Happy Halloween

We started off our Halloween festivities with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  The kids had such a blast.  They rode the ponies, took rides on the zip line, played in the corn, picked out pumpkins, went for barrel rides and just ran around with smiles on their faces.  I think their favorite was the zip line and they would have stayed on it the whole night if we would have let them. Amazingly McKay did it all by himself and held on nice and tight until one of us got him off.  Everyone chose out a pumpkin with the intentions of carving them, but they just ended up sitting on our front porch, oops.

The kids then got to put their costumes on for the first time at the Activity Day's Halloween Party.  All the girls kept asking McKay to roar and Brooklyn had a blast decorating cupcakes with them.  We all then dressed up for Brian and Brooke's annual Halloween party.  The rule this year was that everyone had to dress up, which I think was a fun rule.  The kids had a blast playing Halloween games and getting candy out of the pinata and just playing with their cousins.

Then finally was the grand finale...Trick or Treating.  We once again headed to Eric and Kim's neighborhood and it was packed.  The kids ran from house to house, even McKay ran the entire time (which is a good thing because I forgot to bring the stroller), he refused to slow down and because of the he fell a few times but was quick to pop back up and get right back at it.  The best part of the evening was when McKay looked up and there was a kid, probably about 8 years old, wearing a scream mask and it just completely freaked McKay out.  I couldn't help laughing.  The kids had a blast and got a ton of candy.  Brooklyn is already thinking of what she should be next year.  I do have to say that we had the cutest dinosaur and butterfly around.

Shiny New Things

We have had few exciting things happening around here the last few weeks.  First off Brooklyn finally learned how to ride her bike.  She was having such a hard time this summer with her balance, but we had her riding a razor scooter and her balance improved a lot.  Once soccer was over we finally had sometime for her to get out with her bike again and she picked it up instantly.  She was excited and it really was thrilling to watch her accomplish something she wanted so badly.  Now all she wants to do is ride her bike and McKay will just ride his scooter around for as long as she will ride her bike.

We told her last summer that once she learned how to ride her bike she could get her ears pierced.  So a few days after she started riding her bike I took her to Claire's to get her ears pierced.  She was super brave.  I told her it would be like getting a flu shot in her ear.  She looked a little nervous while they were marking her ears, but didn't even shed a tear.  Now she has these cute little pink earrings and she looks absolutely adorable and way too grown up.

Not to out shine our little miss Brooklyn but Craig got himself a shiny new toy as well...A Brand New Truck!!

After 12 good years with his Dodge Dakota, Craig finally said goodbye and said hello to a shiny new GMC Sierra.  We are officially a GMC family.  Craig had his Dakota since we started dating, so it was a little hard to say goodbye, but his new truck is quite impressive and I think he is still in shock every time he gets in to drive it.  The kids have yet to ride in and I think it will be a little while before that happens, but it is nice to have more room in the back seat and a cover over the bed.  The kids were both excited that the truck was still blue and they keep talking about Daddy's new truck.  Craig saved up for a long time for this truck and is very deserving of his shiny new truck.

Not to leave McKay out of all of the fun.  McKay is talking like crazy now and is constantly spatting out new words.  He loves to copy everyone especially during prayers.  He also loves to try to sing along with the radio.  It is so fun to to watch his little mind work and see him continuing to develop, he is such a smart boy.

Soccer Season

Brooklyn had such a fantastic soccer season with the Grey Wolves.  She was so much fun to watch and improved so much from the spring.  This season we decided to have her play through the Star Park and rec. and it was so much better.  Her coach was great and actually taught them about the game.  Brooklyn's dribbling and defense kept improving as the season went on.  She was one of the older ones on her team, which meant she was faster than most of the other girls and that helped her score in every game but one.  She would get so excited every time she scored and would cheer every time someone else on her team scored.  She was so sad when the season was over and can't wait to play again.  They finished off the season with a party and the coach even got all of the girls a trophy, Brooklyn couldn't believe it.  It was so much fun seeing her confidence grow and watch her work hard at something she loves.  McKay was a great cheerleader and I know he will be out there soon enough himself.

Summertime

We had such an enjoyable summer.  We swam as much a possible, it helps when both sets grandparents have pools, we went to the park and played outside whenever we could.  We hiked, and played at the splash pad and smiled all the way.  At the beginning of the summer Brooklyn went to Farm Camp with Ryan and Kiley.  McKay loved dropping her off each day because he got to hold to bunnies and the kittens.  He still talks about holding them.  A few weeks later Nana had a tea party for the granddaughters.  Brooklyn was in heaven with the tea party and she absolutely adores the tea cup that Nana gave her. We also had fun at Eagle Island a few times early in the summer.  The kids loved playing in the sand and I loved that it was close to the house.  We were sad to see the summer come to an end, but are excited for fall time, boots, leaves, and pumpkins.  We are also excited to get a little more use out of our fire pit once it starts cooling down a little bit.

As summer was coming to a close my little brother Tucker got home from his two year mission in Scottsdale Arizona that he served for our church.  He was a great missionary and I know that he grew up a lot while he was there and that he will miss the people of Arizona, but we were all very excited to get him home.  There were a ton of people at the airport to welcome him home and then we spent a weekend full of family.  My oldest sister and her family came into town and we ate a lot of food, went to the temple together, swam, and took family pictures (fingers crossed they turned out well and we will be ahead of the game for family pictures).  He heads off to BYU-I in a few weeks, but we are glad that he will be close and can get home often.

We finished off our summer with a bang and headed off to Sun Valley for Labor Day weekend.  Craig's family always went to Sun Valley for Labor Day for a car auction and Craig absolutely loved that tradition and wanted to pass it along to our family.  We went with Craig's parents and his brother Eric's family.  We drove in Friday evening and grabbed a quick dinner before heading to the condo.  Saturday morning we headed to the car auction to walk around and check out all of the cars for sale.  After lunch Brooklyn headed to the parade with Nana and Pops while McKay and I headed back to the condo for a nap and Craig hung at the auction.  After nap McKay and I joined everyone back at the auction and we hung there until dinner.  After dinner we got ready for the ice show.  Craig hung back with McKay to put him to bed.  Brooklyn was so excited to watch the ice skaters and their tricks.  She loved all of the spins and jumps and especially the back flips.  Her favorite was the "crazy guy" he did a routine to ACDC and was dressed in leopard leggings and a blond wig.  She was cheering and clapping and just loving every minute of it.  She keeps asking when she can go ice skating.  Sunday morning we ate brunch together and then back to the car auction.  We all rested a little bit that afternoon and then walked around the little mall at the resort and then around downtown Ketchum.  Monday morning we then just packed up and headed back home.  The kids both did great on the drive (it was actually probably the best drive McKay has ever done, fingers crossed it is the start of something good). The kids had a blast, the weather was perfect and we can't wait to get back again.  This is definitely a tradition that we want to continue on with our kids.  We will see how long it will be before Craig buys a car at the auction.