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!