When the cat's away the mice will play.

I had the opportunity last weekend to go on a little road trip to St. George with my mom and Syd to go to my cousins wedding. And not that I don't care about the cousin who's wedding we attended, but my motivations for going were slightly selfish. First of all, who can turn down a weekend of being child free? Even if it does involve 24 hours in the car in 3 days. And secondly, it got me out of speaking in church, and sharing time. (I'm currently not in good standing with the rest of the primary presidency that I abandoned. But I'm sure they'll get over it in time.)

My mom and I left Boise Friday morning, picked up my sister in Provo, and were in St George that night. I got to see aunts, uncles, cousins, and a grandma that I hadn't seen in a LONG time. It was so fun to catch up. We helped with the wedding on Saturday. Although I wasn't much help due to my poor choices the night before (I took Excedrin, a muscle relaxer, and drank a ton of caffeine on the drive....it took a while to get that out of my system.) But that didn't stop me from riding around on my grandma's scooter. I'll have to get a picture. I really want one of those things!

After a day of working and hanging out we piled back in the car and were back in Boise Sunday night. Long weekend, but worth it.

And while I was gone, the kids and John had a bit of fun on their own. They went to a Soc Hop at the school where they ate tons of junk food. Went to Little Caesars and McDonald's. Played their last soccer games in the rain. And John even woke up to a puking Ainsley in the middle of the night early Sunday morning.

My weekend away was made completely worth while when John called and told me that my job was way harder than his and he would rather take the bar over and over than have to be with the kids all day every day. I didn't want to rub it in, but he had pretty easy days....all the work had been done, food bought, clothes and house cleaned, he just had to maintain. But I didn't. I just smiled.

Seriously though, he did a great job with the kids and I'm so grateful to have a husband who will let me leave and do things like this without ever complaining. He never has a problem with me getting out of the house and even volunteers to watch the kids at night to give me a break. He's amazing.

Scary!

Halloween is here! Therefore our house has been transformed into a pretty scary place.

We leave Indiana Jones Legos up on our TV screen all the time to make it scarier.

But the scariest decoration at our house is right on our front door.
Made and placed by Ainsley.
I'm not going to lie, we've had several people run away in fear rather than knock on our door.

Owen's first!

Although Owen has been on this very field trip 2 times before. This was the first time that it was for him. Today was his preschool's trip to the pumpkin patch. And I'm pretty sure fun was had by all. Except Emmie who was a little scared of the tractor ride and mostly just tired and hungry.

The four boys sitting on the hay are the four boys that Owen is in a weekly playgroup with. They are getting to be great friends. There's Owen, Matthew, Dallin, and Nathan.

A trip down south.

Last weekend our kids had a four day weekend. So we headed down south, to Utah, to spend a few days with John's family.

The kids did surprisingly well in the car. I'll attribute their good behavior to Emmie's forward facing car seat, her binky tied to her car seat, a portable DVD player, mp3 player, Ipod, several bathroom breaks, and a long stop in Burley (1 1/2 hour stop on the way there!)

John took the kids to a BYU game with his dad. Where no actual pictures were taken.
We made a stop at our beloved IKEA. And now the Christmas shopping has officially begun. Somehow I'm worried that I won't be done in time this year. Is that weird?
We went to the 'This is the Place' pioneer village. The kids had a lot of fun. It was a really cute set up. They got to do all sorts of fun pioneer things. Farming...

Petting goats.....(nothing says pioneers like small goats)

Horse riding....

Shaving....

(Owen was so cute during his shave. He was really nervous. And the barber was in full pioneer mode and using very authentic language. I don't think Owen understood a word he said.)

Panning for gold....

Trading in their gold for candy at the bank...

(Maybe the pioneers would have faced less hardship had they traded their gold for money instead of tootsie rolls)

And John took pics of his sister's cute family. I think the best part of the picture is that the stuffed puppy (Aussie 2 was in every shot:)

I also got to hang out with a bunch of my old roommates. My favorite year of college included all of these girls. We were the girls of Riviera #101. We are only missing Bria who wasn't invited/couldn't make it because she lives in New Mexico. It was so fun to catch up with them. Seriously, I have the best memories with these girls and still consider each of them good friends. The kind of friends you can not see for years but when you see them it's like you never lost touch and can pick up right where you left off.
We had a lot of fun with John's family. There was lots of playing with cousins and talking late at night. The only bad part was that John's mom got really sick on Friday and so we didn't get to hang out with her much. Turns out she had a kidney infection so we didn't have to treat her like she had the plague after all. Luckily we'll get to see her again soon.

Pokes

John didn't shave yesterday. Which isn't a big deal in and of itself. But it did lead to the following conversation.....

O: Dad's getting a gray face

Me: What?

O: Dad's getting a gray face!

Me: What does that mean?

O: He's getting gray pokes.

Me: Oh. What should we do about that?

O: He should probally go to the doctor and get some medicine so that some of the pokes will go away.