Halloween 2011

October is one of my favorite months of the year. One of the most fun things we did this month was going to the Stringtown Express Halloween train ride. A really nice family in Lindon, UT has built a miniature train track and decorates it for Halloween. It is free to ride, and they even give the kids a treat at the end. They have spent a lot of time and money decorating and running this event every year. My kids LOVED it, although it was a little scary for their liking. We got there early and still waited in line over an hour. They say if you get there after dark you'll wait 2 or so hours.

We also had our annual Winn family chili/Halloween party at Adam's grandma's ("G")house. We look forward to it every year. G always makes her amazing chili, the kids wear their costumes, there's a pinata, Halloween Bingo with great prizes, and lots of desserts. This year the party was held on Kylee's actual birthday, so she got to celebrate with a cupcake and candles.

Halloween was a crazy day. I got Ethan off to school early, went to the store for dry ice, got Austin off to preschool, went to Ethan's school to watch the traditional school Halloween parade, and raced to Austin's preschool to help with the special Halloween treat I'd made for them. That evening we went to my parent's house for dinner, then came back to our neighborhood where my sister joined me to take the kids trick-or-treating. Ethan was the black bird from Angry Birds (my mom and I made the costume, he LOVED it), Austin was Mario (he wanted to be Bowser, but they don't sell the costume anywhere and it was way too complicated to make. He refused to wear Mario's hat or mustache), and Kylee was Snow White (I tried to pick something else for her to be, but the boys INSISTED that she HAD to be a princess. And she loves Snow White, so she was happy as can be).

Family Pictures

We got pictures taken with my side of the family back in September, and we also did a couple shots with our little family.








My whole family plus inlaws and grandkids


Me and my brothers and sister


My parents


Me, my sister, and my sister-in-law Lara

Coronado!

Every 3 years we have a tradition of getting together for a reunion with my friends from BYU. I met these girls when I lived in the dorms my freshman year. Jaime was my roommate and long time best friend that I grew up with in Georgia, Liz and Mindy were our next door dorm neighbors, Kristin and Andi lived in a room down the hall, and Chelsea was Kristin's best friend from California and Hilary was her roommate. Some of us lived together the next year in the Avenues (232!!) and we've managed to keep in touch over the years. Our husbands all get along great and love hanging out together, so as a result, they won't let us have a trip without them being invited too. This year Jaime, Jon, Andi, Mark, Chelsea, Grant, and Hilary weren't able to make it. :(

Liz was kind enough to invite us again to her parent's beach house in Coronado (a little island right off of San Diego). If you've never been to Coronado, you must go. It is one of my favorite places in the world. It's small and quaint, with the most beautiful homes and amazing beaches. And there's a military base on the island, so you get to see all sorts of cool planes and helicopters fly over.

The weather was actually pretty cool while we were there, so we didn't get to spend any time laying out at the beach. We stayed in our pajamas til noon every day just talking and laughing. The boys and Ashley went surfing one afternoon, while the rest of us spent the day at the Hotel Del Coronado's pool. We made dinner together one night and went out to eat at a delicious Thai place the next night, and to downtown San Diego to eat another night. We also took a bike ride on Gilbert's beach cruisers. We spent our nights eating, laughing, playing funny games, making s'mores, and telling scary stories (thanks to Liz!).

The boys were first in line for dinner


We ended up sitting at a boys table and girls table, because the girls didn't want to talk work and business the whole time and the boys didn't want to talk about having babies and girl stuff the whole time.



We celebrated 3 birthdays while there


Hanging at the Del's hot tub


Kristin and Craig


Ashley and Todd


Mindy and Jeff


Liz and Mike (our hosts)


Karisa and McKay


Me and Adam


Making s'mores and talking around the campfire


Playing a really funny game (don't ask...)


Getting ready for our bike ride


Adam, Jeff, and Craig in front of the house, ready for our bike ride


Hanging on the beach with Mindy and Kristin (it was freezing that day)

7th birthday

I somehow forgot to blog for Ethan's 7th birthday, so here's a few pictures. We had an Angry Birds themed party. I had tons of cute decorations that I made, but didn't really get any pictures.
Here are some of Ethan's favorites for his 7th birthday:
Favorite foods: smoothies, Cafe Rio beans, tortillas, and ranch, pizza, chicken rollups
Favorite friends: his brother is his very best friend, but he also loves to play with Cohen and Layton, and he also loves playing with his cousin Nicholas
Favorite toys: Wii, blocks to build angry birds houses with, Legos
Favorite things to do: ride his bike, go to the park, go to his grandparents houses
Favorite subject in school: math
What I love most about Ethan: Ethan has the most sweet, tender heart. He LOVES me more than any kid has ever loved their mom. He is always telling me how great, wonderful, pretty, cute, funny, amazing I am (what a self esteem boost, eh?). He is really smart and memorizing and learning just come easily to him. And don't get me started about how amazing he is with numbers. Crazy.







I took this picture of the sunset on the night of his birthday, it was beautiful, and I love the city we live in.

Picnic in the Canyon

There's nothing better to do in Utah than spend a day in the mountains. I always forget how much I love it til I get there and then I wonder why I'm not there every day!
We went to Provo Canyon with my family a couple weeks ago. We had a picnic and then hiked around with the kids. Adam and Ryan got invited to join in a football game with some Mexican family; at first they said no but these guys were persistant! They played and ended up having a lot of fun.

Here's my family, minus Kristin who was there but had to leave early, and minus Eric and Lara who are in Colorado. Kylee was DONE with pictures.


Brothers


Kylee was laughing as we dropped leaves on her


T-ball


The happy couple


Our little family


She kept sneaking away from the picnic table to go to the Provo River to throw leaves and rocks in the water. The water is pretty fast moving and high this year, and Ethan has fallen in the past 2 times that we've come to this park, so she was making me a little nervous.


The leaves are changing


Climbing a tree. Sorry for all the pictures of her, I'm kind of obsessed with her.


The Big Game