Loyal, Strong, and True!

Wear the White and Blue!  While we sing get set to spring, come on Cougars, it's up to you!

October 10th-13th
Farmington, NM
Provo/Highland, UT

The day minute BYU football tickets went on sale, Arthur was on his laptop ready to buy some.  And in case you are wondering about Arthur's level of dedication to the BYU football team, that particular minute was at 7 a.m. Hawaii time. :)  yep. He set his alarm for 6:50 so he would be ready to click "buy" at the opportune moment.

So we bought 12 tickets assuming we'd be able to sell them to some friends.  We were so glad that the Schmutz's took those extra tickets and could come up that weekend to watch the Cougars play Georgia Tech with us!  We've been going to see BYU Football games with the Schmutz's since our kids were pretty little.

On the way up, we stayed a night in Farmington, NM at a hotel, which is just as fun as any other part of  vacation, right?  The pool, the hot chocolate, the free pens and notepads, the calls from the front desk conveying complaints from the neighboring room about the loud children in our room. . . All good fun.  :)

October 11th
While we were in Utah, we stayed with my Aunt Melody and Uncle Carl whose youngest three children, Sydney, Brynn, and Jace, are the same ages as my oldest three.  We love them to death, and enjoy getting together with them when we can.  We played fun games (3 pennies, 100, and blow-the-ping-pong-ball) and watched movies with popcorn from their "Whirly-Pop," and enjoyed delicious fresh apple sauce from the apples they grew in their garden.

Friday morning we hiked the to the Y with my sister Melanie, cousins, Sydney, Brynn, and Jace, and my Aunt Jenna and several of her children.  (She has ELEVEN, the youngest one just three months old and named Bennett after his father.  They are such a remarkable family!)

  This picture below, is all I saw of my kids, until I made it to the top . . . much later.  They just took off--even Hayden!  The hike has 12 switchbacks, and I was already wondering how much longer we had on switchback #3.  It was steep!  And as it turns out, I'm not in great shape.  I also carried Bennett for most of the hike because Sydney didn't last very long on her own two feet.  So I should get credit for carrying a little extra weight.  

I love this sister of mine.  She is such a beautiful person inside and out.

After the hike we went to the BYU Creamery on 9th for some fries and ice cream.  I really wish for a BYU Creamery in my neighborhood.  

Seriously, the best fries and ice cream I've ever tasted!

Sean with a couple of my cousins, Jace and Forrest.

Daphne and Sydney with my cousins Ruth and Brynn.

This is a picture of me with my son Bennett (8 months) and my cousin Bennett, (3 months).

I LOVE my big extended family!  I have 99 cousins on my mother's side. (She was the 3rd of 14 children.)  And I'm so glad that my kids can play with my cousins since I started having kids before my siblings, and Dallin and Daphne don't have any cousins their age.

October 12th

BYU vs. Georgia Tech

Score: 38 to 20

Go Cougars!!

Daphne, Dallin, and my cousin Brynn, whose only girl cousin her age is Daphne.  (out of 100 cousins, can you believe that?)

Me and Erin

So fun to be at the game with Steve & Erin!

Daphne sporting Brynn's crazy blue wig.  

I think she's darling.

Dallin, Bobby, and Bobby's cousin.  

(for the life of me, I can't remember his name . . . Conner?  I think?)

Daphne wanted a picture with Cosmo so badly!  

She was SO happy when we ran into him outside the stadium after the game.

Sydney at the Pumpkin Patch

October 7th

Pics of Sydney's preschool field trip to the Pumpkin Patch

It was a fun morning.

Out of all the pumpkins she had to choose from, she picked this cute little guy.

Enchanted Sunrise

Balloon Fiesta 2013

Sydney loves looking at the balloons but is NOT a fan of the noise they make when they start shooting flames.  She spent most of the morning covering her ears like this.  Later that week, I asked her why she was so scared of the balloons.  She said, "Because the dragons are too loud."  It never occurred to me that she thought there were dragons blowing up the balloons, but once she said that, it all made sense.  I'd be worried too if I thought we were on a field full of dragons!

Bennett is such a mellow fellow.  He seemed mildly put out that we woke him up so early. But didn't even whine about it.  He stayed awake for awhile, and then took a little snooze.  And then woke up again and wanted to be free, so Sydney took a turn in the stroller.  (I think she felt a degree of safety from the balloon dragons once she was in the stroller.)

um, I just love this big ole' frog.

Darth Vader--always one of our favorites!

I loved this hummingbird balloon, new the the fiesta this year.

Angry Bird was also new.

Here are some of the classics:  Airabelle, the cow, Wells Fargo Wagon, and the Bees

collecting cards

almost close enough to touch!

Me and Mel

Hurray for another fun year at Albuquerque's International Balloon Fiesta!   It was such a treat having Aunt Mel here to see the balloons and watch conference together.  So glad she got to come spend the weekend with us.  We love you, Melanie!