October Happenings

Wow I'm really good at writing a lot.  Life just seems fairly routine of late.  I'm experiencing writers block with what to write about on here.  So we'll cover the whole month.

Jake finally finished the backsplash in our kitchen.  Hooray!  Slowly but surely things are getting done around here.  I've asked for mud room lockers for Christmas in hopes that this will help push things along.  I'm not sure I can handle another winter of coats being all over the floor.

We did a small amount of mountain biking, but the leaves were beautiful.  I love this time of year.  I had another birthday which means I'm in my final year of my 30's.  Gloom and despair.  When you're in your thirties you can pretend you're not that old.  But when you hit 40 there's no getting around it, you're old.  I was doing some calculating and realized that when Mom was my age I was a senior in high school.  Holy crap.  I'm going to go buy a Ford Mustang in honor of my mid-life crisis.  It will be awesome and make my life worth living:)

Yesterday was the annual witchy-poo party.  My kids count down to this every year.  And this year my dad and Kathy really outdid themselves.  The decorations were amazing.  They work really hard to make this happen every year and we really appreciate it.  There was haunted house decorating, games played, yummy food eaten, and of course witches brew made.  Kathy has pity on the adults and supplies real live Root Beer so we don't have to partake of the witches brew.  This year the witches brew started exploding.  It was a great touch to the whole event.

And I'll end this little post by saying that Christmas is on its way and I've done nothing to prepare.  Ahhhh!!!

Our beautiful backsplash!

Ok, it really doesn't get prettier than this

Oh yeah, Jake and Zack went hunting.  Zack looks so excited...

Sage and her cute friend on their way to their dance party

At the witchy-poo party.  A cheerleader, deer, and hunter

Love this picture!

Decorating haunted houses

Hanging with the littles in the sandbox.  So cute

Faces being contorted to get an oreo from your eye to your mouth, no hands allowed.  Dad was especially good at this.

Skeleton relay

Witches brew.  People were backing up here to avoid being hit by exploding brew:)

September Happenings

Holy cow!!  I can't believe its been so long since I wrote!  Its definitely been busy around here.  The kids started school and are getting settled quite nicely.  So far everything is going well.  Zack loves having lots of different classes so he doesn't get so bored.  He's also been able to design something to print on a 3-D printer and start things on fire in science club.  His dreams have come true.  Kate is busy with morning choir, piano lessons, and orchestra.  We decided to throw swimming in there so she can do something besides music for a second.  And Sage is speaking excellent spanish and dancing up a storm.  I'm loving the quiet hours when the kids are all at school, however I thought I'd have a lot more time not being busy than I do.  Crazy how that happens.

We had a busy couple of weeks with a house in the Park City Showcase of Homes.  Really good marketing, but really stressful and busy.  So glad its over and hoping to not do it again for a while.

Last week Jake and I got to go to Savannah, Georgia.  Just us, no kids.  Alicia and Dan were super nice to come stay with the kids while we were gone.  It was such a great trip.  I'd never been anywhere in the south before, so this was definitely a first for me.  Jake was in meetings all day Thursday and Friday, so I got to wander around and do whatever I wanted all day long.  It was pure bliss.  Seriously.  Our hotel was in the historic area of Savannah, so there were tons of old homes and cool things to see.  I loved all of the beautiful old buildings and homes.  So different than what we have around here.  Every night we went to dinner with the people in Jake's builder group.  It was fun to get to know everyone, but it was even more fun to eat real southern food.  Talk about delicious.  I got to eat a real southern biscuit and it was heavenly.  I also tried grits and shrimp, catfish, bread pudding, fried chicken (beyond delicious), fried pickle chips, and a southern quesadilla (a quesadilla full of meatloaf, mac and cheese, bacon, and country gravy to dip it in).  All of these things were delicious.  I would weigh a million pounds if we lived there.  On Saturday Jake and I went to the beach.  So beautiful and fun to swim in water that isn't freezing cold.

All in all, a really great trip.  I'm officially a fan of accompanying Jake on business trips.  A mix of time to myself, time with Jake, and time in a great place made it one of my favorite trips ever.

First day of 7th grade (this may or may not have been taken after school)

First day of 2nd grade

First day of 5th grade

Beautiful old houses in Savannah

Savannah cathedral

Cool haunted house

Really old cemetery

Awesome building along the Savannah River

Running at Forsythe Park

The beach! (the weather was better than it looks)

The river right next to our hotel

Beautiful fall leaves (love this time of year)

Spjute Family Fun

Last week was a week of fun with the Spjute Family.  As usual, we packed a lot in in our time together.  I think its safe to say that everyone had a great time.  This is the first time we've had every single one of us together in like 5 years, so it was definitely long overdue.  Hopefully it won't be another 5 years before this happens again.

We started out the week at Lagoon.  My kids were soooo excited for this.  They all even chose to have Lagoon be one of their birthday presents.  They loved it, and it was especially fun to be there with cousins.  Zack and Kate went on all of the big coasters.  I even got to experience Cannibal with them.  Loved it.  Sage is my timid girl, and although she's tall enough to go on all of the rides, she was more than content to hang on the kids rides.  It's been years since I went to Lagoon and it was a lot of fun to be there with the kids.

Wednesday was Sage's birthday.  Finally!  The poor girl is the last of the birthdays, so I think it feels like its never going to be her turn.  She chose to go to Kneaders for breakfast and got the all you can eat french toast.  Well, all she could eat was like 4 bites.  Good thing I didn't order anything.  She's my little bird eater, lots of small things all day long.  She played with friends and then we took off for camping at Tanner Flats.  This isn't her first birthday where we've headed off on an adventure.  I guess we tend to vacation in August.  She was so excited to be camping with family on her birthday and requested a special birthday pirate adventure.  I managed to convince her that she didn't need a big cake (trying not to feel guilty about this).  Instead we took cupcakes with frosting for all of the cousins to decorate.  I think it was a hit.  Can't believe my baby is 7!!

We had a great time camping.  It was so much fun to spend more than a few hours together.  I especially loved watching the cousins have so much fun together.  It brought back a lot of fun memories of camping with my cousins when I was a kid.  We took a break from camping to go to the aquarium.  Toby's dad was nice enough to give us a bunch of passes to use.  We had a great time.  None of my kids had been there before.  Camping was full of fun hikes, food, games, food, campfires, food, rock climbing, and of course food.  We Spjutes always make sure there is plenty of food at our gatherings.  This is probably not a good thing, but I don't see it changing so I'll just enjoy it;)

Anyway, I'll let the millions of pictures tell most of the story.  A big thanks to my dad and Kathy who brought all kinds of fun games and worked hard to keep fun things happening for the kids.  They also put on an epic pirate adventure and even brought a bunch of glow sticks that the kids loved.  It was so wonderful to hang with the family for a while and I'm sad that its over.  Thanks for a great time everyone!

Sage crying after a small roller coaster ride.  Not my child.

The Tweens

So stinkin' cute

Lagoon fun!

Soaked after Rattle Snake Rapids

Birthday cupcake decorating

Happy Birthday Sage!!

Campfire nights.  Wish I could go back

Shark tank.  I'm sure Zack was thinking all manner of facts about sharks at this moment.

Sage managed to have fun with the boys even though she says she, "still likes girls better."

Pirate Sage

Albion Basin (we made the mistake of doing this at lunch time and not bringing snacks.  The kids were definitely hangry and deemed it the "worst hike ever")

We made it to the top!  

Finally all together!!!

Grandkids!

Zack at the top of Lisa Falls (someone fell and died here the next morning.  Its a miracle we had not injuries)

Kate made it to the top!  This is a big deal because she gets really scared climbing.

Zack does not get scared climbing

This is how you look when you wake up at 4:30am

The view from the top of their hike