Halloween Happenings

We had a ward Halloween party last night. I have no idea what I was dressed up as...maybe I'm Frankenstein's daughter, a dead Who, or a frazzled first year teacher...your guess is as good as mine! I just figured that dressing up as SOMETHING was better than nothing. My roommate Noelle won a prize for her chili, it was DELICIOUS! My roommate Janelle is a businesswoman from the 80's, her coat just makes the outfit!

I'm in the schools now, working with a 5/6 grade class. My mentor teacher is absolutely wonderful, she's Superwoman in my book! We celebrated Halloween in the schools with a parade, party, and LOTS of sugar. All of the 5/6 grade teachers "woke up late and didn't have time to get their costume on." This is a picture of all of us future teachers.

I couldn't fix the red eye in either one of these pictures and so they're extra spooky, just for Halloween :)

A Veritable Smorgasbord!

Last Friday, we decided that we wanted to be like Templeton, the rat, in Charlotte's Web, and go to the fair. We hadn't been in several years and the admission on opening day was only $1, so, off we went.

We stopped by MCC to pick Richard up to go on our adventure with us and then got on the freeway to head to the fair. On the freeway, there were signs saying that there was a wreck in the tunnel at 7th Street and that traffic was backed up. Paige and Kaylee were a little worried because they like that tunnel and one of their favorite things to do is see if they can hold their breath during the whole time we are driving through the tunnel. How were they going to be able to do this if there was traffic and it was going to take us longer than usual? They might not be able to hold their breath the whole time and worse, if they did hold their breath the whole time and passed out they would miss the fair. What a dilemma! I am sad/happy to report that they were not able to hold their breath the whole time, but once they realized it was futile they did begin to breathe again so that they would live and be able to see the fair. I bet you were worried for a minute about how this tragedy would turn out, weren't you?

Meagan couldn't go because she is still having this much fun everyday at school. We miss you Meg, but boy, does it look fun!

Allie couldn't go because she was whistling her way to work. Ya, right.

Matt couldn't go because he was camping with the Boy Scouts. It was a survival camp out. They weren't allowed to take a tent, sleeping bag, or extra clothes AND.......

The only food they were going to eat while they were gone for 3 days and 2 nights was any squirrels that they managed to kill. YUCK! I'm not exactly sure yet if this was their idea of big fun or if our Ward is just out of budget money for the year, but Matt went and just like Paige and Kaylee's perilous tunnel experience, he SURVIVED. Yeah, Matt!

So, if you haven't figured it out already, the fair was experienced by Richard, me, Sarah, Paige and Kaylee. We love fresh squeezed lemonade, but we passed on the deep fried Oreos.

The caramel apples looked fabulous, but at $4.50 a piece we decided we have to take the time and make some at home this month.

Regardless of the price, we did have to indulge in a snow cone. You know how the Cluff's love snow cones, except for Paige, of course.

Sarah thought these big pickles were one of the better food options at the fair. Scrumptious!

This picture is for you Aunt Debbie. We endured a presentation about healthy cooking with pans that don't require any water. The only problem was that once we saw how much they wanted for the pans we realized that we wouldn't have any money left over to buy anything to put in them, so we had to pass up that opportunity. There was a sign at the demonstration that read any unattended children will receive a free kitten. You can't imagine how wildly excited that made Paige and Kaylee and they tried to get us to leave them.

This picture is for Uncle Don. Did you know that your pal, Zig Ziglar, began his career selling cookware? This may go down in history as the silliest quote ever. We did get two free knives for our attentiveness to the presentation, so it wasn't all bad.

Next we decided to look at some of the animals. Standing next to this big fan was a refreshing change from the triple digits that were happening outside.

Paige and Kaylee loved the animals. They were very disappointed when they found some beautiful rabbits for sale for $20 and Richard told them that we couldn't have them because we are practically running a farm at our house right now and rabbits would eat all of our trees and plants. They really felt that trees and plants were a small sacrifice in order to have a pet as wonderful as a rabbit, but Richard prevailed in the end.

Luckily for us, this llama was not for sale.

Neither was this cute kangaroo.

We actually considered buying this animal, but sadly, it cost more than $20.

Nobody really wanted the sheep.

These pigs were interesting. No offense, Uncle Robert, but the white pig on the right reminded us of you. He just kept biting and pestering the other pigs trying to get them to get up and play with him. Even you can't deny that you have a similar personality.

Nobody in the family was willing to drink goat's milk, so we had to pass on the goat.

In the end, we decided just to have fun with the animals at the fair, but not to take any of them home. I think that was a good decision.

Kaylee tried her hand at milking a cow.

We didn't spend any money on weird exhibits, but we sure did google them when we got home. This is the world's biggest horse. Amazing!

This is the world's tiniest horse.

And we think this has got to be a digital hoax. This is the world's longest horse. Weird! It's like a horse limousine. That would be a fantastic way to arrive at the prom. We had lots of fun and I think we definitely got our money's worth at the fair this year.

"Leaves Are Falling All Around"

Me and a friend went for a drive around Provo Canyon a couple days ago to check out the leaves and take some pictures. Isn't the scenery just AMAZING? The leaves actually change COLORS in Provo! You can even gather them up in a big pile and jump in them...just like the movies! Yep, I definitely grew up around cactus in beautiful (but hot!) Arizona.

She's Got Brains, Beauty & Talent!

We like to call this place our "home away from home." It's nothing fancy, but we like it. Last week, on Wednesday to be exact, it was Sarah's turn to go to the MVD and get her permit. She studied like crazy and it paid off in a big way!

Hooray for Sarah! She passed the test on her first attempt. Not only that, but she is relatively pleased with her permit picture and she is at a great time in her life where she was actually happy with the height and weight she listed on her application. It doesn't get better than that! Now she is ready to start driving. Between her and Matt I feel like a movie star because I get to be chauffeured around everywhere. I may actually forget how to drive. It's marvelous!

This is a picture of Sarah, the volleyball player. She is really talented when it comes to volleyball. Boy, does she love that sport. She is competitive, but never in a mean way, she just loves to play. She has two more weeks of her season left and although her team hasn't won any games she has had lots of fun.

Here is Sarah with her coach and teammates after a game. Luckily for the players they don't have a coach that yells. We are so proud of Sarah and her accomplishments. Way to go Sarah!

October Break Fun

It is Monday, but it is October break and there is no school this week. Can you tell that Kaylee is just a little bit excited?

While waiting for the fun to begin she starts taking pictures. You've got to love digital cameras! If you don't then you should really stop clicking onto this blog.

Kaylee takes pictures of flowers in the backyard.

She even manages to find a small, sugar snap pea seedling that squirrel has somehow overlooked. Actually, squirrel might not even like sugar snap peas. So far we have determined that he doesn't seem to like tomatoes or bell peppers but he loves brocolli and cauliflower. Some members of the family who don't care for brocolli and cauliflower are actually cheering squirrel on in his squireliness.

These are pictures of Allie's new bed. She bought it for herself for her birthday this year. Richard brought it home on Friday night and by Saturday evening Matt and Allie had carried all of the pieces upstairs (no small task) and Matt had assembled the bed. Matt got to be the hero for the weekend for his brilliance in figuring out how to put the bed together and I'm sure he will be blessed throughout his life to assemble many more things. (bikes, wagons, pinewood derby cars)

Just when we were starting to run out of ways to entertain ourselves my niece, Kamarah, stopped by with her two children, Maelee and Charlie. Maelee had lots of fun looking at the baby chicks. Sarah enjoyed spending time with Charlie and seeing how big he had grown since she saw him at his baby blessing.

This is one of our favorite places to go. It is a park in Tempe, close to where I grew up. Actually, it is one of my favorite places to go and every once in awhile my family indulges me. Today was my lucky day.

We decided to pick Richard up from work and head to the park for a picnic, family home evening lesson and fishing.

Richard was great at untangling all of the fishing line and getting the poles ready to use.

Here is Matt getting all of the ducks and pigeons a little worked up by feeding them and trying to get them to eat out of his hand.

Paige likes to feed the ducks too.

Here is Sarah giving us her best fishing pose.

Matt seems a little skeptical that there are even fish in this pond, but he does his best to humor us.

Kaylee looks a little worried.

No, Richard hasn't taken up smoking. We are each enjoying a sucker for our family home evening treat.

Richard's patience is rewarded when he catches this 4 inch beauty. It's all about the fun people! And, for anyone wondering, we throw the fish right back into the pond and they swim away.

Here is Richard holding up two fingers to show that he has managed to catch another fish bringing his grand total to two.

Yes! Even I manage to catch one, making the whole night of baiting hooks and smelling like hot dog for the rest of the evening, no matter how many times I wash my hands, totally worth it.

All of a sudden we start having a lot of success. Sarah reels one in.

Kaylee has a false alarm and only manages to reel in these twigs.

But, later in the afternoon, she redeems herself with this whopper of a fish that is so big she needs Matthew to hold it up for her to get her picture taken.

Paige catches a fish and we are all having fun.

Matt has lots of nibbles, but only manages to catch this stick. But what a stick, look at the size of that thing! As darkness sets in we call it a day and head for home. A good time was had by all.