Halloween

This was Maria's first Halloween and she loved it all from carving pumpkins, to dressing up, to attending parties, and trick-or-treating.

Tyler, Maria, and Melanie carved their pumpkins during the family home evening before Halloween, as is our tradition.  All three kids had a definite idea about what they wanted their jack 'o lanterns to look like when they were finished.  Melanie drew the design for her pumpkin.

Tuesday night there was a "drive in" Halloween Movie in the high school parking lot.  

Erin, Tori, Maria, and Tyler

Not wanting to miss out on any fun this Halloween season, Maria drug Tyler to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point on Thursday night.  Tyler came home a little surprised at how much fun stuff there was to do there.  They were not successful in finding their way through the corn maze.  

 Maria was very excited there was a bonfire.

Friday, Tyler and Maria dressed up and attended the swim team Halloween party. After the party they did a little bit of trick or treating.  

Melanie's Halloween was spent at a band competition in St. George.  She did't even get to wear the costume she made back in September.  She did dress up for the bus ride down to St. George.

On Saturday night, both Maria and Tyler went on group dates but they were not in the same group.  Both groups went bowling (different bowling alleys at different times).  The boy Tyler was riding with got pulled over by a policeman who wanted to make sure they were being safe (they were).

Colorguard and Halloween Parties

UEA break continued on Monday although color guard and swim team still had all of their workouts.  We were able to start working on a little surprise for all our missionaries for family home evening.

On Tuesday evening, Tyler went to the temple with the Priests, Melanie went to a color guard competition, and Maria and I went to a RS Cooking class with Bro. Caprio.  He was sharing his recipes for pasta sauces.  There was taste testing involved and he did a good job entertaining the RS sister and the young women.

On Friday Tyler worked a 9 hour shift helping with the Legacy Center Halloween party while the rest of us went and saw Megan, Emily, and Ashlyn perform in "Freaky Friday".  It was a quick moving show of singing and dancing to Halloween music.  We were proud to be related to them. On the way to Draper we stopped to walk around the Thanksgiving Point Garden for one last time this year as the gardens are about to close for the season.  It was a fun way to enjoy a beautiful day.

Saturday evening was the Ward Halloween Party.  It was also Melanie's last color guard performance before the state competition on Saturday.  They were competing in Pleasant Grove so Dad and I ran over to watch Lehi do their show.  LHS did great and the color guard took first place of nine 4A teams competing.

Saturday evening was the Dry Creek Ward Halloween Party. Tyler wore his Batman pajamas.  Maria dressed in one of Melanie's wizard dresses and Dad put on make-up to look like "Two Face" from the Batman movies.  He made a small child cry at the party.

Melanie's California Adventure

Melanie went to California with the LHS Marching Band.  They left Tuesday night about 9pm so that they could be in the Disney Parks when they opened.  Right before the buses pulled out of the parking lot the color guard coaches handed out these hats they made for the girls.

 They went to Disney Land to be the pre-parade marching band in front of the Disney parade.  They took this fun picture when they were done.  I love the girls costumes.  Very Disney.  The flags they marched with were red and black.

 The color guard team before Disneyland on Wednesday

 Melanie hung out with her friends Shep (tuba player), Davis and Brie at the parks.

 Melanie in a purple nightmare before christmas Fedora

 Melanie in the hat her awesome coaches gave her

 Snow White's dress

 Melanie and Shep in bug's land

 on the bus

It was a busy weekend for the band and color guard kids.  They spend dawn 'till dusk in the parks on Wednesday.  On Thursday they spent several hours at Seal Beach body surfing, collecting shells, and playing in the sand.  Thursday they also did a workshop with Riverside Community College where they worked on their band show.  Friday they were back at the park from dawn 'till dusk.  They also got to march along Disney Main Street. On Saturday the band participated in a band competition.  They left about midnight to ride the buses home all night.

Windows Loop

Our last stop in Arches National Park was to do the Windows Loops.  On this short hike you can see several beautiful arches.  Once again, the kids had a great time climbing all over the beautiful rocks.  This area of the park was very crowded but still beautiful.  The kids and Warren thought it was cool to see a snake hiding in the rocks.

Sand Dune Arch

 Our next stop in the park was Sand Dune Arch.  It was the least crowded of anywhere we visited all day but one of our favorites.  The kids just kept inventing new ways to play in the sand.  The only way we could get them to leave was to promise them we would eat lunch at the sand hill just outside of the park.

 Tyler re-created a picture we took of him at the same place when he was two.

Hike to Delicate Arch

We started the day early and had big plans.  We arrived in Arches National Park before the park was even officially open.  The first hike on our list was to the famous Delicate Arch.  The sun was just coming up as we began our hike.  This arch is very photogenic and we had fun taking pictures.

Near the parking lot is a short side trail that lead to these Indian hieroglyphics.