Fall 2015

Every year we take a drive on the Nebo Loop. If you look back through our blog you will find a post about the Fall drive every year. Well, this year we took a little side adventure instead of just driving through the canyon. We drove over to Dry Lake.

On the dirt road, we found a great place to stop and take our traditional family fall leaf picture. There were many picturesque places along the way.

Family selfie!

Sometimes we need some silly pictures!

We are trying to take more pictures of the two of us. I think Randy worries I will forget about him if we aren't in lots of pictures together.

The first site to see was an almost dried up Reservoir. There were plenty of cows hanging around, and we also saw some turkeys. But we didn't stop here, we pressed on toward Dry Lake on a very bumpy road. We are glad that dad is a good driver.

It was very pretty even though there wasn't much water.

We actually saw turkeys twice. Here and on the main canyon road.

Once we made it to Dry Lake we ate our picnic dinner and enjoy watching the ducks on the lake, and the cows coming to take a drink. We took a little hike over to an overview of Maple Lake, but then we hurried back so dad could make it to his last softball game.

We had a lot of fun. There wasn't a soul out there and even though the leaves were already falling off the trees, we thought everything was beautiful.

Mark and Seth have pretty good picture poses. We are still working with Dax.

We love picnics! Sometimes we eat in the car, too!

We saw this pretty little fawn on the way home!

BYU Football Game

Nothing better than going to a BYU game with the sun belting down on you!

The other night I opened up my email and found that the school district was giving away 1,200 tickets to the BYU football game against East Carolina. The email had been in my box for about an hour and when I logged in to get 2 free tickets, there were only 62 left! I secured my 2 just seconds before all of them were gone.

Next I had to solve the conundrum of who to take. I thought about taking Mark, but Dax would've thrown a fit if I did, and Seth would've cried because everyone else was crying. Luckily, when I told Natalie about the tickets, she said, "Who are we going to get to watch the kids?" so that solved everything.

These are the awesome shirts that we got for FREE!

Two days before the game I was summoned to the principal's office (yes, really) to take a call from the Assisstant Superintendent. I wondered what I'd done, but he asked me if I'd received my tickets to the game. I told him yes, to which he responded, "Are you going for sure?" I said I was. "Any chance you're not going?" (What? Did he want his tickets back?!) I said I was for sure going to be there. Then he offered me the opportunity to represent the district on the playing field in a special ceremony at halftime. The payoff would be tickets for my whole family.

I was really excited because to take all 5 of us to the game would be around $250 not counting food and snacks. Additionally, since tickets came in sets of 2, he'd send me 4 more, bringing the total to 6, so we could take Grandpa.

It was fun taking Grandpa along!

When the tickets arrived, they came with a note explaining that the only way to get 6 tickets together was to send them all at once. I was instructed to give the original 2 tickets to someone else and they went to Laurie and Glen who really wanted to see the halftime show, too (I'm pretty sure they wanted to see me, though they mumbled something about Nate and Ty dancing in the halftime show, too).

Not the greatest pictures, but that's Nate...the furthest to the right.

And here's Ty...furthest to the right.

We got down to the game early because we had to pick up the BYU shirts that came with the tickets and get me all checked in. The boys enjoyed the game, and the $40 we spent on food didn't even seem to be all that much. It was really fun to watch Mark and Dax learn about the game and get involved with the spirit of the game. Even Seth was shouting "Go, Cougars!" every 3 minutes.

GOOOOO..... COUGARS!

Being on the field at halftime was pretty fun, and it was especially cool as the ball was right on the goalline in front of where we were lining up. At one point I almost had to tap the line judge and ask him to move so I could see the game!

Randy is very proud of this picture! He LOVED being down so close to the field!

Best of all, the Cougars won! Their quarterback got hurt at the start of the 4th Quarter while they had a 17 point lead. The backup was horrible, so when the starter trotted out with 4 minutes left and the game tied, we were really excited. He drove them right down the field for the winning touchdown with just seconds left. It's a game I think we'll remember for a long time.

These boys had a blast at their first BYU game!

We were all so grateful when the sun went down!

There's Randy walking onto the field! We were very far away from him, but I zoomed the camera way in!

Luckily, BYU sent us some great pictures!

Randy is such an amazing teacher! We are so lucky to have him as our dad and husband!

Lagoon with Laurie

Every year NuSkin rents out Lagoon for its employees. Since Glen works at NuSkin, we were lucky enough to get tickets this year. Not only that, but the tickets came with on-site baby sitting in the form of Aunt Laurie. There was even free food and a parking voucher. The boys were super-excited despite having never been to Lagoon before. Both Mark and Dax really wanted to ride Wicked.

We headed straight for the old white roller-coaster when we got in the park because we figured that was a baby step toward the more intense roller-coasters. It was Dax's first-- and last-- big ride. Mark had ridden a roller-coaster at Sea World and enjoyed it, and his friend Cael had told him how fun Wicked was, so he was fine.

So Laurie took the boys to KiddieLand, where they spent the whole night riding boats, planes, and cars, while Mom, Dad, and Mark rode all the big rides. They have an amazing new roller-coaster called the Cannibal, which we've described on the other site.

Though Glen couldn't make it to his own work party, it was fun to be with Tyler and Nate and their "special friends." And even though we didn't get home until nearly midnight, I think our boys would go again in a heartbeat.

Can't wait to go inside! Dax might be a little nervous already.

Seth loved this ride because you could fly AND shoot!

He rode the train with Laurie!

Amy and Brian came, too, so Aiden and Sam rode lots of the rides with Seth and Dax.

Mark is a roller coaster fiend...he went on all of them. And Dad loves to scream the entire time on roller coasters.

Randy thinks he is going to win an award for this picture!

Randy and Mark were roller coaster buddies!

Dax had fun in Kiddieland. I hope he isn't traumatized from the white roller coaster.

We did go on the teacups as a family, well almost a family. Seth wanted to ride something else.

Mark still can't decide if he likes Wicked or Cannibal better. 

Seth and I rode the dragon roller coaster about 8 billion times together (I think it was actually 5).

They loved riding in the cars, as long as they go a blue one!

Dax said his favorite part was the bumper cars. Can you see him peeking behind Mark?