Special Message

Last night each of the kids received a special video from Santa that they were able to watch on the computer due to a cool thing that Santa now has called the PNP. The kids were in shock and disbelief that Santa knew their names, ages, where they lived, and exactly what they wanted this year for Christmas. They even saw their picture in his naughty and nice book. After talking to them for a little bit, Santa answered a special question each one of them had. Courtney found out how Santa knows if you have been naughty or nice, Hayden found out how the reindeer fly, and Kenzie found out how Santa can go to everybody's house on Christmas Eve. It was amazing and very fun to watch!

Family Pics

Fall School Pictures

We decided last month to have our family pictures taken. I was thinking it was about time again and the girls' school was having a PTA fundraiser to get a free 10x13 through a photographer in town - who could pass this deal up?! Well, some people could (including maybe Chad) but I couldn't and they turned out alright - yeah!

I love the faces in this one - Kenz is her happy little self, Cort is the princess, and Hayden is thinking what trouble he can cause next. LOVE IT!!

Halloween Happenings

This year our Halloween Happenings started Friday evening with a trunk-or-treat that the school put on followed by our annual spooky dinner with some of our friends. This year our menu included: Mummy Hand Punch, Salty Bones, Adam's Ribs, Boogers on a Stick, Brain Surgery Salad, Monster Cheese Head, Pimples, and Cemetery Dirt. The kids look forward to this every year and I have to admit that I have a lot of fun putting it together. It cracks me up what grosses them out - I even successfully grossed out our friend with the pimples. He hardly choked down one of them.

Saturday started off with a monster face breakfast sandwich (I forgot to take pictures) and then we all got dressed up and headed to Price for the annual Halloween Spooktacular put on by several businesses downtown.

Hayden - Ninja, Kenzie - Harajuku Style, Courtney-Pirate

This Halloween Spooktacular is one of the funniest things our town does during the year. They block off several blocks of Main Street and have free games and activities for the kids. There was even a magician and free train rides this year. The kids can also go around to the businesses and go trick-or-treating which is great because our ward didn't do trunk-or-treat this year (very sad!). We ended the afternoon with free hot dogs, drinks, and popcorn - what could be better!

I had to take a picture of this guy because it totally cracked me up. Can you tell who he is???? Has anyone seen Mall Cop??
Kenzie thought this costume was the best she had ever seen and wanted me to take a picture of her with him but this is the best we were able to do.

Enjoying our hot dongs and drinks

Later that evening when Chad got home we took the kids to a few houses in Wellington to go trick-or-treating. The kids now think that going door to door is the best kind of trick-or-treating you can do. I am not sure how I feel about that?!

Pumpkins and Cookies

This week the girls had to decorate pumpkins for a school contest. Each grade had a theme they were supposed to follow. Courtney's class had a sports theme so she chose her favorite sport - soccer. Kenzie's class had a patriotic theme so she chose to make her version of Uncle Sam. I am a little prejudice but I think they turned out pretty cute and they both won a certificate to Cold Stone.

Hayden of course couldn't be left out, so this week he had help from Chad to carve his pumpkin into a scary face. He was so excited to do this with Chad until he found out that he had to scrap out the pumpkin guts. You can tell from the pictures that he goes from totally upset about having to do it and pouting to deciding it would be okay but still totally disgusted.

And of course Halloween wouldn't be complete (according to the kids) without Halloween sugar cookies which were frosted by me and decorated by the kids.

As a side note I am always reminded when I make sugar cookies why I really don't like making them - takes forever and makes a huge mess. The kids had fun though so I guess it is worth it - right??

Daddy Daughter Halloween Bash

Friday night Chad had the opportunity to go with Mackenzie to a Daddy Daughter Halloween Party for Achievement Days. It involved costumes, dinner, dancing and games.

Chad went as a pirate and Kenzie's costume is harajuku (Japanese street style)

A funny story about Kenzie's costume: She was very excited about this costume and picked out all of the material for me to make it but could never remember the name of the style to tell her friends. Before the party she kept saying Harajuku over and over so that she could remember it. At the party she was able to tell her friends but when asked what that was she told them it was a Japanese "street walker." We then had to explain to her what a "street walker" was and she was mortified. I guess you could say that I am glad that she didn't know what a "street walker" is - she just hopes her friends don't either.

Our contribution was the witch's brew to which was added way too much dry ice

Bobbing for apples

Moab Trip - Day 2

The second day in Moab we had fun filled activities planned as well. We spent the morning loading everything back in the van and finishing the Junior Ranger booklets. We then ate lunch at this great pizza place called Zax - very, very yummy!!

Pics on the swing at our little cabin and view from cabin

After lunch we looked for a park that we had heard of that had musical instruments that the children could play on. This sounded really cool and it didn't disappoint.

Pics at the park

Our fabulous musicians - love Courtney's ending on this one.

After spending some time at the park, we went back to the Arches Visitor Center and watched a little movie about the park (a requirement for the Junior Ranger Program). After the movie they wrote a sentence about what they learned from the movie and then were sworn in and received their badges. Hayden thought this was really, really awesome because he now has a badge like dad.

Junior Ranger swearing in

After the swearing in we let the kids pick out one thing from the gift store and then decided to go back into the park to see some of the sites that we missed the first day. Like.....

Balance Rock

North and South Window Arches

South Window

North Window

Had to put this pic in - he cracks me up!

Our shadow family at the North Window Arch

Parade of Elephants

Turret Arch - a very small Kenzie in the middle of arch

Double Arch - the kids loved the echos in this arch

After all of these sites for the day and a few small hikes to these arches, we headed home. We all had so much fun on this trip we have decided to try to make it an annual trip. Anyone is invited to come with us next time. Are ya up for it?

Moab Trip - Part 1

The end of the summer we decided to go to Moab for a couple of days. We left on a Thursday afternoon and drove the 2 hours to Moab and stayed in an awesome little cabin at the KOA in Moab.

This cabin was awesome and we would totally do this again. The cabin had electricity and 2 sets of bunkbeds and one queen bed, you just had to bring your own bedding. Each cabin had a picnic table, a grill and a water tap. The KOA also had showers and nice bathrooms. It was great!

Cabin on the inside

Arches Visitor Center

The next morning we woke up early and went and rented a jeep for the day (from some of the proceeds of the yard sale) and headed for Arches National Park to go on some hikes.

We first stopped at the Visitor Center and went through that and then picked up the booklets for the kids to do the Junior Ranger Program. Then we headed into the park where we say these things:

Moab from the entrance of Park

The Three Gossips

Delicate Arch (from a distance - next time we will take that hike)

The Fiery Furnace

Then we went on a hike that was only going to be 1 1/2 miles but we decided to keep going and ended up going on a hike that was just over 4 miles. We weren't sure if Hayden or Courtney were going to make it but they both did. Hayden was really, really tired the last mile or so and we ended up giving him piggyback rides. Courtney, however, is a great little hiker and led the trail most of the way.

Sites along the trail (the little rock piles -cairns and lizards)

Double O Arch (front side)

Double O Arch (back side)

Landscape Arch

Then we decided to use the jeep to its fullest potential and go on a jeep trail which was really fun. (We all really enjoyed it but I think Chad was in heaven!) Hayden was so tired he slept during the first part of the trail but woke up for the exciting part called "Pucker Pass." The kids loved this part of the trail and kept saying that it was better than the rides at Lagoon.

Pucker pass pictures, fallen rock on trail, Jug Handle Arch

We then headed back to Moab, returned the jeep, headed back to the cabin for showers, ate a yummy dinner of hamburgers and dutch oven potatoes, ate popcorn and worked on the Junior Ranger books and crashed for the next day's activities.

Pine Nut Picking

This summer Chad and Hayden went about 5 hours south of Price to go pine nut picking with some friends for a couple of days. We had been told by our friends that it is a lot of hard work but you can make up to a couple thousand dollars. This peaked Chad's interest of course so he thought he would give it a try.

Chad came home 3 days later with one very tired and dirty boy and about 8 bags of pine nuts which we laid out to dry and in a few weeks ended up with about 70 lbs. of pine nuts which have since been sold. Yeah!!! It was a lot of work but we ended up with just over $500. Not to bad if I do say so myself.

The girls and I stayed home this time to get ready for a yard sale which we had that Saturday. Sorry no pictures but it went really well and the girls even sold muffins. Lots of our junk ended up being sold and the rest went to DI.

Training wheels are off!

Courtney learned to ride her bike without training wheels this summer - YEAH!!!

Some of you might wonder why she hasn't learned earlier. Well, I would like to say that there is some great reason but it really comes down to her complete insistence that she wasn't ready to learn yet. We even tried to convince her that she would be made fun of by her friends who don't have training wheels (horrible I know but we were desperate) but nothing worked. Chad finally heard enough excuses and decided one day to just take them off. After much convincing that she wouldn't get hurt because she could catch herself, she decided to try it and was able to do in no time by herself.

I think the hat upside down and the tongue sticking out helped though!

We're back!!

Yes, the Wade family is back to the blogging again after a very long sabbatical. (Sorry for the long break to any of you who care to share in our family's happenings.) Since it has been awhile since our last post, I thought we would share in what we have been up to this summer.

One of the fun things during one of our many stays up at Scofield on the weekend was a visit from the Hurd family. We were very excited since we don't get visitors up there very often so we had the weekend packed full of lots of activities.

1 - Crawdad fishing from the dock with the use of a hot dog on a string

I am sorry to say that there are no pictures for this because I forgot to bring the camera with me. I am especially sad because Hannah called crawdad's the cutest name. Courtney was really good at catching them and caught the biggest. She even tried to get him to fight the smaller ones. (You will be glad to know that no crawdad's were hurt in the process due to their lack of interest.)

2 - Swimming off of the boat

This was Hannah's first time swimming with a life jacket in a lake and she did great! She was nervous at first and decided to just kick her feet with Hayden but decided to go in after the girls. She even ventured out with Kenzie and then decided to get on Kenzie's back like a horse. Hannah thought this was great fun but Kenzie started getting a little nervous because the boat was getting further and further away and with Hannah on her back she was making no progress to get back to the boat. We ended up moving the boat to go get them but it was all fun and games for Hannah. She didn't even mind the cold because she went back in several times - purple lips and all.

3 - Fishing

Everyone had a lot of fun fishing. We all took turns sharing the poles and by the time we were finished fishing and ready to head back to the bunkhouse Kenzie had caught a fish. She decided to release it because we told her if she keeps it she has to eat it. Not such a great idea after all!

Kenzie catching her first fish at Scofield.

4 - Roasting marshmallows over a campfire

After being on the boat all afternoon we came back to the bunkhouse and had dinner outside and then started a fire and had smores for dessert. As you can see from the pictures the marshmallows were delicious. Even Dauber loved them!

We had so much fun with the Hurd family that Hayden still talks about Hannah coming and visiting. Hope they had fun and can come again next year! Anyone else up for a visit next summer!

Pleasant Valley Days

We started off the weekend early by driving to Moroni and Ephraim on Thursday to pick up some candy for the parade and some turkey for the BBQ on Saturday. On the way back to the park we stopped at a Geo cache site just outside of the town of Scofield. The kids left some flower erasers and picked out a rain poncho, a decorative pin and a little dinosaur.

Friday we spent the day relaxing, playing around and taking a few walks down by the docks.

Saturday was the big day of activities. In the morning was the parade in the town of Scofield. The theme this year was "Let Freedom Ring" so Chris (the lady that decorates the boat) came up with the idea for the banner that said "Let Freedom Ring with a Summer Fling at Scofield State Park". The kids dressed up in their swim suits, we played Beach Boy music on the boat, and the kids threw candy and beach balls from the boat during the parade. It turned out pretty cute.

Kenzie even came up with a little dance that she did throughout the parade which was cute and it surprised the heck out of me that she would do it. Courtney and Hayden were not as brave - they stuck with eating and throwing candy and balls.

After the parade I took the kids to the activities in the town of Scofield for awhile. I didn't last too long though because there is just way too many people cramed into a small little town. We stayed just long enough for the kids to do the bouncy stuff, get a snow cone and the girls to get their faces painted.

That evening we had a big BBQ with the staff at the park and their families, roasted marshmallows, played horseshoes, did sparklers and watched the fireworks over the lake. It was a great day! Kenzie even learned the value of prayer. That morning it looked like it was going to rain during the parade so she said a little prayer on the way to the float and it cleared up just before the parade started. After the parade Chris lost her keys and Kenzie said another prayer and the keys were found shortly after that. I love when you teach your kids the value of something and then they see it work for themselves later!

Sunday we stayed up to Scofield and went to church in the little branch that is there. On a normal Sunday there is not even 100 people (including kids). This Sunday there was about 400. It was crazy but a very nice day.

Hope everyone else had a great 4th of July! One of these times you guys will have to come and visit us for the 4th at Scofield.