Dustin's 39th and A Bucket List Check Off

Last weekend was the beginning of the end of the 30's for this handsome man.  It happened to also be my ward's Primary Program practice that night, including a pizza party (I am the Primary President, so there was only one person to blame...).  I felt bad about that, so I was determined to make the rest of the day memorable for him.  We started off by letting him sleep in a little, then going to breakfast at a cute little cafe' right by our house.  It was a delicious start to our busy day!  After breakfast we dropped the kids off at home and then I took him shopping for a new birthday suit.  Ha ha ha!  But, seriously, it was his birthday and I was surprising him with a new, much needed suit.  We found one, paid a ridiculous amount of money for it (Who knew that suits were so expensive?  I certainly didn't.  This is the first one we've purchased since we got married, minus that $20 steal from DI a few years back.  Which, thinking about it now, that was an awesome deal!)  

 After suit shopping, we grabbed the kiddos and headed straight out to Dustin's new park.  He worked on this for 3+ years as the project manager, and it just opened a couple of weeks ago.  We hadn't seen it yet and we were so excited to see how it turned out!  We absolutely loved it!  And we happened to run into another Landscape Architect who Dustin worked with on this project, and he praised Dustin a lot for how well it turned out.  That, plus seeing it being well used and loved, was probably the best birthday present I could have given him.

 The only injury was mine, when my hand/sunglasses slammed into the side of my face as I hit the end of the 82 foot zipline.  A certain birthday boy may have given me just a little too much of a push to start me out.  A week later, and I still have a black eye.

After the park and the primary practice, we presented Dustin with his cake(s) that the kids had decorated so lovely.  With the busy day I had planned, I forgot to plan in time to bake a cake.  So the grocery store baked us some donuts instead.

 Donuts and gummy worms?  That's all this man needs to be happy.

 After donuts and presents, we took the kids to Scary Hill to use some tickets we had won at the County Fair.  We had lots of fun in the maze, playing mini golf, and on a hayride, among other spooky things.

And that was the end of a busy, happy, birthday for Dustin.  We sure love him!!

The weekend before Dustin's birthday we planned a quick trip with my parents to see Goblin Valley State Park.  This has been on our bucket list for a long time.  We had such a great time that I hope it doesn't take another 15 years to go back!

We started off our morning with a stop at a melon stand.  You know the ol' saying, "When in Green River..."

We tried to get the Christmas Card picture right away, knowing that it would be nearly impossible to get all of us together again for a picture.

Grandpa and Grandma were troopers!

 

We hiked for hours all over the valley.  It is such a unique, fun landscape.

 

What a strong, brave husband.

  

After we were done with the goblins, we decided to take a quick hike up Wild Horse Canyon.  It was a fun slot canyon and totally worth the extra mile of hiking, when we were pretty exhausted already.

 

 

 

 We found some petroglyphs on our drive home.

 We stopped for pizza and then drove on home, very tired and happy after a long fun day!

Beginning of Fall

September is such a great month.  The temperatures have cooled a little, the trees are changing, we are in the full swing of school.  I found evidence of all of this in my pictures for this month.

The PTA Reflections contest just happened, so I found a whole bunch of pictures of the Fall leaves, sunsets, clouds and other random things that my kids thought might be worthy of the photography portion of the contest.  It made for some pretty pictures.

With the beautiful weather, we have spent a lot of time outside.  One day, all of my boys and I went on a hike near our house.

 The whole family hiked a pretty hard hike on Labor Day.  The kids did awesome, and we felt like we'd accomplished something afterwards.

 We tried out a park that Dustin helped design.  It got an A+.

We finally replaced the corner tree in our yard, that we cut down 2 years ago!  And, within a week, all the leaves had fallen off and it looked dead.  Dustin, the tree whisperer, thinks that it was just shocked from the planting and he has high hopes that it will be alive and well in the Spring.  Unless the deer eat it first.

 We wore mustaches during General Conference.  Just because we could.

 The kid's school did a Fun Run, and both Maren and Grant ran the most laps for their grade, so they got to spray the teachers and principal with silly string.  Goal accomplished!

 The annual Father Son Campout happened, regardless of the pouring rain and cold temperatures.  The boys had a blast camping and we girls had a blast doing pedicures and watching movies.

  Dustin and I went on a date and took a selfie.  We had to try twice because we are old and couldn't figure out the right angle.  Plus, the second time we didn't get the lady in the background.

 We went to this totally random Christmas Cantata (in the middle of September).  It was beautifully sung and well done by a group from Korea.

 One sunny Sunday we used some chalk paint of Grant's and worked on some chalk art masterpieces.

 It is the time of year to reap the rewards of our garden!

 Avery got a hamster, and then two weeks later it gave birth to seven little baby hamsters.  That was a little bonus gift that the pet store gave us.  Thank you so stinkin' much.  Literally.  My house smells like a barn.