we got ready to head back home.  We love to visit Great- Grandpa and Grandma Marsha.  

Arches

Fall Break

Oct. 8-12, 2015

Arches National Park, Utah

For fall break, we went up to Utah so Dallin could receive his Patriarchal Blessing from his Great-Grandpa Packard.  On our way up to Grandpa's, we spent half a day at Arches National Park   We told Sydney we were gonna do some hiking at Arches.  Well, when you stop at the pay station for Arches National Park, you are hundreds of feet below where the park is, and when you look up, all you see are red cliffs.   So as we were in line to pay the park fee, Sydney noticed the red cliffs and started freaking out, "I can't hike THAT!"  Once we drove up into the park and she realized she wasn't required to hike up the faces of cliffs, she handled things a lot better.  We had a great time hiking to Double Arch and Landscape Arch, enjoying a picnic lunch and just letting the kids scramble around in the red dirt.  And Bennett put a hole in the seat of his brand new pants.  So mission accomplished, right?