Happy Haunting!

It seems that since school has started our lives consist of running from one activity to the next. It's so crazy!

The kids had a fun Halloween. It seemed like an entire week of it, since they had DARE week at school. First it was crazy hair day, then tie day, then cap day, then red day and finally Halloween costume day. Whew! Tyler came up with his sailor costume all by himself. He was really proud of himself. Kenna decided at the last minute to be a witch. Thank goodness grandma had a costume bin with a costume that fit perfectly!

The kids had a costume parade at school, and then the first graders went to the care center to sing Halloween songs. The staff had dressed up all the residents and it wasn't until the kids were completely done singing that I realized I was sitting right behind my grandma. She was dressed up like a devil! So funny, she slept through the entire program. Don't they look entertained? ;-)

We ended the week by going trick-or-treating. The kids got loaded up with candy and Kenna got a belly ache. Tyler's reached a milestone because this is the second year in a row that he hasn't throw up all his Halloween candy! We did had a little drama at our house that night when Tyler's pumpkin was stolen off the front porch. Von thinks it's because I gave out lousy treats. I'm sure it's because Tyler had painted it so cool.

Six Little Monkeys Playing at the Zoo....

We have a Labor Day tradition of going to the Hogle Zoo with our family. There were lots of baby animals to see and the kids had a blast. My mom warned me that the zoo might want to keep Tyler because he's such a monkey. Some days, I could let them :-) This trip was compliments of Grandpa and Grandma Allred. Thanks guys!


The biggest monkeys of all Tyler and Jaxon


All six of the monkeys


Tyler, Katie, Brecken and Jaxon on the Conservation Carousel. Isn't it funny that they insist on riding certain animals? Tyler was sure that his bufflo kicked like a buckin' bronco and Jaxie was so in to the reptiles that he had to ride on the poisonous tree frog.

Cute baby giraffe

School Days.....

Wednesday was the first day of school for both of the kids. Tyler made the move over to Kenna's school this year and they were both kind of excited to start. They changed the bussing schedule and we have to put the kids on 20 minutes earlier than last year. This is tough! It's weird that all four of us aren't rushing out the door at the same time now.

When I ask Kenna what her favorite part of school was that evening, she said "I get three recesses!" Tyler's favorite part was the treasure hunt they had in his classroom. It's decorated in a pirate theme, complete with a ship. I can already tell it's going to be a good year!

XGames Stunts

I know I keep posting video of Tyler doing tricks, but I find it amazing that he can do them. He has such a sense of balance (he gets that from his dad) and a lot of determination. He watched the X Games on TV this summer and then the county fair had the Ogio 5050 Freestyle BMX/Motocross team in Delta. Tyler was fascinated. He's been on his bike or skateboard ever since, and I do have to say, he's pretty good for an 8 year old kid. However, he needs a constant audience. He doesn't want a cool trick to happen while no one is watching! Even though the driveway scraped the freckles off one side of his face, he just keeps trying. :-)

Family Vacation

We decided to take a last minute family vacation to Lake City, Colorado a few weeks ago. I have an aunt who lives in this quaint little tourist town high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We had such a fun time. The kids had never been there before, and talk about living in the mountains. There was so much to do and see and so little time.

Tyler fishing at Deer Lakes

Kenna was so excited because this was her first fishing trip. She caught a fish, but when they set it on the shore it flopped back in the water. ;-)

Jace and Grandpa Reid

Look closely. This picture was taken from the top of what they call the "shelf road". It's this really narrow, high road on the side of a mountain. Very scary. But it lead to this absolutely gorgeous area called American Basin.

American Basin

There were wildflowers blooming everywhere!

Dude and Kenna

Von and I

Tyler's feeding a Marmot. The kids thought this was really cool.

After dark one evening, we went out to see if we could spot a bear. We found a huge black bear scratching his back on a tree in someone's backyard. He was probably only 15 feet from their back door and was very intimidating. We drove around some more and found several bears just scavenging through people's yards. We even scared one out of a tree. Sorry, no pictures of the bears!

We finished off our vacation with a trip to the miniature golf course. My cousin Tucker, Kelci, Grandpa Reid, Kenna, Von, Grandma Jackie, Jace and Tyler.

Thanks, Edna, for making this such a fun trip for us!

that's Tyler Allred, he's awesome...

My nephew Jace took this video of Ty on his cell phone.

Birthday Girl

Yesterday my baby turned six. I can't believe she's growing up so fast. Kenna is such a sweet special little girl and you can definitely tell that she's the baby, the only girl, and a princess. It was so fun to celebrate her birthday in our new yard last night. The weather was beautiful and we a lot friends and family there to party along with us. She wanted a puppy dog cake this year and since she is the baby/only girl/princess, she gets what she wants. Thank goodness creative people post pictures online so that I can copy them. ;-)
Happy Birthday Peanut Princess!