The Reno temple. I was born in Reno so this had some sentimental value.
Yes those are our homegrown pumpkins. The largest one weighed 35 pounds. There was no way Trevor and I wanted to scrape the guts out of those humdingers so we painted them which worked wonderfully (no knives, slime or worrying about lighting candles).
I think it looks fabulous and Michelle is ecstatic (especially the part that we decided to let her continue having her own room instead of moving Megan in with her).
It took awhile but I finally got up some Halloween decorations. Much to the kids' dismay I refuse to use scary nasty things as decorations; hence the reason no spiders, mummies, etc. We do have several cute skeletons on the windows and one even glows in the dark.
We found out that Caleb's school teacher sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir so I took Caleb and Michelle up to Temple Square for the broadcast of "Music and the Spoken Word." I'd forgotten how wonderful the acoustics are in the tabernacle. The singing and the symphony were wonderful. My only regret was that the kids have to at least 8 years old (we fudged with Michelle) due to the live broadcast-it would've been even a better morning if we could have enjoyed it as a family.
Caleb wanted to play football. I thought that flag football would be a nice introduction into playing the game without him getting squashed. What I didn't know is that the rules are different enough from tackle football that it made things more confusing. I personally had a hard time watching the game since I kept wondering why the play stopped even though the opponent was still standing- - it's called they pulled his flag so the play is dead - those are the drawbacks from watching my brothers play TACKLE football. Next year he wants to try tackle football - I don't know if me or my wallet is ready for that.
We decided to take the kids canoeing so we joined Trevor's sister's family for an afternoon down at Mona Lake. Strapping the rented canoe up on top of the van proved to be a monumental task, rowing the canoe was yet another wonder especially since Gabriella insisted on holding onto my paddle. We made a small tour of the lake with all of us in the canoe, then Trevor and I went out, followed by Trevor and Michelle. Yet the total time the canoe was in the water was maybe 40 minutes. It turns out it's a lot more work to paddle that thing then we had thought. The kids had more fun playing and rowing their cousins' kayaks. We made sure plenty of pictures were taken though since this will be the last time we plan on ever renting a canoe again.
Caleb really is 9 not 6 - he was just a little impatient and didn't want to wait for me to find more candles. I can't believe he's already 9. It seems like yesterday he was turning 8. But it's been so nice to have him get older and more self sufficient. He wakes up by himself and is dressed and eating breakfast by the time I get back from running.
This is actually the day after my birthday - we just never got around to taking pictures yesterday so I had Megan take this for me. I love my new haircut and I have never worn a t-shirt with more pride than my marathon t-shirt. I'm so happy to have completed the marathon that I have no problems with turning 37 years old. I actually feel healthier than I have my whole life and I love my weight loss so much I stand on the scale all the time just to see those numbers. In fact a few months ago my mom was concerned about me and said that I looked too thin. I laughed and told her she'd just given me the best compliment I'd ever heard!
Caleb had his last Pack meeting as a Wolf. My parents were in town so my dad was able to come watch Caleb receive 7 beltloops, 1 pin, and 2 silver arrows. My dad found this garter snake skin and gave it to Caleb.
Before my parents left to go back home they came by to give Caleb and I our birthday gifts. They also brought a turtle that they'd found walking across the street. Caleb was ecstatic! He named him Tubby before I even said if we were going to keep it or not.
I know it's not the best photo but when we drove down Main Street in Logan and saw this sign I got chills down my back. I think that's when it finally hit me that I was running a marathon less than 12 hours from that time.
Trevor and I finally bought ourselves a bike. The very night we bought it Caleb begged Trevor to go on a ride with him. We don't exactly have any roads around here that are anywhere near flat so it was a bit of a challenge for Caleb; nevertheless, he was able to earn his Bicycling beltloop for Cub Scouts.
Trevor's painting merit badge in scouts finally came in handy.
Now a week transpired between the above and below pictures. Trevor had to wear a boot brace on his foot and didn't couldn't move around well enough to finish the painting job. I was impatient and didn't want to wait for him so I did it myself. Mind you I have NEVER painted a room in my life so there was a huge learning curve.
Even after 2 coats the green wall didn't look very good. Trevor was able to help me with the 3rd coat so we could paint much faster and now the green walls look great.
Now that Caleb has his own room he has taken pride in keeping it clean (miracle of miracles!)
It took us a long day of cleaning to be able to see carpet again, and now that we can see floor I've given Michelle specific instructions of keeping her things picked up. As you can see she took that to mean things picked up off the floor but her bed is fair game for anything and everything.
As if we didn't get in enough painting yet, we're still needing to paint Michelle's window wall blue. As soon as the painting is done Megan will share this room with Michelle and Gabriella will then have her own room. 
