Scott, Ashley, Rachel & Alexa: October 2014

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Reason to Celebrate!

We had a big day this month! Scott and I left the girls behind the other day and went on a date to celebrate our 10th anniversary! We decided to not go out to dinner this year. Instead we found an adventure to enjoy! What better way to enjoy the beautiful fall colors than get outside in the canyon? We found a place in just that location to go zip-lining!

We got there a few minutes early to get our equipment. They took us in a group up the mountain, gave us a few instructions, hooked us up, then literally pushed us off the platform! After the first line, they just told us to go instead of pushing us.

Amid the beautiful fall colors and a gorgeous view of Mt. Timpanogos, we thoroughly enjoyed zipping through the canyon. The last ten years have been full of so many different things but I feel like our real adventure is just beginning.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The park!!

Check this girl out! She climbed an 8-foot rock wall at the park basically by herself! Scott stood by and guided her on where to put her hand next. Then she did it again!

Alexa just cleaned out the hand holds. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. I was actually surprised she didn't try to climb the wall before Rachel. She is our resident monkey.

Fall colors

After the fall festival, we went for a little drive to see the leaves changing. The girls are so excited about all of the different colors they are seeing on the trees right now. Especially since it is so different from what we had in the northwest.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Fall Festival

There was a Fall Festival over the weekend as a fundraiser for the library in Lewiston. I expected the girls to have fun, but I didn't expect us to have as much fun as we did! The first thing we did was go see the scarecrows. There was a scarecrow contest and auction. Lindsay's presc classes made a scarecrow to enter and it was not only auctioned off for $25, but won 3rd place!! We were all so excited for her!

Her scarecrow is the middle one with the purple bandana. The girls were excited to see the Queen Elsa and Anna scarecrows.

From the scarecrows, we played a few little games, then the girls wanted to get their faces painted. Remember this is a fundraiser. Those doing the painting were no more than 14. They were such cute girls and did such a great job with our girls it was totally worth it!

Rachel had a pumpkin on one side with a tulip on the other. Alexa waited patiently with Scott until it was her turn. You can see she is even holding her tickets so she is ready.

Once it was her turn, she didn't see anything on the sheet that she wanted, but the girl suggested "princess eyes" and Alexa was immediately excited about them!

Rachel's latest thing to tell me is something she hasn't done before. She has never been in a hot air balloon, a carriage ride, nor a hay ride! This girl has quite the bucket list and she is not even 4 yet! We saw the hay rides when we got there, so that was the next stop.

We climbed up for the ride and everyone got seated. Both girls were very excited with their prizes tucked in their arms.

Unfortunately, half way through our hay ride, as Scott and I are thinking we are the best parents because we have checked something off a preschooler's bucket list, she says, "oh no. This is not a hay ride. There is no hay." BUSTED! I immediately had to teach her how to change her way of thinking. We were sitting on carpet, but I suggested maybe that it was a carriage ride, hoping she would agree. Lucky for all involved, she did! Check! Maybe we will find a hay ride in the next couple of weeks. We still found something else to do after the carriage ride. Rylie and Tyson's favorite thing is the pumpkin launch.

They have small pumpkins, apples, and a variety of other produce that you load into the sling shot and launch at the targets. Rachel did two or three and was done.

Alexa had so much fun! She kept going back for more and eventually got Scott in on the fun, too!

She will be back there for more next year with Rylie, who hit the target 5 times in a row!

After the kids (big and small) finished launching produce, the girls wanted to go ride the pony.

Rylie's friend led the pony around while the girls sat on it. They were just so excited to be on the pony!

After all of these fun things, you'd think they would've been tired and done. Wrong! The festival was being held at a park. I don't think any child can resist playing at a play structure when they are near one.

Rachel climbed the rock structure, which means Alexa needed a picture there, too.

So much fun at the festival for everyone that we are planning on going next year, too!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Apples to Spa Treatments

We have an had an interesting couple of days around here. We went apple picking on Thursday. Since then, the girls have been so much great entertainment! On Friday, we went to a store with a friend and I let each of the girls pick out a new nail polish for Sunday. I also picked up a little project for myself to work on while listening to General Conference on Saturday. We are gearing up for a colder winter than we used to have in Washington, so the girls needed some little scarves and gloves!

I have a few finishing touches to add, but they are both very excited about wearing these this winter!

When it came to Sunday morning, I pulled out the girls' stuff so they would sit quietly and listen conference with us. They were ecstatic about what we were about to do thanks to a Fancy Nancy book...they got to have manicures and pedicures!

Both girls sat so still as I painted their nails. We have been known to do haircuts at the same time as nails because they will sit so still to have their nails painted. (No, we didn't pose their hands.)

This brings us to today. I needed to get our "apple situation" under control, so I planned to can apple pie filling. It also means that I planned for a pajama day for the girls. No point in anyone getting dressed if we aren't leaving the house! There came a point that I needed more apples brought in from our stash outside. Rachel immediately offered to help! It meant that she would get to go in and out of the house without supervision, but more importantly, that would mean she was a big helper. She did so great calling to me to find how many apples I needed and what colors, then carefully carrying more than one apple per hand to gently put in my bowl. Then, suddenly, my apple flow slowed to a dead stop! I went out to check on my big helper and found something had gotten into my apples!

Some of the apples only had one bite out of them while others were very much enjoyed. Then, I located the culprit...

This all happened during Alexa's nap time. She is just too little to make it through the day without a nap, much to her dismay. There are perks though. When she woke up today, Rachel was still in big helpler mode and kind enough to give her a foot bath! Alexa knew just what to do because she, too, has enjoyed the Fancy Nancy book!

All in all, it has been a fun couple of days around our home and I can't wait to see what happens the rest of the week!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Apple Picking

We had such a wonderful time this evening on a spontaneous trip to pick apples! Someone my mother knows through work has 25-30 apples trees on their property. I called him this afternoon and he invited us to take as many apples as we could! When we arrived, we were greeted by an Anatolian Shepherd dog. If you have never seen one, look it up! This dog had Rachel climbing up me because he was bigger than she is! The gentleman assured us this old dog could not be more gentle. He and his wife were the sweetest people.

(No nap makes her look super tired!)

They told us they bought the house and property about 3 years ago and were only the second owners...the house was built in 1914. It was so fun to get to know them and have been invited back to pick next year! The girls enjoyed running around and got to see their chickens. Rachel helped herself to 3 apples tonight. I helped her finish her third one and they are the sweetest apples I have ever eaten! Rachel is already asking about when we get to have more.

(Unfortunately,no pictures of Alexa today because she kept running from me while laughing!)