Fall

Yeah, pathetic, I know. It's been how long since I posted? Eh, well, you'll have to take what you can get! I'll do a short recap of the highlights to get you caught up to speed. This fall, we did homeschool with Raelin and it went pretty well! We met our goals and accomplished some great things, but it's a dang lot of work for me and it's hard on the babies because we have to try to cram all our errands into one day which makes for hungry, tired kids and they don't get the attention they need because I'm trying to keep Raelin stocked with projects and tasks for so much of the day. It's just too busy. Plus we'd only planned to do it for a semester anyway. So Raelin went back to public school at the beginning of the new year and it has been great! She seems to be enjoying it just fine and it sure makes my life easier!! Ultimately, I wish I could afford private school and get them a better education that way, but meanwhile, homeschool, to me, is the way to accomplish that. But my sanity is paramount. So public school it is.

Also, with fall comes the pumpkin patch! The kids love the pumpkin patch (Alaina still asks about it on a biweekly basis) and the one by our house does more and more cool FREE stuff every year. This year they had some awesome mazes and hay mountains to climb, which, if you know my kids, they LOVE!

They also had a corn pit that was loads of fun for the littles.

And we went on a hay ride around the farms.

The kids had a blast! Except for Landon when he went to eat the corn and I quickly, but not TOO roughly brushed it out of his hands. But, I mean, EW! And I'm so not a germaphobe, but last year we went kinda late in the year and it was all fermented and stinky and there are SO many people who climb all over in there and just ew. So I didn't want him to eat it and I think I startled him. This was his response:

So sad! I broke his poor little baby heart! Awwwwwwww. And yes, I took pictures of it. I'm so mean.

We went on some cool hikes (love the fall colors--I think that's the best thing there is about Utah!)

and climbed all the trees the kids could find (have I mentioned that they love to climb trees?)

For Halloween we carved our pumpkins (Brice's turned out particularly cool--it's the puking cowboy one)

and went trunk or treating and trick or treating. LOTS of candy!! Raelin was a lizard, Ryker was Batman, Alaina was a monkey, and Landon was a banana. I was particularly proud of Landon's banana costume. I made it from scratch and I loved how it turned out!

Alaina got this awesome fat lip when she landed face first taking a tumble off a chair. Clearly, it didn't slow her down.

Raelin had a birthday and turned 8! Her baptism was awesome but I'll do a separate post for that.

For her birthday, she got some great books (she's an avid reader)

and her own sewing machine! She's been taking a sewing class and making lots of cool stuff so we thought it would be cool for her to have her own machine so she didn't always have to compete with me for mine.

We played outside as much as we could in the awesomely unseasonably warm weather, which I love.

Look at this little cute guy! I love that face!

Winter has just finally hit us in the last week or so with our first real snowfalls and freezingness. I'm hoping it goes back to spring rains and warmth again soon because I was really enjoying that! I'm not a winter person, in case you didn't already know that. HATE winter. Though I do feel bad for the kids when they're hoping for snow to play in and don't get any. I just wish there was such a thing as warm snow...

Goblin Valley

A few weeks ago, we took advantage of one of the last few weekends of good weather and we went to Goblin Valley. It was awesome! I love camping. I can't think of a better place for my kids and my sanity. Nowhere else can I let 'em run lose without worrying incessantly about what they're breaking and who they're bothering and what messes they're making. It's so relaxing! I know lots of people who hate camping for one reason or another (for other moms, it seems like it's mostly the dirt. Fortunately, I don't care about dirt at all. Especially fortunate since Landon is still a crawler and he loves to eat everything off the floor: rocks, beads, erasers, marbles, nuts, you name it! Needless to say, he was a mess!) or who find it more stressful than regular life, but for me, nothing could be easier. And I'm not so pregnant that sleeping on the ground is torture. It was perfect.

We set up camp on a little trail near this old ramshackle miner's house and once we set up camp, we wanted to climb up to the mine.

It included some challenges in the offroading department, which Brice was more than happy to attempt.

And then we hiked up this insanely steep mountain to get the the opening of the mine (which was sealed off). I am not the greatest climber.

I'm pretty much the biggest chicken in the world, which I guess is pretty contradictory to the rest of my personality, but is, nonetheless, the case. I HATE heights! And I hate feeling like I might fall and die. Weird, huh. The other factor is that for the last 8 years, most of those sorts of situations have happened while I'm carrying a baby on my back. Just panics me even more! If you've been with me on this blog for a while, you might remember my very first blog post about our trip to Zion's and all the great hikes we went on there. And you might remember that, despite the fact that for once I wasn't carrying a baby, I was still terrified! Nothing has changed. Yep, still a chicken. And my kids are ALL better climbers than I am. Even Alaina can climb faster and easier than I can. Getting shown up by a 2 year old....

The first night, we went to a guided tour in the park where a ranger taught us about the plant and animal life in the area and the rock formations and the stars. Landon was tired and fussy, so I missed a lot of it, but the older kids LOVED it! Ryker fell in love with the ranger, I think. ;)

The next day, we went back into the park, planning on another tour, but we got the time wrong. We still had a great time hiking around the valley floor with the "goblins" and playing hide and seek. Amazing place!

You see what I mean about letting 'em run lose?

Alaina and Daddy hiding! Shhhh!

Did I mention it was amazing?

Landon spent most of his time in a carrier on my back, but I picked a spot for him to get down and play for a while too. The sand was so fine and he really liked spreading it around on the rocks and sitting on them to play.

Raelin is an amazing climber. I rarely see her so bold and confident as she is when she's climbing something. Fun to watch!

Alaina liked to find rocks that became her cars and her cows. Funny little thing!

This was Ryker's dragon.

We played hide and seek for a long time there, working our way across the valley floor as we went. Ryker found a tunnel to hide in.

Alaina squeezed into a tiny crack.

Ryker went running across the valley to find Raelin

who was hiding here:

Later in the day, we went for a hike through a slot canyon. At the beginning we found a tree and Brice challenged Raelin to climb up the trunk and out onto a limb and then jump to the ground.

The first obstacle was this big branch she had to shimmy around.

Then there was a drop she had a hard time figuring out how to maneuver, but when she actually tried it, it was a piece of cake.

Then she just had to drop down below the tree and climb down Daddy (jumping was a bit much, she decided).

Throughout the rest of the slot canyon hike, Raelin was a mountain goat and Ryker was a mountain lion. Very fitting animals they each chose to impersonate. Raelin had a great goat noise she ran around making and Ryker growled his way through the hike.

Gotta love how the carrier accentuates the pregnant belly....

I have no idea what's up with the bubbles, but she was having fun with it and it was cracking me up! The concentration!

Even though it's out of focus, I had to post this picture. Love the face!

Alaina and Landon were having lots of fun playing in the sand at our turn-around spot

until Landon threw sand in her eye. Good thing Daddy was there to LICK the sand out!

Daddy gets big hugs from Landon while he rests and watches the older kids climb all over the canyon walls.

And Brice found this ledge he tried to climb. Almost made it!

It was a really fun and much-needed trip. I'm glad we got this last trip in before the cold set in!