Halloween at the Bean Museum

We went to the Halloween party at the Monte Bean museum last night. They had activities and candy and a live animal show. We got up close and personal with a Eurasian eagle owl!

John had a monkey on his back--Mabel!

The Nuttall grandparents were also there. It's an opportunity for us all to hang out at Brittany's office! It's fun to meet some of the students she works with in the education department!

Look, what a fun picture the Bean Museum took of us!

Pickle Ball and Dinner

I wonder how long we can play pickleball outdoors before the weather goes south? Saturday was another great door to play a few games with the Sardonis! We topped it off with dinner afterwards at Asado Argentina restaurant in Orem. They make a wicked empanada! Any benefit we may have gained from exercising was easily negated by dinner!

House is crawling with kids!

Mabel and Clementine came over Friday night. We missed them, after having them over for a whole week the week before!

Clementine was scooting around last week at our house, but she couldn't sit up afterwards. Look what difference a week makes!

Juniper Journey

Ed and I have been looking for evergreen trees in Lambert park for the past two weeks. We're trying to learn what kind of trees we have, and we're taking pictures and cataloging every evergreen tree.In 255 acres of park we've found about 50 trees, so it's not too overwhelming!

It turns out, the majority of the trees are Rocky Mountain Junipers.

They are dioecious trees, meaning they are either male or female. This one has male cones on it.

This big one is a female Rocky Mountain juniper.

It is covered in blue berries, that are also called cones. Although we have read that the deer like the blue berries, we have found that the deer browse heavily on the male trees in the park and leave the female trees for the birds!

We have found only one lone Utah juniper smack in the middle of the park!

The Utah juniper is monoecious, meaning it has male and female cones (berries) on the same tree!

If you want to learn more about junipers in Alpine, check out our special juniper page at http://www.alpinenaturecenter.org/juniper-differences.html.!

Window Washing in Salem

What a beautiful day to be outside! We went down to Salem to help my mom wash her windows today!

The hard part was getting the screens out! Thank you Ed, for doing that!

I realize I am a terrible window washer. Every time I think I'm done I look at it from a different angle and find a big streak! It wouldn't be so bad, but mom's eyesight is still really good, and I don't want her to think ill of me when we're done!

Mom also joined in the fun, washing the sills and cleaning out the gutters!

We worked up an appetite, and went out to lunch at the Emerald Isle, a new (and very delicious) restaurant in town! We enjoyed hearing about Mom's adventures in Israel and Egypt in 1981. Ed and I and Crystal have booked a trip there next March, so we're trying to learn more about what we'll see!

Last Day with the Grandkids

Yesterday was our last full day with the grandkids, as Brittany is coming home tonight. We can't get enough of their cuteness! Clementine is learning to play ball!

It was fun watching Mabel play. She took a llama on on horsie ride!

I got some good cuddles while we watched the Great Pumpkin on TV!

Ed rehabilitated an old electronic game we had in the basement by cleaning up the terminals. Then he helped Mabel push the buttons!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17ZdHW39m9wxkMMCS0YUUeUuqvMKnAq8UaA

We had fun listening to Mabel sing Horsie, Horsie on your Way!

In the afternoon we made macaroni and cheese from scratch--even grinding the wheat!

Mabel got to help grandpa cut the noodles as they came out of the extruder!

Then, they helped grandpa carve a pumpkin! Mabel was fully involved, and Clementine was completely engaged in watching!

It was a very fun way to end our week with the grandkids. Daddy took them home this morning, and we were sorry to see them leave! I think they'll be happy to see mommy when she returns from Iowa tonight!

HeeHaw Farms

We took the girls down to HeeHaw Farms this morning for more fall fun! They had lots of pets and activities! Clementine got to pet a bunny!

Mabel got to hold a bunny!

Clementine got up close and personal with a baby goat!

Mabel rode a pony named Lacy!

We all got to ride in an animal train towed by a tractor!

John red them a story in a tepee made out of corn husks.

The big slide was a huge hit with Mabel, who is usually slide averse! This was a two-fer, with both John and Ed going down with babies on their laps!

By the time I went down with Mabel she was getting brave enough to go down with no hands!

She also tried walking in the corn bin with the other kids!

We made them sit on a giant pumpkin, which you can see they really enjoyed!

When it came to picking out a pumpkin, Mabel chose a white gourd and a small pumpkin. She wanted something she could carry herself!

After lunch John went to work and we went home for naptime. Grandma and Grandpa were worn out!

More Fun with Mabel and Clementine

Mabel started the day out right by going for a hike with her dad! She's getting pretty heavy now, so he got a good workout!

Clementine stayed home and played with the farm! It was nice to not have to compete for toys with her sister!

After naptime we drove over to the Alpine Art Center to check out the bronze animals. Mabel was a little nervous about the walrus, but grandpa got her warmed up to it!

They girls look like two little penguin hatchlings here! Mabel knows the names of all the animals, so it is fun for us to see her excitement!

Clementine got to sit on a rhino while Mabel pulled on its horn!

The panda bear looks a little scary, but didn't dampen Clementine's spirits!

The lion had a little baby, just Mabel's size!

This was my favorite picture! Two kids, a life-like cougar, and beautiful fall leaves! It was a picture perfect day, and we were glad we got outside to see it!

Afterwards we went over to Arctic circle for dinner! It was like re-living our parenthood! The kid's meal even had a toy!

We had the place to ourselves, and Mabel had a ball going down the slide with Clementine!

By the time we stopped at Walmart it was starting to get dusky out, and Mabel was really able to enjoy the new ghost flashlight that came with her meal! It was like magic!

I think two little kids are going to sleep well tonight!

Fall Fun with Mabel and Clementine

We had some fun outside this morning. Mabel enjoyed jumping in the leaves. We collected some and talked about them. I think she thinks a maple tree might be a "Mabel" tree!

She liked sitting on our big rocks with Coda. Coda is starting to tolerate Mabel more, but needs constant affirmation from us!

Grandpa gave Mabel a spin around the house in our Costco Cart!

Then he drew a Mabel tree for her!

I helped her glue leaves on the Mabel tree! It has box elder, aspen, scrub oak and maple leaves!

It was fun listening to grandpa read Peter Rabbit through the nursery monitor!

Clementine can scoot anywhere she wants now, and really enjoys playing with toys. She wore herself out and took a morning nap during our outdoor time!

After nap time we opened a box of My Little Ponies, which belong to Brittany. We were glad we've saved them for 25 years, as Mabel loved them every bit as much as her mother did!