Fall Has Fallen

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Sigh.  Kids.  I turn around for... well... I forgot that I was typing out a blog post and someone or someones got a hold of my post.  So... let's start again... a long time after I started this post.
Time to catch up.

Tuesday, September 20, was National Punch Day.  I blogged about that.  What I didn't blog about was that it was also Pack Meeting for the Cub Scouts and Jr.'s den was putting on a carnival.  Fun for the whole family.

Wednesday, September 21, we did Family Home Evening.  We went for a drive around the lake.  It was nice and we got to see some raptors (the bird variety, not dinosaurs)- mostly red-tailed hawks.

Thursday, September 22, was the first day of Fall and it was crazy.  Rained off and on the whole day.  There was even a tornado in Northern Utah.  Crazy, right?

That night I got to go to another Girls' Night with my friends.  I made an apple pie for it.  Fun fall food, right?  Earlier in the day while I was making the pie, we listened to music from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings since September 22 is also Hobbit Day.

Saturday, September 24, I got to go to Super Saturday for Relief Society.  It was great to socialize and I made some key fobs.

Monday, September 26, we had Family Home Evening at the new Light of the World Garden at Thanksgiving Point's Ashton Gardens.  We'd been waiting years for this garden to be finished. 
Angela Johnson wanted to share her testimony through sculpting these statues depicting the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  There used to be small versions of the statues so we knew what they'd look like when the full size statues were finished.  We just waited and finally got to see the finished products.
There are 15 scenes including teaching and miracles, His time in the Garden of Gethsemane, carrying the cross, resurrection and appearance to his disciples.  There were plaques at each of the scenes with scripture references on them so you could look up scriptures associated with what you see from the statues.  At the end of the walk-through area, you walk down a path into a small grove where there is a scene of Joseph Smith's first vision.  Beautiful.

While we were there, it also happened to be "dog days in the gardens" where people could bring their dogs to enjoy a walk in the gardens with them.
Some of our kids decided to pretend to be dogs.  Nichole even put Jr. on a leash.

Later that week, Jeremy and I went birding on a date

and the next day I got to go on a field trip with Jr. to This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.  The kids got to push and pull handcarts, visit a blacksmith's shop, go to school in the 1800's, and take a ride on a train.  It was neat to see and learn about how things were for the pioneers when they first arrived in Utah.

While I was with Jr. on his field trip, Lucky and Daddy had some bonding time.  They went to the library and picked out books and movies, they stopped by the gas station and got icees, and they watched a movie at home together.

October 1 and 2 was General Conference.  Saturday between sessions we went to a friend's birthday party.  They had a big yard the kids could run around and play in.  There was also lots of yummy food.

On Sunday, we had our traditional Conference nachos.

October 4 was Taco Tuesday- National Taco Day and it fell on a Tuesday.  Woohoo.  We ate tacos for dinner and Lucky watched The LEGO Movie twice while the kids were at school.  There was even a mention of "Taco Tuesday" on a TV show Jeremy and I were watching.  Tee Hee.

That week, Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I also got to go out for some well needed playground time with friends.

Also, Jr. Jr. got to play on a trampoline for homework and the boys and I had "shadow wars."

Nichole is learning to sew for a project for school so she helped me make juggling balls for our primary class.

Yet another thing I haven't mentioned on this blog.  Something that happened months ago.  After almost 4 years, I was finally released from being in the Primary presidency.  Jeremy and I were made teachers together, teaching the 4-5 year olds.  I was also given the calling of choir director.  And yes, we made juggling balls for the kids in our class.  The lesson was about talents.

We got to visit my sister Saturday.  The kids enjoyed playing with cousins and I loved getting to spend time with my sister.  There was a family reunion in September we were both at, but Jr. was feeling sick so it was not as relaxing at that time.

Finally to this week.
Monday, October 10, was National Cake Decorating Day.  For Family Home Evening, we decorated cupcakes.  It was fun... and messy.

Tuesday, October 11, was It's My Party Day.  We danced and lip synced to Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" and for dinner we had party food- pizza, pop, chips, more cupcakes, a veggie platter, and apple slices (I didn't want it ALL to be junk food) and watched Studio C.

Earlier that day, Jeremy and I took the youngest boys to Highland Glen Park to feed the ducks and found some other waterfowl we hadn't seen there before- a Western Grebe and some Ring-necked ducks.

Wednesday, Jeremy, Lucky, and I got out for a drive in the Fall colors and some birding.  That was nice and relaxing. 

This morning after dropping the older kids off at school, the two littlest and I went for a walk and collected leaves.  So many different colors.  I LOVE Fall colors.  I love how a tree can have different colors on the same tree, sometimes different colors on the same leaves.  When we were out for our Fall color drive Wednesday, I noticed a tree that had green leaves in the middle and the outer leaves were yellow.  This morning I saw up close leaves that were still green in the middle along the veins but the outer edges had turned yellow.  So beautiful.  Autumn is definitely my favorite season.

At some point during the last few weeks, Jr. carved soap for Scouts.  I took this picture later so I don't remember when it was.

There.  I'm done.  Phew.