Halloween 2012

We had a good time at the Golden Living Halloween Party for families.

We made these costumes the night before the party.  Tyler, Warren and Melanie were the artists for the picture cards.

 Mary Anderson is one of Tyler's favorite residents.  She got him to push her around the cake walk and they even won a cake together.

Tyler has attended many Halloween parties and he choose a different costume for each one.  Here is the list:
Whitney's party: Prince
Swim Team party: Barber
Legacy Center Party: Clown
Zombie Stomp: 50's guy
GLO Party: Jack (card)
To school on Halloween: Quarter Back (literally)
Trick or Treating: Black Mail

The Brown's invited the kids over to carve pumpkins.  Here is what they came up with.

YW/YM Murder Mystery Dinner Party in the "Doom Mansion"

The gym was decorated very fancy with electric candles on the tables and even a "dead guy" on the couch in the living room.

The young women leaders really went all out for this joint activity.  They had five games running simultaneously and served a full dinner.  

  The kids had fun acting out their parts as they were given new clues to the mystery each round.  The menu for the evening was:

Salad/dinner roll

Chili with corn chips, cheese, and sour cream
Brownie with ice cream on top

Warren and some of the other young men's leaders were dressed in black pants, white shirts, and black bow ties and were the servers.  They had a good time competing to see who could be the best server - getting the food delivered and cleared the fastest and making sure the juice and water glasses stayed full.

"Stay-cation" Day 5: Tracy Aviary

My plan for the day was to drive Warren to work after dropping Tyler off at his swim team workout this morning so I would have a car to take the kids to Salt Lake City after Tyler's morning workout.  Not to be... the CAR broke down at the high school and would go no further.  Luckily we found a mechanic in town who diagnosed the problem (broken alternator) and got right to work fixing it.  One of the kind swim team Mom's drove Warren and I home while we worked on "plan B" for our day.  Warren got himself another ride to work and Steven and Melanie spent the morning doing homework while I cleaned the house and did laundry. Luckily the car was fixed early enough that Steven and Melanie and I could still head to Salt Lake (Tyler had a swim team workout all afternoon).  We ran into a Chinese grocery store on our way to the park and stopped to buy some Chinese treats.

 Melanie, Steven and I had a great time visiting the Tracy Aviary.  What a beautiful place to visit on an absolutely gorgeous day.  The weather was perfect - just a slight breeze but warm as we walked around the bird exhibits.  The leaves were gently falling off the trees as we walked.  Steven generously paid for all of us to feed the Sun Conure birds as part of the Amazon Adventure exhibit.

Warren was able to bring the van home this evening and so we are crossing our fingers this is the end to our car troubles for a while.  Tyler gave a great FHE lesson on the Priesthood.  It turned out to be a great day.

"Stay-cation" Day 3

Before the van broke down, our plan for today was to drive down to Moab and see Arches National Park.  We decided to go to "plan B" and tried to do a tour of Timpanogos Cave. When all their tours were sold out for the day we went to "plan C" which was Cascade Springs.  Melanie couldn't remember ever visiting Cascade Springs so it fit well with our "new things  in our own backyard" theme for our weekend.  The fall colors through the canyon were just beautiful.

Jessica and her roommate Jennifer invited us over for dinner on Saturday night.  This is the first time we have been invited to dinner at one of our children's apartments where they did the cooking.  We stopped at the store and bought some french bread and ice cream to add to the potato cheese soup Jennifer made.  Then it was off to go ice skating again at Tyler's insistence   He had so much fun on Friday, he couldn't wait to go again.  This was the last day we could go ice skating for free with our Peak Passes.

"Stay-cation" Day 2

Tyler came home from his swim team workout HUNGRY and challenged Steven to a pumpkin french toast eating contest.  Tyler put whipped cream and maple syrup on his french toast while Steven put peanut butter and maple syrup on his.  The contest was close and ended when Steven let Tyler eat the last piece of french toast I made.  In the end it was Tyler: 9  Steven: 8.  

After breakfast we were off to Provo to go ice skating.  It was raining hard on the way down and the serpentine belt fell off AGAIN while we were driving on the freeway. Thank goodness, I was able to get the van off the freeway and parked in a parking lot before it completely died. I called for a tow truck and Warren left work to come and rescue me.  We dropped the kids off at the skating rink while I drove Warren back to work and met up with the kids at the skating rink.

 

That evening the local grocery store was having a tailgate party for the BYU football game the next day and running a special where you could buy a steak dinner for $3.  I ate leftovers but Warren and the kids all had fun playing games at the party and each brought home a steak dinner.  (Steven had two.)

 

It was a fun day.

"Stay-cation" Day 1: Kennecott Mine

This fall break from school we decided to do a "stay-cation".  There are several activities and attractions very close by that we have not visited as a family in over 10 years.  One of those, and first on our list to see was the Kennecott Copper Mine, the largest open mine in the world.  This is where a large percentage of the world's copper supply comes from.  We enjoyed watching the miners work, watching a short video, and looking around the visitor's center and gift shop.  Tyler and Melanie were too young to remember their last visit to the mine.  Sometimes I forget what great attractions we have right in our own backyard.