Apple Picking at Grandma's!!

My grandma has about 10 apple trees on her property in Logan. Every other year those trees produce enough fruit for us all to gather and pick the apples and enjoy the company! It's been a tradition since before I can remember, but my role in the process has evolved. As you can imagine, we didn't do much of the work as kids. We mainly played "school" in the basement and only came upstairs for lunch after the work was done and again when it was time to travel home. It's fun to see my kids carrying on the tradition with picking about 5 apples. :) The boys were really looking forward to the trip to Great-Grandmas and I don't think they were disappointed.

I missed the monumental 5 picked apples, so I had to stage these photos....so I guess they picked 6 in total.

McKenna LOVED picking with her daddy. She literally laughed and squealed when he lifted her up. And yes, she wasn't very gentle when she threw the apples into the bucket. But her total of apples picked was much higher than her brothers. :)

Oh, this view made me laugh.... 5 ladders holding legs with missing bodies....or maybe you just had to be there??

Derek and his cousin, Cameron

My dad hauling the fruits of our labors...ha ha ha...get it. Oh man.

My very talented cousin took these pictures of McKenna. Aren't they amazing!?

Poor Duckies!

Our neighbor asked if we wanted to join her family in feeding the ducks at a local park. It was a beautiful place and the kids really, really loved it. And boy did the ducks love it. They were used to people and ate right out of your hand. (I really didn't appreciate that. Yuck.) They were acting very underfed and were fighting for the bread. The boys asked if they could come back again and I was all in favor of it. But a few minutes later a lady pulled up and said "did you ladies know that the park is closed for the season?" We were asked to leave. I felt very sad for the ducks...no wonder they were starving. The boys were disappointed to hear that we can't go back until the Spring. I think we should sneak those poor ducks some food during the Winter.

A Fun Fall FHE

As soon as the leaves turned colors we drove up a nearby canyon to take a look. We found a fun grass area with tables and swings...we're just hoping that it wasn't private property. :) We had a fun little picnic and explored together.

(I decided to wear a hat that day and it spread to the boys. Maybe this post should be titled "A Fun Hat FHE".)

Poor Derek got a little too close to the river and mistook the swampy grass for solid ground. It kind of put a damper on his fun.

Crazy Hair Day

The boys' elementary school held a crazy hair day for all the students. Derek requested a Mohawk and Taylor wanted spiky hair. I used a lot of gel and mouse to accommodate their requests. Needless to say, they were very excited for school that day. I repeated over and over..."This is just for one day." and "Don't get used to this look". I personally wanted to spray color into their hair, but surprisingly they didn't want it.

And for some of us...it's pretty natural to have a crazy hair day.

Welcome Home, Jacob!

We arrived home from Yellowstone on Monday and left Wednesday morning for California, to visit Dave's side this time. We had enough time to do laundry, pack, and we were off again. Our week was packed with family and we loved every minute of it!

I heart frequent flier miles and free lap-riders! This was McKenna's first airplane ride...well, not counting when I was pregnant.

Dave's youngest brother, Jacob returned home from his LDS mission to Lima, Peru. We sure missed him!

Here's Jacob with most of his nieces and nephews at the airport. There were four that were born while he was gone.

Got to love the awesome souvenirs! It was so thoughtful of Jacob to spend his time and money on the kids. They loved their authentic Peruvian hats.

We were in California from Wednesday to Monday and the days were filled with all sorts of fun activities like volleyball at the church, In N Out for lunch, facials, swimming, playing cards, shopping, and a lot of late-night chatting. We used the neighbors' pool quite a few times. It was a little cold for swimming, but we did it anyway.

Jacob before impact.

Little Kenna Girl with her Grandpa David.

Jason put together the First Annual Brock 5K. I woke up for the 7 AM event to be time-keeper with Judy. :)

David, Jason, Dave, Janene, and Jacob at the starting line.

And who do you think won the first family title of 5K Champion? Any guesses....It was Janene, the award-winning marathon runner with a time of 21:03. Wow!!

The after picture...gee, can't you tell? Janene, was brave to pose for this picture. :)

Sunday was Jacob's Sacrament Meeting talk. He gave an amazing talk. After church we took some family photos.

This was almost a complete shot. We were missing Janene's husband, Devin.

All the cousins! Campbell, McKenna, Emery, Clayton, M'li, Taylor, Griffin, Derek, and Ryker.

The Sweet Granddaughters!!

After most of the crowd left on Sunday night. The boys were finally able to play some football with their uncles, Jacob and Jared. Fun!

We flew home on Monday morning on a 6 AM flight! Ouch! It was amazing to watch the sun rise from the plane, but NEVER again do I want to experience that. Getting up before 4:00 AM was way too early for all of us. It was an awesome week, but I only wish we could do it more often!

Natalie did what?

You might remember THIS post from a couple months back. I was in search of suggestions on good books to read. Well, I did it! I finally read a book and not just one, but I've read two in one month. I am on a roll.

My first was "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier. It was a great book, but definitely not what I thought I was getting into....huge amount of suspense! I really related to the main character. I became very addicted to the book, but the ending left me a little irritated. (I won't say more and ruin it for anyone.)

And just tonight I finished reading "Austenland" by Shannon Hale. It took me about one-third of the book to really get into it (and get past some annoyances), but when I did...wow, I couldn't put it down. It would definitely make a good "chick flick" movie. It did describe two characters making out, which I didn't appreciate, but overall it was a fun read. And a great ending.

So, it turns out that I do enjoy reading. Sure these aren't really deep books, but they are a fun start. On to the next!...or maybe spend some time updating my blog...hmmm?

One More...

...of my family at Yellowstone. Sorry, but I just received this picture from my sister and it cracked me up!! I just had to add it.

I'll add a new post soon...I sort of promise. :)