Witch-a-Palooza 2011

On Saturday we went to Witch-a-Palooza at Gardner Village.  Each year they have a big festival at Halloween time throughout the historic village.

William wanted to ride a pony so Grandma Rhonda bought him a ticket.

They had lots of witches throughout the village doing various activities.  This one was giving her frog a ride.  I had William go stand by her for a picture.  He liked them, but he really didn't want to get too close.

This is the view from the covered bridge back along the stream that runs through the village.

These witches were playing baseball.

This one was taking a ride on her flying bicycle.

These ones were practicing coming in for a landing.

William posed for me in front of the giant pumpkin painting.

This is Hilda's Hangout.  It was covered on all sides with pumpkins.

Witchy brew

William liked the witch playing the piano.

This one was in the middle of the stream catching fish.

We had a lot of fun looking at all of the cute little shops that they have at the village.  I was really tempted to buy a tutu shirt for Lilly at the baby shop, until I saw what they wanted for it.  I figure that for that price I could make 2 or 3 of them on my own!

More Catching Up

So, when you allow Grandma Rhonda to take pictures she accumulates them on her camera until the end of the summer.  I finally had to download them for her because we needed some for a project at work.

The following pictures are from various events over the past few months.

Lilly and me at the concert at the Canyons.

Lilly and Grandma at Oktoberfest.

Paul and William went to the Magna Arts Festival a while back and Will got his face painted with the Batman logo.  Afterward they went for a ride on the new Trax train with Grandma and Grandpa.

Here's William posing for pictures.

William at the splash pad by Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Lilly stretching out on her blankie at the park.

I took this picture of Lilly last month and uploaded it to the Tiny Tilla by Avon website.  They are having a contest looking for the next Tiny Tilla baby.  Cross your fingers for us.

This is Lilly's Halloween costume.  We had to try it on to make sure that it fit.  Lilly ladybug!!

Say What?

Things that my 3 year old son has said recently...

"Don't tell another living stole." (Translated - "Don't tell another living soul." from Willy Wonka)

"That's a doom place. That mountain is a doom mountain." (Pointing at the dark mountains out the car window while driving at night.)

"Let's talk about movies." (From his car seat on the way home.)

"It's a killer owie." (Regarding the scrape on his chin when I tried to kiss it.)

Oktoberfest

We went to Oktoberfest at the Snowbird Ski Resort on Labor Day. The weather was overcast but the temperature was almost perfect.

While we were there Paul took William up the ski lift so that they could ride the alpine slide back down the mountain. William loved it so much that they ended up going up for a second ride.

Dad had his heart surgery last Tuesday. It was a long day but everything went well. The doctor got the new valve in place and fixed the problem with his aorta.  They thought that he might be in the hospital until Sunday, but if all goes well he'll get to go home today, and then he will be on disability leave from work for another 6 weeks.

Catching Up...

I haven't posted recently because we've been really busy over the last few weeks. I have been taking pictures along the way so I am posting them now to catch up.

I had surgery a few weeks ago so we spent some time just hanging out at home. Lilly likes to spend time playing in her bouncer.




Even though William thinks that he is a big man he still takes naps. I couldn't help but take a picture of him all curled up in our bed.




Once I was healed up from surgery we made our annual trip to Idaho. We stopped at Shoshone Falls to take a break from all the driving. William really liked the waterfalls.

We decided to get some hot dogs and have a picnic at the park near the falls.

When we got to Boise we had a full schedule of seeing family and friends, but we tried to keep some free time to just let the kids play. On that Saturday we had a picnic at Settlers Park in Meridian with my friend Stephanie and her family. Her boys, Zane and Corbin, showed William all the fun stuff to do at the park.

Last Saturday we drove up to the Canyons Resort in Park City for a free concert. It's a nice venue. Here it is without the crowd.

We got there early so that we could set up a place with enough room for the kids.

Here's William waiting for the music to start.

Here's Lilly hanging out with Grandma Rhonda.

Lilly waiting patiently in her car seat.

As we got closer to show time the crowd got pretty big and the clouds rolled in.

The band was called March Fourth. They were listed as a gypsy marching band out of Portland, Oregon. They rocked! There were 30 of them, including musicians, dancers, and acrobats.

The guy on the stilts walked all the way up the hillside were the crowd was sitting, and then walked back down it backwards!

We've ended up having to leave during the intermission because it was starting to rain. We had pretty good timing because once we got everyone in the car the heavens opened up and it poured.

Weekend Fun

We had a lot of fun this last week because Aunt Kendall and Katie were in town. We spent a lot of time playing with them at mom and dad's house.

They brought William a gift. It's a Mexican Wrestling mask with an attached cape. He loved it.



This is his "mean" face.

On Saturday we decided to check out the "Up" house that they built in Herriman. For those of you that don't live around here, a local home builder built a replica of the house from the movie "Up" in a new development in Herriman, Utah. Here is a link to the news feature on the house. http://www.ksl.com/?sid=16280329 We weren't allowed inside but according to the news story they have done the inside of the house to match the movie as well, including murals on the walls and furnishings. I also read in the paper that they added some other Pixar rooms to the house, including Andy's room from "Toy Story".

The house is part of the local parade of homes this year, and on Saturday they held a showing of the movie in the park in front of the house. It was free to the public so we decided to go. They had free popcorn and balloons.

Here's Lilly happy to be out in the open air.

Mommy and Lilly waiting for the movie.

Daddy and William waiting for the movie.

Daddy entertaining William while we waited.

The actual house.

William checking out the mailbox.

William chillin' on the porch.

They are hoping to sell this house for $400,000 in order to break even on the building costs. I'm trying really hard to convince Paul that mortgaging our lives away in order to buy it wouldn't be such a bad thing. I'm not sure he is swayed by my argument.

On Sunday we decided to go swimming. It was Lilly's first time at the pool. She wasn't thrilled about it so we just laid her in a floater and she fell asleep.

William is a crazy swimming man! He just dives right into the pool and takes off. I will probably sign him up for lessons sometime soon. Right now he just motors around the pool in water wings and a floater ring.

Mummy Wrapped Kids

Last night as I was trying to get dinner on the table Lilly started to fuss so Paul wrapped her up in her blanket and snuggled her on the couch. When William saw what Daddy was doing he decided that he wanted to be wrapped up in a blankie, too. Paul obliged and then propped both of them together on the couch so that I could get a picture.

Here's both of them wrapped up like mummies.

It's funny how different siblings can be from one another. When William was a baby he hated being swaddled. Lilly settles right down if you wrap her up. Paul has started calling her his little caterpillar girl, because she is fuzzy and she likes to be in a cocoon.