The Sky is Falling!

OK, not really; those falling things would be leaves and snow!  Last week we had our first few inches of snow that stuck around a couple days.  It's melted now and should be a pretty nice week for Halloween.  But this is what we woke up to mid-last week:

Before that, the leaves were turning and slowly falling off the trees.  Owen really loves to crunch the leaves and giggles when he does so on his bike.  He knows his way pretty well through the neighborhood, and we've been on some really long walks when he's leading on his bike.

He's been very interested in people's yard decorations for Halloween this year, too, which requires several minutes of staring and inquisitive "What's that?"s from the sidewalk.  We are keeping it low-key this year, and probably just trick-or-treating with some friends.  We did go to the pumpkin patch, but it was a miserable, windy day, so we didn't stay long.  Just long enough to ride the train and pick out a small pumpkin.

And we carved a pumpkin.  Well, I should say that Daddy did.  Owen took one handful of goop out of the pumpkin and then wanted to wash his hands. :)

Now that it's getting cooler outside, we are spending more time indoors with friends.  They actually play with and talk to each other now, which is so fun to watch!  Carson wanted to build things, and Jacob is in to wrestling these days.  Owen is an accommodating host.  :)

Hadley's getting better at tummy time and is awake a lot more now, too.  We suspect that she is teething (yikes!), because she is very drooly and loves nothing more than to chew on her hands.  She doesn't like pacifiers, which is opposite of Owen, but requires a bit more work with constant motion, conversation, etc.  Check out her big, blue eyes!  

Hook 'em Hadley

It's time that we announced our second child to the UT Alumni magazine, The Alcalde.  So, I dressed up Hadley in some burnt orange and clicked away.  Here's the one we'll submit for the publication:

And here are some runner-ups.

In related news, Owen has been practicing his Hook 'em Horns hand sign.  Though by the time our game is on, he's usually "tired of watching football."  Sorry, boy!  Less than 2 months to go in the season now.  By the way, does this onesie look familiar?  Here's Owen posing for the magazine in the same one!  :)

Ahoy, matey!

Sneak peek for Halloween costumes!  We had a party to go to last week, so some quick decisions were made regarding costumes.  Owen wanted to be a fire truck, but they didn't really have that at the store, so he chose pirate as a second choice.  :)  I'm thinking that he might be a little chilled come Halloween night...

Hadley didn't have a preference, so we went with a ladybug.

They were both surprisingly accommodating and cooperative with their costumes!  Yea!

As for the Halloween party, it was a beautiful, warm day.  There was a bouncy house with a slide, lots of toys and food, and doughnuts on strings to be eaten sans hands.  The toddlers didn't really get this concept.  :)

We also hit up a straw maze and a corn maze (with Carson and Abigail - Owen is in stripes), since they are pretty popular around here.  The corn maze actually has 3 trails, 2 of which are about 3 miles long!  We're talking huge mazes!  The kid-friendly trail was a more doable 0.4 miles, and with the toddlers leading I think we probably did 3 times that around in circles.  They had to collect 6 animal tracks in the maze and then match them up to the prints on the sign.

And finally, a couple of close-ups of Hadley just because.

Fall Fun

We have been keeping busy with lots of different activities.  September, I think, is the best weather month here because it's sunny with perfect temperatures.  (Our A/C was off pretty much from the end of August until we turned on the heater in October.)  So we took in a free symphony concert in the park.

We also ventured to the Pocatello Zoo one day.  Their zoo is built into a mountain side, so it was quite a workout to explore.  They focus on North American native animals, like bison, foxes, grizzly bears, and eagles, which was interesting to see up close.  And they had a fossil dig site that meant Owen could get nice and dirty.

One of the regional parks has a pioneer village set up and they offer tours.  My moms' group organized one along with a dino dig.  The kids got to go to class in a one-room schoolhouse, browse the general store, make woolen thread, and pan for gold.

The dino dig consisted of uncovering random bones and fossils that one of the moms buried for us.  They had shovels and brushes, and each kid got to take home a trilobite.

We took advantage of our crazy winds by flying kites at the park one day.  Owen didn't understand that he could just stand still and let the wind do the work, so he kept running around with the kite under trees.  After I untangled it from the second tree, he dropped the string and the whole thing blew through the parking lot and across the street into someone's field.  Bye bye kite!

A friend grew tons of pumpkins in her garden and set them up for some fall photos.  Owen, once again, demonstrated his lack of interest in posing for pictures, and Hadley wasn't much better, though I got a few shots that were okay.

Arches National Park

Continuing our trip home from Breckenridge, we headed west on I-70 toward Utah.  Glenwood Canyon is really pretty, and Owen appreciated all of the tunnels we went through.

The mountains then gave way to mesas and desert landscape as we crossed into Utah.

We were going so close to Arches National Park, that I just had to pop in.  It really is amazing landscape, but I will probably always think of poop when I see/hear it now.  Why is that?  A few tidbits: 1) they were having an unusual downpour that started when we were parking at the Visitor Center, 2) we arrived just behind an Asian tour bus, most of which apparently headed directly to the ladies' room, making that an impossible option for someone who had already been holding it through the desert, 3) Hadley was screaming once we were on the trail, so I tried to nurse her behind a rock, 4) Owen was trying to run off and hide to poop at the same time, and 5) Hadley had an epic diaper blowout on the way back down the mountain wherein we threw her clothes away.  It was that bad.  

That being said, we did manage to enjoy the sights and take some pictures...  The dark sky provided an interesting contrast to the rocks.  (Owen's in a green jacket - see if you can find him!)

The next day we got some more interesting clouds playing with the mountains and fall color on the drive north.

It's good to know that we can do a car trip like this if needed, but we were all glad to get home!