Darren in San Francisco

Darren got to travel to San Francisco the third week of November.  Just a quick training he needed to do.  I wasn't able to go with him this time.  He sent me some great pictures though.  I have memories of going to Alcatraz as a kid.  We went to San Fran a few years ago and road across the bridge with the kids.  and we spent time across the bay watching the tide.  We get to go back in June with Darren's work.  We will have to research a few new good places to go.

Cabin with friends!

I got to take some great friends up to my parents cabin in November.  It was cold and COLD but we loved it.  These girls and I have been together for a very long time.  We all became friends when we got married.  We married a bunch of boys who were best friends.  And here we are 15, 16, 17 years later... still great friends.  We have done a lot of fun, crazy and hard things together.  I cherish these girls and am great friends with all their husbands.  

We played games, and went for walks.  We had to try out the new swing which is crazy.  Since we are all climbers we had all the kids geared up with harnesses so there would be no disasters like last time.    

And our sweet Rowie is great with makeup.  She is the only one of us!  So she brought all her make up and made us all good great.  Cause you know.. when your at a cabin in the mnts, you need to look smashing!

Abby's Growing up

These pictures are from October 2015.  They make me laugh.  Because Abby is growing up.  She does things all the time that I just shake my head at.

1.  Climbing up in the pantry so she can open the sugar bowl and eat fistfuls of sugar ... oh and get most of the sugar all over the pantry.

2.  (Note:  Abby is potty trained but somedays she thinks she wants to wear a pull up.... )  Abby doesn't like to wear pants.  She likes to wear skirts pretty much always. But she really likes pockets.  This was one of those...shake your head and smile moments... She wanted to carry her rocks around while I weeded.  So she put them in the only place possible.  I asked her where they were and this is what she showed me.  

3.  Abby is growing up because she has her little friends who she loves to see.  Pepper and Gwen are cute like sassy girls just like her.  Pepper is even wearing the same pink skirt as Abby does all the time in this picture.  We both showed up to a scout meeting one night with our daughters both in their pink tutus with their underwear showing through.  Oh the battles we have daily!  Notice in this picture Abby is dressed in normal clothes.  It was an all day process to talk to her about going to the party in pants, shoes and a long sleeve shirt.  But it took all day to get her ready to wear those clothes.   She tries clothes on and then immediately takes them off and says she doesn't like them.  Like a sensory issue or something.  

4.  Abby thinks she is so big.  She wants to do all the things her brother and sisters do.  It is hard when they get to go ride their bikes and scooters and she cant even reach!

But we still have melt downs.  Sometimes she just needs a little love and attention.

And she still loves her sippy cups with chocolate milk.  My mom gave me this stock pot which Abby crawled into the other day.  She couldn't get out when she was done.  

5.  October 31, 2015.  We got rid of her crib.  She is too big to sleep in a crib anymore.  I told myself I would let her sleep in it until she could crawl out of it, but that never happened.  She loves her bed.  

Halloween 2015

All three of my kids got into Halloween this year. Abby still thought it was

 Amazing that people just gave her candy.  She had to realize that the candy could stayin her bag and didn't have to be eaten immediate,y. 

Your researched his costume and found the best price and exactly what he wanted. He still loves Legos and star war clones. Ella wanted to be a vampire.  Not sure why.  But she was a cute vampire.  Abby just wanted to wear her swimsuit.  Hmmmmm.....

We trick r treated with aunt Linda and then at our house.  It was so lovely.  

October 2015 -Fall

In October we went on a few outings in the mnts as a family.  It was beautiful.  Cecret Lake at Alta is one of my favorite places.  We hiked up there one evening and had a lovely evening.  We found a little cave/mine shaft we crawled in.  

I love these quiet moments.  Those moments when kids are happy and glad to be together.  I hope I can help foster that for a long time.

We had a few fun Halloween adventures.  We still don't have any leaves to rake, so Ella raked the neighbors leaves.  We have planted trees but we have a few years until they are even big enough to bother with raking.  

I love where we live.  We have had some beautiful sunsets lately.  The mountains are amazing and the quiet area is peaceful.  I also love where we live even as we are finishing the basement.  What a project.  It is amazing to learn the ins and outs of it all.  It will take us a few years but we will get there.  

We spent another lovely evening up at Ledgemere Picnic Area in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We had a lovely dinner with s'mores.  Abby got those s'mores EVERYWHERE.  We explored a man made cave up there and found some beautiful leaves.  

Tyler and I got to go to the Cathedral of the Madeline in downtown SLC and see 5 amazing organist play.  A beautiful old church with lovely music.