Holiday Payback

 

 

I know it is now the middle of Decmber, but for the sake of posterity, I am going to try to catch up and post some pictures of Halloween!  You can think of it as payback for Christmas music playing in October and the stores with Christmas decorations before they even clear out the Halloween candy :)  

 

The boys had a lot of fun marching in the costume parade at the ward Halloween trunk-or-treat.  Camden even won an award for the scariest costume!  We told him that he had won the "Scariest Costume Award," and when he went to claim his paper certificate, he brought it back a little disappointed and said, "This is only a piece of paper, not a scary costume!" 

My Mom and Camden helped me paint these skeleton costumes with orange glow-in-the-dark paint.  I thought they turned out great and the boys looked so cute with their matching costumes.  It was so fun to have my parents and Calvin's Dad there to see the boys in their costumes!  We had fun passing out candy and enjoyed the chili cook-off (no, my chili didn't win, but it was close I'm sure) and the dry-ice rootbeer.

On the monday night before Halloween, we carved a pumpkin for Family Night.  Camden wanted a moon with stars like a design on the cutting tool Grandma sent him. 

 

 

Camden picked this crazy spider cake from the cakes that were set out with that week's free bread and bakery items that a lady in our ward gets from a local grocery store when they are about to expire.  It had a ton of frosting!  The tastiest part was the licorice legs. 



 

And here is the finished product!  It turned out great!

 

On Halloween night, we took the boys around a nearby neighborhood where they had so much fun trick-or-treating.  Coulton couldn't wait to eat the candy in his bag!!  He had to keep taking things out to eat along the way.  Camden had fun saying "Trick-or-Treat!".  I had fun loading up on candy for the boys to share with Mom and Dad...I may have been the one saying, "just one more house, please!" 



Mom's Birthday & Parks

 

I know it was a long time ago, but the month of August was great here in Las Vegas! Brooklyn took a spontaneous trip and came for my Birthday!  We had some really good pizza and chicken wings for dinner and an awesome ice cream cake that Calvin got for me.  It was a nice night! The boys got me some nice gifts (some planters and seeds for growing flowers and herbs and some kitchen things I had been wanting) and Brooklyn brought me a present too!

 

While Brooklyn was here, we spent one day exploring a few places on the strip.  She took me down to the Cosmopolitan where she had gone to a concert.  I took her over the Bellagio to watch the fountain. 

 

We also took the boys from some ice cream :) 

It was so fun to have Brooklyn visit!  Another thing that kept us busy in August was visiting the parks!  We were happy to find the covered playgrounds and the splash pads!  The boys had a lot of fun.

Mt. Charleston

 

 

We arrived in Las Vegas to 110 degree temperatures.  On one of our first weekends, we headed up to Mt. Charleston, which is only about half an hour from our house.  Who knew there was a forest near Las Vegas?!  We had a great time hiking with the boys and Spud.  Camden even walked almost all the way up, with a little dragging from Mom.  The views were amazing!  We hiked 1.5 miles up and climbed over 1,000 feet to Cathedral Rock.  When we got to the top, we ate some sandwiches and snacks and enjoyed the view.  Coulton fell asleep on the way down and Camden wasn't far behind him on the ride home.  It was a great way to spend the day where it was nice and cool! 



Summer Recap



In an effort to get back to present-day, I am going to do a miscellaneous post on some of the fun things we did during our summer in Utah!  It was so nice to visit our family throughout the summer and we are very grateful to my parents for letting us stay with them in Morgan while Calvin commuted to work in Salt Lake.   



 

One Saturday afternoon, we went up to East Canyon reservoir, only a few minutes from my parents' house.  We all had fun cooling off in the water and enjoying the scenery.  Spud had fun chasing the water as it lapped up on the shore.

Here we are, a family of 5; Dad, Mom, Camden, Coulton, and Spud, all looking good on our way to church one morning-don't worry, we did leave Spud at home.

 

 

The boys had so much fun playing outside at my parents' house.  They found this pile of sand and spent many hours on many different occasions digging and playing.

 

We also had a lot of fun playing on the patio in the back.  The boys loved playing with the water and their various water toys.

 

 

 

In general, the boys just loved being outside where they were free to roam, play, and explore!

 

 

 

On the 24th of July, we went to Bountiful for the annual Pioneer Day parade where we met my grandparents and some aunts and uncles.  It was fun to see some of my cousins who I haven't seen for a while!  They are so grown up!  The boys loved the candy, popsicles, and floats.  We even got to see over 2,000 stripling warriors marching at the end of the parade!  It was really neat.

 

 

 

We then took the boys over to the carnival at the Bountiful park.  I remember going to this carnival when I was growing up and fishing at the fish pond!

 

 

Camden had fun spending his tickets on this bounce house and some treats.  It was fun to spend some time with my grandparents.

 

On another day, I took the boys to the park in Morgan, where we went on a nice walking path.  Camden wanted to pose for a picture here on this log.  Coulton got to pose on the bridge over the river :)

We also got to go up to the lodge with my Dad a couple of times.  One morning, the boys and I rode up with Brooklyn and rode home with my Dad in the evening.  The boys loved eating their ice cream cones and wearing their new Bear River Lodge shirts.

 

The boys took a long nap over at Cabin 11, so Brooklyn traded me and stayed with the boys while I went over to the store to work.  It was actually a lot of fun to do something different and I really enjoyed helping organize the store!

We also got to go to Heber to watch and support my Mom in her reigning competition.  She did great!  Here she is with Pal, Camden, and her trainer Jeff. 

And here is Camden, always posing for the camera :)

Over the 4th of July week, Calvin was able to take Thursday and Friday off of work and we were able to spend a couple days at the Oyler Family Reunion which was in Loa this year.  They rented this old barn that has been converted into a house/hotel for group gatherings. 

 

 

This is the town where Calvin's Grandpa Oyler, his Mom's Dad, grew up.  It was fun to tour the town with him and listen as he told us about all of the people and places he knew.

 



Camden had a great time running around with all of the other kids at the reunion.  I had a nice time meeting some of Calvin's cousins and their wives and just talking and chatting.  It was great to be around our family.  Thank you to everyone who worked hard to put this together!

We had such a great summer and truly appreciate all of the hard work Calvin did, driving back and forth to Salt Lake, working at the law firm, and studying and taking the bar.  Congratulations to Calvin who recently found out he passed the Utah Bar!  We are so proud of him and all of his hard work!

Cherry Hill

We had so much fun going to Cherry Hill a couple of times over the summer.  Cherry Hill was one of our favorite places to go when my sisters and I were little girls, so it was really fun to take the boys there.  Camden and Coulton both had a lot of fun playing in the water.  Camden loved jumping into the pool and Coulton liked splashing and playing.  Thank you to my mom and sisters for going with us!