First off, my oldest daughter turned 7 in October. I can't believe how quickly the time goes by. In the blink of an eye she is going to be eight and getting baptized. I am so blessed to have Hannah as my daughter. She is completely different from me in personality and is rather feisty which tend to end with some collisions between us but she brings life and excitement and drama into everything she does and I am grateful for her vibrancy, intelligence, sweetness (yes, feisty and sweet can be mixed together) and her love for me. Here are a few photos of her enjoying her special day.
Our next highlight is the family vacation that we took to Yellostone National Park from the Oct. 10-14. It was so much fun even though there was an early snowstorm moving through that weekend. The kids loved the snow and, except for Saturday, you were able to stay warm enough while you were hiking the trails. It was like a winter wonderland. I was also able to celebrate my 31 birthday while on vacation and it was a great day even though it was the coldest day of the weekend. We drove around Yellowstone a little and hiked one trail before it got really bad. Then we went and watched an IMAX movie about Yellowstone and went out to eat and got free fried ice cream. Then, since my parents were with us for part of the weekend, they stayed with the kids while Paul and I went down to the hot tubs and relaxed for a while. It was a nice day. Here are a few photos of our vacation.
Here are a couple of our family photos at Yellowstone
Here is a photo of me freezing by a hot spring on my birthday!
Our winter wonderland! It was just so beautiful in some places!
There are a ton more pictures but I don't know how interested any of you would be in them. We did have one adventure. After my parents left we decided to go see a few more things before we left the next day. We went to see the Yellowstone Falls. We decided to go on Uncle Tom's Trail to get a good view of the Lower Yellowstone Falls. When we read this sign we should have taken it more seriously!
We had to go down a steep trail (which was snow covered) with a double stroller with Joshua in the front so that there was no weight in the back. We abandoned the stroller when we got to the steps. There were at least 6-8 long, steep staircases on the way down. My legs were shaking by the time we got to the bottom and it was hard to take a picture! It was a great view of the falls, however. Of course the pictures we took don't do it justice so I won't show them. Then we had to go back up and help our children along the way. Paul was helping Joshua and I helped the girls. When we reached the end of the stairs my throat was on fire and my legs were dragging and we still had to go up the steep, switchback trail with the stroller. Paul and I both had to push to get that thing up the trail at first because Emma wanted to ride too. She had to get out because it was too hard. We eventually did make it up the trail but we were too tired to do anything else so we just went back to the hotel to swim and watch a movie!
Our last big event in the last two months was, of course, Halloween. The kids love that holiday. I used to until I had to be the one in charge of all the costuming and holiday activities! I really don't like pumpkin carving and it is stressful to me to try to come up with cute costumes (especially since I don't sew and all the costumes are so expensive when you are trying to dress up 4 kids!) and I am in the Primary which means for the last 4 years I have been involved in all the Primary and Ward Halloween functions. However, I do it and the kids love it and that makes me happy. Here are a few pictures of the kids:
