Halloween 2023

This Halloween was another really great one! We had our ward trunk or treat the day we got home from our Fall Break St. George trip. We lucked out with really great weather before it turned super cold the next day.

I felt bad that we didn't provide a trunk or any soup, but we were rushed getting back from our trip. Mckinley's yellow outfit came in the mail while we were gone and I was able to iron on the M so she had a costume for the party! Jackson hated wearing his mask and only put it on for a picture. He did walk around and hold his bucket though which was a big improvement from last year. Ava finally wore this nurse costume we've had forever but no one has ever worn.

Tyler didn't have a costume so he just put on the banana. Kallie was a cowgirl. Easy costumes this year!

Darn it the rest of these pictures uploaded in reverse. But maybe I don't care? This was the candy everyone ended up with at the end of the night.

Love that Lauren stuffed her candy in her pants and gave herself a gut ha ha.

Kallie had a blast trick or treating with a big group of her friends.

Mckinley too! Every year I keep thinking this is her last year but these sweet girls can keep trick or treating as long as they want to!

Ava joined up with Hazel, Maggie, Livvy, and Gracie. And Maggie's niece Riley.

We saw Jack and Sally along the way. They looked so good!! No idea who they were.

The guy next door to Alex's old house always does the full size box candy and lets the kids come inside and choose.

Jackson was slow, but he kept his mask on and held his bucket and was so good to say "trick or treat" and "thank you". So, huge improvements over last year! Brandon stayed home this year to pass out candy and I went out with Ava and Jackson. Jackson made it from Cammie's cul de sac to our house and then he was done. Ava could have gone all night! She hit up pretty much the whole ward.

Ava, Hazel, Gracie, and Maggie.

Ava's pumpkin that she painted 100% by herself!

Jackson wanted forky so I made this for him. Pretty sure he doesn't even know who forky is but Kallie was helping him look up ideas.

Kallie's pumpkin.

Mckinley's.

And Tyler's.

Kallie and her friends had pizza at Scarlette's house before heading out. I was so worried it would be freezing but it ended up not as bad as we thought!

All the kids before the oldest three left with friends.

We trick or treated at Sally's house so she could then close her door and not worry about it after that.

I got to go to Ava's class party. They had a great time!

Halloween parade! I love it so much!

We made our spider cookies this year.

Ava with her pumpkin! And her missing tooth that we got out on Saturday, just before picture retakes on Monday. Phew!

We had a dinner at my mom and dad's house on Monday night to say goodbye to Ian who is going into the MTC on Wednesday. Ava wore Grandma Stum's wig. She really should dress up like an old lady for Halloween!

I painted my face like this just for fun and Jackson ran away and hid in his room. That's when I knew I couldn't do this on Halloween!!! Ha ha. What a great Halloween this was! So fun making memories with these kids. And now we have so much candy we don't even know what to do with it. 

Hike to the Y and Sqaw Peak Sunset

The Saturday before Halloween we decided to go hike the Y. It was pretty cold and the sun never came out to shine on us, but it was much better than doing it in the summer when you just sweat to death! We loved it so much.

Ava and Jackson both did an amazing job. Ava didn't complain one single time which was so shocking! And Jackson walked almost the entire way, I just gave him a piggy back ride a couple times but they were short.

Kallie actually probably did the most complaining, ha ha, she just really didn't want to do it. But we made it and it's always so satisfying to get to the Y! I tried to convince everyone to go to the top but they really didn't want to so we just went to the bottom of the Y.

We finally made Ava let us pull out her tooth earlier that morning. And by us I mean Brandon. Man, that thing needed to come out. I took the kids to the dentist the day after Halloween and turns out she needs to get the tooth next to it pulled out because her permanent top tooth is coming in crooked now, probably because we let her keep that baby tooth in for so long.

The kids wanted to touch the actual Y. You're not allowed to climb on it anymore. I thought it was so fun that we could see 5 temples from that spot. Timpanogos, Lindon (under construction), Orem (open house going on now), Provo, and Provo City Center. We are so blessed to live where we live. I can't imagine anywhere better!

Ava wanted breakfast burritos for getting her tooth out, so we grabbed some of those, and also got food from Taco Bell. Such a fun start to our Saturday!

When we were up at the Y we were remembering driving up to Sqaw Peak and so we decided to do it the next day on Sunday for the sunset. It was freezing up there! And there were no clouds so it wasn't an extra amazing sunset but it was so fun to get out and do some adventurous things!

When it was time to go home our car wouldn't start. The van had had a few times where it didn't start right away, so maybe our battery is going bad? But anyway, we had opened the door quite a few times escaping the cold while we were waiting for the sunset, and I guess that was too much for the battery and it died. We had a really hard time jumping it because the battery is in such a dumb place but some guy came along and totally helped us and we were able to jump it and drive home. Phew! What an adventure!

Hurricane for Fall Break

We decided last minute to go to Hurricane for St. George since our guests were checking out on Saturday. So we headed down Saturday and then stayed till Wednesday, making the kids miss their first two days of school this year (Tuesday and Wednesday). They HATE missing school, ha ha, but we made them do it. Ava isn't loving first grade though so she was happy to miss.

We drove down over lunch, had lunch in Beaver at Wendy's, and got there around 2 p.m. We got straight in the pool. The cleaner wasn't finished yet so we changed in the clubhouse bathroom. The weather was great and we had a blast.

Playing slap jack on Jackson's back, ha ha.

We wanted to try something new this trip and had plans to go to glitter mountain but we ended up not doing it because the map showed it was over an hour drive and we just weren't up for that. We went to Grandpa's Pond instead.

There were no turtles this time which was so weird!

We considered trying Zions for the first time but ended up just doing the Red Reef Trail instead. Don't know when we will ever make it to Zion. Someday.

The weather was great for this hike and the kids had tons of fun climbing up on rocks along the way.

The end is so beautiful. One day I know we're gonna make it when there is water flowing.

We found this ginormous caterpillar on the way back.

Lots and lots of pool time, as always. The pool was pretty cold the next few days. We spent most of our time in the hot tub but it was still great.

Went to a park in Hurricane and ate dinner there. Pizza for the kids and burritos from Adelita's for me and Brandon.

Tuesday we ventured into St. George (after all the fall breakers were gone) and went to the temple open house. They had been redoing the St. George temple for the last couple of years.  

Got our favorite Wetzel's Pretzels. They weren't as good as last time, but still delicious.

Went back to Super Chix as well and had the nicest lady take our order. It was a really memorable experience. She made sure we didn't swipe our starving student cards and then gave us free drinks. She was so sweet.

Kallie wanted to go to Thunder Junction so we did. We went to the nature reserve first and didn't see any turtles there either. Like do they hibernate or something?

Anyway, we had a great time at the park and had the entire train to ourselves. Ava and Brandon sat at the very back so they're not in any of these pictures but they were there.

Back to the pool, always!

 It was a great trip and the kids weren't too mad about missing school.