October Fun

 October was a fun month. We had some soccer games and baseball tournaments. It was also Halloween, which looked a lot different this year. We celebrated 18 years of marriage and Mom's birthday. And Mom and Mark got to spend every Wednesday together because Junior High Schools were dismissed that day. Seth also started playing basketball. The big part of October was our trip to Lake Powell, but you'll have to read about that on our previous posts.

We visited a few pumpkin patches to kick off the fall month of October. Both were super fun and we got great pumpkins.

As always, we visited several pumpkin patches for the business.

We like the pumpkin patches with live animals.

Dax and Seth rode the cow train, but the rest of us were too big.

We chose our own pumpkins to carve.

Gordos was a new pumpkin patch this year.

Dad is raising a future plate of bacon.

Mom and Dad look great taking pictures together.

Gordos had this weird John Deere swing.

We really enjoyed this game of volleyball.

The sunset was spectacular.

Seth takes a lot of pictures on Mom's phone.

Mark hurt his arm in baseball. Once it was bothering him consistently, we thought we better get it checked out. It turned out to be some tightness, but not little league elbow, which is what we feared. He did have a few x-rays and some physical therapy to get him back on track.

Mark is our only child so far to go to the hospital (except baby Seth). 

He was a great sport about physical therapy, and it did help his arm recover.

Mom and Dad celebrated their 18th anniversary this year. They went to Tucano's to celebrate. Dad loved the food, and Mom loved that Dad bought her chocolate cake for dessert.

Mom and Dad love spending time together.

This dessert was delicious.

We went to a new Halloween event and thought it was so fun.
We appreciate when someone takes our picture, too!

We got to check out an Indian place for the blog, and Mom tried some of Dad's food. It was spicy!!!

Mark's school schedule changed for second term and he had Wednesdays as an online school day. That mostly meant that he didn't have much homework and was free to adventure with Mom. So every Wednesday Mom and Mark spent the day doing something fun. They really enjoyed hanging out together and hope they will continue this schedule next semester. One week, they hiked to Donut Falls and Hidden Falls. Another week they went shoe shopping and ate at Jdawgs for lunch, and the last week of October they went to Red Butte Garden's to see the Halloween display. Mark spotted a porcupine, of course.

We hiked to Donut Falls since we haven't been in many years. 

We also stopped at Hidden Falls because it's such a short walk.

Mark walked right up to the waterfall. 

Mom was so glad they stopped because the leaves were amazing.

We went to Ross to buy church shoes and found this.

We celebrated by eating at Jdawgs. 

Mark tried to blend into the Vampire forest.

The porcupine was sleeping up in the tree.
Everyone walked right under him without noticing (except Mark).

One of our favorite places to visit in October is Cornbelly's. For some reason the last two years we have gone on the coldest nights. This year wasn't quite as cold as last year, but it was still plenty chilly. That doesn't stop the kids from having a blast. We enjoyed the outing and even got a family pic!

Seth and Dax were excited for the old tractors.

The boys grabbed a picture in the big rocking chair.

We take our mini golf very seriously.

We bought some hot chocolate and cider to warm up. We also tried deep fried Oreos.

We always have fun at Cornbelly's!

Dax's favorite thing to do in October is carve pumpkins. Remember how we bought those pumpkins at the first of October at the pumpkin patch? Well, he asked every single day if we were going to carve pumpkins until we finally did on October 26.  It's nice that the kids are getting bigger because they are pretty independent, except for scooping the seeds. Somehow Mom and Dad always end up doing that job.

Dax takes his carving so seriously.

Dad carved his pumpkin AND Seth's.

Mark likes to use a pattern for his pumpkin.

His BYU pumpkin turned out great. 

All of the pumpkins turned out awesome!

Mom had a birthday near Halloween, and headed down to St. George for a tournament with Dax. They hung out in St. George where it was "warmer," and had time for a few adventures, too. Mark, Seth, and Dad hung out at home. They didn't go trick-or-treating due to Covid, but they watched movies and ate candy together. The boys dressed up for the Ward Halloween Parade and that was about all of the Halloween we got.

Mom got a fancy chocolate cake. It was super yummy. 

Mom and Dax went to three parks on their trip to St. George.

Dax really wanted to go to the Dinosaur Museum, so we did. It was fun since no one else was there.

We also had plenty of time to hang out in the hotel.

Mom and Dax ate out and had fun.

We were blessed by a cute older couple at the Nature Center. They shared their duck food with Dax.

They handed Dax the whole bag of food and let him feed the ducks. Such kindness!

We also stopped at Thunder Junction to play at the playground.

Dax was Axl Rose for Halloween.

Seth was Slash from Gun 'n' Roses.

They planned their outfits for a long time. Too bad Halloween was so crazy!

Dax's coaches had the kids dress up for one of their practices
since they would be playing baseball on Halloween.

The Primary Program looked a lot different this year. We did it in our own homes, and then they put together a video montage. Our boys wrote talks about what they learned and loved about the Book of Mormon. They did a great job!

This was Dax's last Primary program.