It's Autumn Time!

It's autumn time! It's autumn time!
The leaves are falling down.
It's autumn time! It's autumn time!
It's all around the town.

I am the primary pianist and we sang that song about 100 6 times today, so it's kind of in my head (sorry). I love Logan in the fall. The temperature is perfect, the trees look incredible, it's football season, and it's really just a great time of year.

Yesterday we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to help them rake some leaves. They have quite a few trees so it becomes a pretty constant job this time of year. We also thought it would be fun to let Will experience jumping into a pile of leaves.

While Lance did most of the work, Will and I played on the swing set. There was one swing that was only a few inches off of the ground that he really enjoyed.

But he is used to the baby swings where he doesn't have to hang on, so he ended up falling flat on his back every few minutes. I tried to teach him to hang on, but he wasn't too interested.

He is a very helpful and observant kid, and he likes to be doing whatever we are doing. Whether it's raking leaves...


Gathering them...

Or stomping them down in the trash can.

And finally, jumping being thrown in the leaves...


 He was completely covered and you couldn't even see his face. He wasn't too thrilled and wanted out. So we unburied him a bit.

Hope everyone else is enjoying this season as much as we are. It'll be snowy and cold before we know it so we are really trying to enjoy it while we can.

Annual Pumpkin Walk

The weather was beautiful yesterday and we decided to go to the Pumpkin Walk that is in North Logan each year. We invited our friends Kasey and Ashli with us also.

We arrived a bit earlier then them (due to some car problems) so we took some pictures and let Will play at the park.

Will had a great time playing at the park and was furious when we decided to leave to go through the Pumpkin Walk.

He was pretty grumpy the entire time. He didn't want to be held, but if we put him down then he would run away. So we had to hold him and just deal with the grumpiness.

Joining in on being grumpy.

It was extremely crowded and we got behind some really slow people, but it was nice to be able to look in detail at all of the scenes. Here were a few of my favorites:

Madagascar 3

The Bachelor - this one was super funny

The roses to hand out

Killer Bunnies

Wipeout

Once we were done, we went back to the cutouts to try getting a few more pictures.

I remembered some of the ones we got last year, so I tried getting the same ones so we could compare with this year. If you want to see the ones from last year, click here.

 

Talk about style!

Today I started to make Will's Halloween costume. No, I am not going to mention what it is...it is top secret. Anyways, I needed a pattern for a vest so I decided to use one of Will's. Before I used it though, I had to try it on to make sure it still fit him.

When I took off the vest, Will started screaming. It took me a moment to figure out why, but he kept pointing to the vest. Throughout the day, I tried several times to take off the vest, but he would throw a fit and try putting it back on.

We weren't going anywhere for the day so I figured it wouldn't matter what he looked like. But he sure looked pretty goofy, especially since he seemed to have one of his pant legs hiked up for most of the day. It sure gave me a chuckle though.

Boise Baptism

This past weekend we were able to go to Boise, ID for my nephew's baptism. We knew it was a ways to go, especially when we were only able to stay a day, but we really wanted to support my brother's family as we rarely get to see them.

They just finished remodeling the Boise temple so we went to the open house Saturday morning before the baptism. It was our first time in the Boise temple, so I couldn't tell what had been changed or updated, but it was still really great to go.

It was Will's first time going into a temple and he did remarkably well. The wait beforehand in the church was a little rough, but he didn't make a sound in the temple. He couldn't take his eyes off of the chandeliers and all of the lights. He was seriously mesmerized.

My sister and my mom.

The outside isn't my favorite temple design, but I think it was one of the prettiest temples I have been in. Every temple is beautiful, but there was something that made me really like this one, though I couldn't figure what exactly it was.

After the temple, we went back to the house for some amazing food. Then we let the kids run wild and have some fun before the baptism. Will sure loved being around his cousins and he couldn't get enough of all their toys. They were so sweet and happy to play with him.

There were quite a few baptisms happening and we were one of the last groups to go. Will was a bit crazy, running all over the chapel and playing up on the stand. I'm sure everyone was wondering where his parents were and why they weren't controlling him. But we figured a happy kid was better than him screaming, so we just let him play. And as far as I could tell, no one seemed to mind.

Tyler had a lot of support there to see him get baptized. We were sitting in the very back row, but could see due to the huge mirror. The entire baptism, Will was pointing at the mirror and shouting "wa-dee" (water). He just kept repeating it over and over, louder and louder until I finally had to take him out because I couldn't even hear what was being said and I didn't want to ruin it for everyone else.

Tyler before being baptized.

After the baptism, everyone went over to the house for some more amazing food. We ate and socialized until it was about Will's bedtime, then we decided to head home.

American West Heritage Center

Yesterday, my sister Cindy came up to Logan to visit for the day. We spent a good portion of the day trying to get some newborn pictures of my beautiful niece, Alexis. (Stay tuned for some of those pictures.) Later I thought it would be fun to go visit the American West Heritage Center for their Fall Days.

All of the kids had a ton of fun and I'm really happy that we decided to go.

The first thing the boys wanted to do was ride the train.

 Cindy's boys wanted to ride in the back. I think Will wanted to join them.

 After the train, we headed over the the "Giant Slide". At first you couldn't even see it and you'd think it was this tiny thing. But they put this tarp thing going down a hill and made a pretty decent slide.

 The kids LOVED it. I think they would have stayed there for hours if we had let them.

I literally couldn't keep Will off of it. If I set him down, he would run toward it and try going down. There were a few times he ended up going down alone because I couldn't catch him in time.

 While the slide was a lot of fun, the biggest problem was hiking back up. Will couldn't make the climb himself, so every time he went down, someone had to go down and carry him up. By the time I got to the top, I was out of breath and usually a little light headed. Fortunately, Cindy was willing to go get him a few times.

 

A look at our feet as Will and I are going down together.

 Will also loved just playing in the dirt and hay at the bottom.

 We convinced the boys to take a break from the slide and go see what other activities there were.

 They thought it was pretty cool to shoot some BB guns. There was also tomahawk throwing, but it looked a little too dangerous for these boys.

 While the boys were shooting, Will had fun ducking under the rope. He'd just walk back and forth, going under each time.

 Next we headed to the hay jump. I was surprised how much Will liked it. He wouldn't exactly jump off, but he would step off into the hay.

 

 He was feeling a bit left out and wanted someone to help him up so he could jump off too.

 

 There was also a "spider web" to climb. Will wasn't sure what to do, but he seemed to enjoy watching the boys climb.

 Then Will found this slide. And while it wasn't nearly as fun as the Giant Slide, he sure loved it. And though I had to lift him onto the hay stack, that was much easier than climbing up the giant hill so I was happy to oblige.

 

 We went back to the Giant Slide before we left and played on there a few more times. I took this pictures because the view was very pretty.