Hogle Zoo

On November 3, it was forecasted to be beautiful weather, in the high 60's. I hadn't taken my kids to the zoo yet this year, and my girls were about to go back on track until January, so I figured this was probably my last opportunity to go this year. So I called my mom & sister, and we all went and enjoyed a perfect day at the zoo!

He just looks sad. Doesn't he?

I love tigers! There were 3 of them all sleeping here in this corner.

I made some noise, and one of them opened his eyes and looked at me.

Bats!

After seeing all the animals and going on the train, we let the kids burn off some more energy at the playground.

I love the zoo. I just wish it was a little closer, and a little less expensive. Maybe I'll get a season pass next year. I hear they pay for themselves if you go 2 or 3 times.

We also saw the area where they are renovating and expanding. It looks like it's going to be pretty awesome! I think it will be done Spring 2012.

October Miscellaneous...

My girls are officially back on track today, so the first thing I'm going to get done is catch up on my blog!

On October 8, we had a "Fabulous Friday" with our Relief Society. It was a fun evening full of crafts, yummy food (homemade soups!), and visiting. I was asked to teach a photography class. It was a lot of fun! And I still had time to finish these cute Thanksgiving blocks:

Ryker turned 3 on October 15. I get the "bad mom of the year" award for not taking more pictures than just this one. (below). But he got a new red Huffy bike with training wheels. We also had celebrations on both sides of the family where he got more great gifts! I forgot my camera at the Chapman one, so I'll have to get some pictures from my mother-in-law, who is always great at taking lots of pictures of the birthday celebrations.

Ryker is such a sweet boy. He has a fun personality. He's very independent, and will go off and play by himself for hours. But he also loves to hang out with his sisters. He still LOVES Cars, and wants to watch it all the time. He carries around his little cars all over the place.

He also loves tractors, buses, and trucks.

And he still loves the kitty.

Speaking of the kitty, here's a random picture of him up in our tree. I thought he was stuck, but he climbed down just fine after I took the pic.

I'm going to miss our fresh garden tomatoes. We did pretty well at the end of the season. I went out there one October morning, and there were TONS of them!

Snowflake came to inspect the tomatoes too, and rolled around in the dirt.

On October 25, we had FHE over at the Chapmans, and carved pumpkins.

On October 27, we got a huge snowstorm. It was crazy to see so much snow this early in the year, (in the valley at least), but I loved it. I knew it would melt quickly, and it did.

That afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the snow before it was gone, and went to the sledding hill right by our house. I love the way the mountains look with all the fresh powder.

Ryker wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get him bundled up, but it wasn't that cold anyway. He loved running around in the snow.

Halloween 2010

As much as I dislike Halloween, I have to try to play along since I loved it as a kid, and so I can understand why my kids love it. Now, as an adult, I wouldn't be sad if they did away with the "holiday" altogether. It's just too much work, too much money for costumes, and too much sugar for my liking, and it just seems pointless.

On that note, here are a couple of pictures from our ward Halloween carnival we held on Friday night.

The owl was one of the highlights of the evening.

We also attended the school Halloween Carnival on Thursday night. It was very crowded & hot, but I appreciate all the work the school puts in to make it fun for the kids. Not to mention the carnival raises money for the school. That's a plus.

Saturday night we joined some friends and took the kids trick-or-treating in the rain. Well, I wimped out and got in the car and drove. They only went to a few houses, then we called it a night, because of the rain. They still had plenty of candy from the party the night before.

So we got into some more comfortable clothes, and went over to our friends house to chat and watch "Fire in the Sky", (about Alien abduction).

Overall, it was an eventful weekend, and a pretty fun Halloween.