October

October brought us some fun cousin play dates with Rosie! These two are best friends and it’s the cutest (when they aren’t fighting- they are both very strong willed!)

One night I made Rice Krispie treats and we sculpted with them! The only direction I gave was to make it Halloween themed. Their products made me laugh as they were so fitting to their personalities:

Chase made a pumpkin. (The easiest, fastest thing he could think of so he could eat it). Hudson made a haunted house and continued to tweak and improve and add features long after everyone else was done. (He’s always trying to figure out how to make something cooler and has a great imagination!) Davis made a portal from the avengers. (Which wasn’t really on theme with Halloween, but in true Davis fashion he didn’t really follow the rules but he was thrilled to be there and be part of it and smiled the entire time). I love these guys so much! Lila sculpted…something. I’m not sure what, but she did love eating the finished product as well. 

We met up with Warners up Milcreek Canyon on Saturday night and it was the best! We roasted hot dogs and s’mores. Our kids connected and made fast friends, despite not seeing each other in about 3 years. It was so fun to catch up with Keith and Ann and the fall colors in the canyon were absolute spectacular. I love fall in Utah! 

We got to see the Broadway version of The Lion King in Salt Lake with the Smith Family and it was incredible! I questioned if Davis was too young to appreciate it, but I was so glad I brought him along. He was hilarious and SO into it! He clapped so loudly and talked (kind of loudly) through the whole thing. He was just so excited! 

Hudson ran into Hyrum there! They were sitting a few rows in front of us!

Will and Kate got a puppy. We stopped by to see it. His name is Leo and he’s adorable and now our kids keep asking when we are getting a puppy too. 

Just doing some homework with Harry Potter.

The kids had “Ribbon week” at school, which was also kind of called “safety Olympics”. Well, they got points for dressing up each day and signing pledges to be safe in different ways (internet, drugs, I can’t remember the rest). I was really overwhelmed by life that week and I was doing the bare minimum, but they did dress up and I signed Hudson’s pledge papers because he got them out for me to sign each day. At the end of the week, late on Friday night, I got an email from the school saying Hudson’s class had won the silver medal in the school and gets some type of reward. Hudson’s reaction was just hilarious. It was like 9:30 and he was really tired. He burst into tears “I don’t even understand what was going on? Like how did we win? I didn’t get the point of the whole week!” I explained they won Ribbon week. “It was ribbon week? I thought it was safety Olympics? I learned nothing from this week! It was just so many pointless activities!” Followed by more tears. I was laughing so hard at him, and sweetly sent him to bed because he was too tired. Just showing that sometimes less is more and kids can get overwhelmed with fluff- just like their parents!

After some early trick or treating at Great-Grandma’s nursing home, I frequently found Davis scaling the pantry shelves to get to the candy. He has no shame. 

The kids all dressed up for said trick or treating. I was planning to take them, but got sick with a nasty cold and decided not to spread it to the elderly, so my dad took them. He was thrilled that Lila wanted to hold his hand the whole time. And Davis was very sweet and affectionate to my grandma when they got to her. 

A major highlight of our month was the Harry Potter party! The Hickman’s cousins throw this incredible party up at their home in Mountain Green, and since Lindsay helps with a ton of it, her sister said she could invite us too. Davis was so excited for it and even though he still doesn’t really get what Harry Potter is, he was so excited to be there! They had a Dark Arts shop set up in the basement, complete with Dark Mark tattoos and Blaine made Hudson and Davis make an “unbreakable vow” (pictured with glow bracelets) to promise to not fight with each other every again.

Davis loved running around to all the activities with his buddy Will (Ron). The best part of the night was the face painting. When it was finally Davis’s turn they asked what he wanted. “A blue rectangle. With two long sides and two short sides.” She questioned if that’s really what he wanted, or if he wanted something in it. The other kids were getting lions, spiders, lightning scars, etc. Nope. A blue rectangle. As she was painting it on his forehead she expressed nerves that he might be disappointed. I assured her he’d probably love it. When she finished and showed him his face, his reaction was priceless! He threw his hands in the air and shrieked in pure delight! Both face painting ladies burst out laughing and declared his the best reaction all night. That’s our Davis, just delightfully enthusiastic about the best things! He was so sad when I made him scrub it off for church a few days later.

We carved pumpkins! Four kids and sharp knives sounded really daunting, so we split them up and did two kids at a time, each with a parent. Hudson did all his own carving this year! It went so well and the kids were all delighted with their pumpkins!

Hudson learned the song “Book of Mormon Stories” on the piano. He asked if he could try playing it for the whole primary while they sang along. He got to on Sunday and our sweet neighbor (who is the normal pianist) took this picture for us. I heard he played it perfectly. When he finished, his buddy Will stood up and said “Hudson! That’s my BOY!”

 

Out of the Mouth of Davis

 Explaining to Heidi on FaceTime that after dentist appointments I hadn’t dropped him back off at school because kindergarten was already being dismissed at this point “And then mom took Chase and Hudson back to school but not me and THAT WAS RUDE!”

“But Davis, Kindergarten was already out by then.”

“I know. That’s why it was RUDE!”

Mom? Can I play on Dad’s phone?

What did dad say?

Well…he said no. But can I please play on his phone?

I bought a tree for our backyard one day while Davis was at school. It was sitting near the driveway in it’s pot, ready to plant. Davis took one look at it and said “Did this just grow here while I was at school?”

We were babysitting his friend whose mom is pregnant and that particular day she was at the hospital trying to turn her breech baby. Davis said, so matter of factly, “Yeah, my mom already went to the hospital and had our baby. It’s just Lila.”

Then later “Hey we both have a D and a A!” (His name is Daniel)

Also he said to me this morning, while discussing his excitement about our upcoming road trip, “Mom, this will be you and Lila’s first road trip! Me and my dad and my boys have been on a road trip before!” (Meaning their overnighted in Salt Lake over the summer). I love that he thinks I’ve never been on a road trip before! (Also, Lila has been on one, and Davis has been on multiple, although his overnighted in Salt Lake might be the last one he can remember, even if it really wasn’t a roadtrip!)

Davis took this selfie himself-  I found it on my camera reel along with a bunch of photos featuring sparky and his feet.

On our trip, Lila was so picky about which movies she would watch in the car. If it wasn’t one she wanted she would SCREAM and make it so the boys couldn’t hear the movie they wanted anyway. Davis really wanted to watch the Sonic movie, so he changed the words to a familiar Daniel Tiger song and was singing to her “Lila, You got to try new movies because they might be good! Go-ooo-oood!”

The day after we got home Davis was snuggling with me first thing in the morning when he said, “Mom, can I ask you a question? While we were on the road trip, was my whole class at school without me?” (He looked sincerely worried that might be the case. He was kind of happy and a little skeptical when I explained everyone had those days off school.)

While walking around the hot pots at Yellowstone and clearly pretending he was Spider-Man, “Hey, why didn’t you pack me a costume mom?!”

While waiting outside a restaurant a man passed walking a dog, whose name was Ollie. This delighted Davis since he has two friends named Ollie. As the man walked away, Davis yelled out, “Hey! I really like your dog!”

Overheard as Ben is reading Davis stories at bedtime, 

Davis: That girl, I think her name is Peep.

Ben: It’s Bo-Peep

Davis: I’m pretty sure it’s just Peep.

After seeing the Lion King Broadway production Davis told everyone “My favorite part was when Mufasa died! That’s always my favorite part!” But when asked what his favorite song was, he’d loudly sing out “ahhhhh- zebenyaaaaaaaaaa!”

We took all the kids to “boo to the flu” at the school to get flu shots. Ben was across the empty gym with the kids, while I was finishing filling out forms. Ben was holding Davis, who was very, very nervous to get his shot. Davis said to the nurse “I’m only going to cry for a little bit!” The nurse replied that she didn’t think he’d cry at all and then did the shot super quickly. Davis looked up at me, from across the gym, with tears brimming in his eyes and a look of surprise and big smile on his face and said “I did it! On the first try!”

One day at lunch Davis was fighting with me that crackers definitely DO grow on trees and he was really made that we don’t have a cracker tree in our yard. 

Fall Break Adventure

In the seven years we’ve had kids in school, we’ve never actually gone out of town for fall break (or spring break for that matter!)- and this was finally our year! We decided to go explore Yellowstone! Hudson is in 4th grade so he gets a national parks pass. And since we were going to be in the area, we decided to add on a visit to Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. We hoped our itinerary wouldn’t be too much, or that our destinations would be too crowded (since these parks can get so packed during peak tourist season) and that the weather would still be pleasant. I’m happy to report it was a success on all accounts!

We left Thursday for Jackson Hole- which I haven’t visited since I was 11 and Ben and the kids had never been! I was surprised how much we loved it- the charm of the town and the absolute stunning beauty of nature surrounding us! The drive was incredible with fall leaves in full color. We went straight to Jenny Lake and spent almost an hour playing on the lake shore- skipping rocks, throwing rocks, building towers of rocks. The sun was shining, no one else was around, the Tetons were magnificent and the fall leaves were brilliant. It was the happiest, most peaceful little memory!

 

After our time in the park, we headed back into Jackson Hole for dinner and some more exploring the town. I made us get a family picture at the iconic antler arch, which weirdly Ben had never seen or heard of, and seemed doubtful but I promised him it’s a thing.

Our first day was such a success! There were a few toddler meltdowns in the car, but otherwise it was so smooth! I felt energized and encouraged that this trip was going to be awesome! (Spoiler alert- it was!)

The next morning we took off for Yellowstone! When we initially planned the trip, in my mind I thought we’d been there pretty recently. But upon further thought I realized it’s been 6 years since we’d been! I was pregnant with Davis last time! We spent two days exploring all the hot pots, geysers and waterfalls. It was so beautiful in the park and the crowds were incredibly low. We really hit the jackpot!

Davis was not into the stinky smell of the hot pots- the big kids were fascinated by them! 

To make our road trip smoother, I planned for awards for each day. One award to the kid who kept their seat in the car the cleanest (this worked so well- we had a very organized car the whole trip without any nagging from us!). One award to the kid with the best attitude all day (Each boy won this once- and we had really great attitudes all around!) And then they could all win the “no whining” award for any kid who did ZERO whining all day. I had treats for each award and this system went incredibly well. The boys were so excited to find out who won each night!

Our hotel in West Yellowstone was definitely older. “Rustic” as Hudson would later claim. But it was clean and totally worked for us. It had an indoor pool and hot tub that we used both afternoons we were there. We had fun eating out at restaurants every night (a real rarity for our kids who totally loved it). And of course, wherever we go Ben always likes to find the best ice cream shops. 

Davis loved ordering root beer everywhere we went. “Black rootbeer” as he always calls it. This night as he was drinking he was saying “I LOVE kid caffeine!”

This trip was such a fun time as a family! We had so much great quality time with the kids and actually came home feeling calm and just a normal amount of exhausted, which was a big win for us as parents! Our kids are such great little travelers- they love every part of the adventure, from hotels, to restaurants, to animals and scenery and historical significance. I love traveling with this little crew!