Halloween

On Halloween, Ryan, Rara & I took Alice & Claire trick-or-treating at The Square, formerly known as Colonial Square.
After we made the rounds there, we went to Rara & Papa’s street. A lot of people had mentioned that they wanted to see Alice & Claire, so we took them up and down the street. It was fun to see Alice & Claire with Ivy (across the street) who is about the same age.

We stopped at the home of Jerry and Linda Davies, long-time friends. It is a tradition to see them on Halloween. Jerry used to work for Hostess, and gives Twinkies and Ding Dongs for Halloween. The pictures are blurry – there was so much movement and excitement!

Rara took Alice & Claire home, and Ryan went trick-or-treating for another couple of hours with friends.

Boo at the Zoo, Hannah Strand's 1st Birthday

Our family has a tradition of going to “Boo at the Zoo” at Hogle Zoo every year. Since we are members, we can go considerably earlier than the general public. Even then, it is still pretty busy. But what can possibly be better than getting candy WHILE you’re at the zoo?


After we finished at the zoo, we went to Aunt Dott & Uncle Randy Strand’s house for the first birthday party of cousin Nathan’s daughter, Hannah.
Claire, who loves babies, mothered Hannah most of the time. Alice, who loves animals, enjoyed finding all of Uncle Randy’s animals.

School Costume Parade, Trunk-or-Treat, Friends Party

Friday, October 28, was Ryan’s last elementary school Halloween costume parade. I didn’t even go. I had some projects that I was working on for work, and asked him if it was ok that I didn’t come and watch and take pictures. Macho 6th grader that he is, he was ok with it. This year Ryan dressed as BYU’s Jimmer Fredette.

We had a fun evening. It was our ward Trunk-or-Treat and carnival, the last one where Ryan will be a Primary kid trick-or-treating. Starting next year, he’ll be one of the Young Men who is running the carnival. I took one last picture of Ryan with his good friend, Matthew, who is moving this weekend. (Matthew was working the doughnut booth and had sticky hands.)

Ryan left the carnival early to attend a Halloween party with a group of swim team friends. The kid goes from one party to another. I wonder where he gets that?

Scout Campout @ East Canyon

Ryan’s scout troop had a campout scheduled for the weekend of September 16-17. It was going to be Ryan’s first campout with his good friend, Zack, who came into the troop at the end of August. The Fall weather had been beautiful the first half of September, but it rained HARD the entire day of the 16th. Literally at the last minute, the leaders decided to cancel the trip. They knew the gear (and the boys) would be wet, it would be difficult to get a fire going, and they would all be miserable.

The campout was rescheduled for October 7-8. The weather had been perfect since September 14, so everyone thought we were in the clear. It ended up raining most of the weekend of the 7th and 8th. The leaders once again decided to cancel the trip.

During the next week, the temperatures dropped considerably, but the weather was dry. They were going to try to get a spot on Antelope Island, where it would be a bit warmer. Apparently a lot of other people had that idea. It was full. They ended up going to East Canyon, where they said it was pretty chilly. But it was dry, and they had a great time. They made foil dinners on Friday, and went on a couple of hikes (one was 5 miles). I’m grateful that Ryan has good leaders who make every effort to help the boys have a fun and worthwhile experience.

This was already Ryan’s third scout campout. I know they try to get in four a year. That helps the boys get the Camping merit badge more quickly, which is a required merit badge for the Eagle Scout award.

October 11 ~ Ryan’s Crazy Day!

I’ve mentioned before what a hard-working kid Ryan is. He is so committed to so many things, and works so hard to be good at everything he does. On Tuesday, October 11, I took Ryan to school at 8:30 (our typical time, except for Student Council morning once a week, which is earlier). He was at school from 8:30 to 3:30.

I picked him up at Rara & Papa’s at about 3:45 and took him to swim team, where he swam from 4:00 to 6:00. Coach Steve had asked to spend some one-on-one time with Ryan, doing some stroke development. We were with Steve from 6:00 to 7:00.

We left the rec center at 7:00, and Ryan changed from his swimming clothes to his basketball clothes IN THE CAR, and also had a little snack. We were a few minutes late to his basketball game, where he played most of the hour, as usual.

By the time we finally got home, it was almost 8:30 pm. Ryan had been away from home for almost 12 hours. Thank goodness, most of our days aren’t like this!

October 7 ~ My Birthday

We had fun celebrating my birthday with the fam. Ryan enjoyed lighting my candle so much, and Alice & Claire enjoyed helping me blow it out so much, that we went through the “light, blow out, light, blow out” routine a few times.




Claire found one of Ryan’s “poppers,” and Ryan & Claire had a lot of fun figuring out different places to put them to see how they would pop. Claire was such a good sport!

Celebrating Alice & Claire’s 3rd Birthday

After General Conference on Sunday, October 2, we celebrated Alice & Claire’s birthday with our family and many members of Frances’ family. Frances made lamb cakes (now a family tradition, since I had one and mom had one when we were little).


The girls got SO MANY PRESENTS! We gave them pink digital cameras, which Claire really took to.




The girls also enjoyed some down time reading their new books with Mimi and Rara.

Short Course Kickoff Invitational ~ Day 3

Saturday, October 1, was a crazy day. Although it was General Conference, we had the final day of Ryan’s swim meet. So…we set the TV to record the morning session, and were at the pool by 8:00 am.

Ryan swam the 50 Backstroke…

100 Butterfly (4th place overall)…
And 50 Breaststroke…

Just to put it all in perspective, some of Ryan’s events had as many as 40 kids entered! It was a pretty well attended (read: competitive) meet.

Friday night after the meet, we went to Ryan’s second favorite restaurant (Pizza Factory) for Ryan to “carb load.” We finished Saturday’s meet at about noon, so we went to Ryan’s favorite restaurant (and one of mine) – Brick Oven – to celebrate my birthday as well as Ryan’s great meet. We made it home just in time for the afternoon session of General Conference.