A Night Of Tricks and Treats

It was a dark and stormy night.

The rain came down in sheets.

In the pitch blackness a shriek was heard,

"When can we go trick-or-treating?!!"

On the Eve of All Hallows Eve (we live in Utah, trick-or-treating is on Saturday) many treats and a few tricks (by the weather) were had.

We started out the night like this:

Halfway through our block we came back,

dried ourselves off, bundled a little better

and went out again. And then, of course, it didn't rain a drop. Funny trick, Mother Nature. In the end, we came back with this:

And we organized, traded and sorted to our little heart's content.

Memories

Last week we made another unexpected trip to my grandparent's house. Just a few days after we visited The Farm, my grandmother passed away. How grateful I am that we went up and saw her one last time!

This visit was a huge family reunion. All of my siblings were there (minus a couple of their spouses) and almost every cousin I own made it up. It was a great time for reminiscing about applesauce cookies (see the recipe here), raspberry goodies, beautiful handmade Christmas ornaments and knitted Christmas stockings. My grandma was one of the most talented people that I have ever known. She was so selfless and giving. How nice to have such a great example for a Grandmother!

Thank goodness children don't allow you to stay sad for too long. Even though we were only there for a day, we had to make a little time for playing with these cuddly cuties.

Apparently they wrapped the dogs up in Grant's blanket. How sanitary of them.
Have I mentioned that my kids REALLY want a puppy?
We made time to ride in trucks and tractors.

And eat some rocks, without even using hands!
And frolick in fields.

My Farmers

Last weekend we visited my grandparents on their farm. Being a farmer is so fun. Ryan has been a farmer for a while now. At least he thinks he is. And when we are visiting the farm, thanks to Uncle Bert, he is a farmer! Every time I blinked, my children were doing some fun new activity: tractor rides, feeding ducks, playing with puppies, lawn mower rides, catching frogs, picking corn...

My poor, puppy deprived girls couldn't get enough of these delicious things (notice Maren in the back loving that poor thing to death).

The corn was as high as an elephants eye.

This is my city boy husband getting ready to take the kids on a tractor ride (he drove!). Uncle Bert is a very trusting man. I'm happy to report that the field was already dead and so he didn't hurt anything.

And here is Grant chasing the tractor as it drove off without him.

This was at the beginning of our Dune Buggy ride. It ended with my dad and me pushing it back to the farm after we ran out of gas.

Here are my sweet grandparents, with endless patience for my small children invading their quiet home.

And, you know, here are the alligators (they technically aren't farm animals, but apparently they are Fish Hatchery animals).

We do love being farmers!