Happy Halloween!

The day is finally here! For the first time since we've lived here, there were no neighbor parties before the trick-or-treating began. So, I made scones and then made honey walnut shrimp for our Halloween dinner. It hit the spot! It was really raining this year and so we had our doorbell start ringing early...like 5:30pm. I was rushing around trying to help get the kids in their costumes, get all the hidden candy out and put in the candy bowl, while answering the door. Mike got to take Sydney and Brandon out again this year. I was surprised that he and Casey (neighbor) would go out with the Utah game just starting. Thank goodness for Blackberry and iPhones...that way they could still follow the game! (Utes won by the way!)

Our cute kiddos ready to hit the streets!

Brandon is General Grevious from Star Wars

The rain kept the numbers down this year. We had lots of leftover candy...which is now stashed and waiting for Christmas!

Amanda is a zombie...great job on her costume and hair, right? After this picture, she got black make-up and drew black circles around her eyes....very spooky!

Sydney hooked up with Abby and did a lot of the neighborhood. When Mike brought Brandon back, he told me I needed to go see the Elliott's home. Every year they pick a different theme and seriously deck out their house and play the parts with their kids and grandkids. This year it was Wizard of Oz. Fantastic! There are a few houses in our neighborhood that go all out. It is really fun and brings a lot of people to our neighborhood that don't live here....the Wilsons are amazing, also. Someday I'll have to take a picture of their house and yard.....but it will have to be next year as the decor is already taken down for this Halloween!

Sydney is Alice in Wonderland....I am in love with the tights...go figure. She was darling!

Amanda's candy weighed 5.5 pounds! She stayed out with Liz for a long time. I thought she'd be back earlier, but when the boys that they hang out with came trick-or-treating and asking where she was...I knew she must still be on the hunt for treats!

Picture of our finished pumpkins and front porch! We had caution tape across the whole porch (sorry this picture doesn't show that). Take note of Mike's throwing up pumpkin....quite creative. Even had a dad who was out trick-or-treating with his kids comment on it...My corn stalks that I rescued from my garden were a little askew after battling the vicious windstorm a couple of nights ago....and we have Scully on the door welcoming all visitors! Our cute little neighbor, Drake (who is 2 years old), comes over everyday, sometimes multiple times a day, dragging his Mom behind him to come and shake Scully's hand!

Halloween Festivities!

Sydney and I made pumpkin sugar cookies.....Nice job, Syd!
Our Arveseth family party got unexpectedly canceled for Thursday, so we decided to meet Scott & Kellie's family for dinner anyway. (Mike was in Denver) So, we met them at Fat Cat's in the Millcreek area. It was fun to hang out and chat and afterwards we took the kids bowling. It took soooo long for 6 kids to bowl one game, but it was fine with us because we got to chat and hang out. We all had a great time! Thanks for meeting us, Scott & Kellie & Co.
Nice pose, Amanda!
Sydney & Maddie playing games

Brandon wanted me to take pictures of him while he was bowling....too cute!

Yes!

Cute cousins! Amanda, Emily, Maddie, Sydney, Zac and Brandon

Amanda in purple hat

I helped with the Halloween classroom parties in all three kids classes...on the same day. Brandon's was in the morning. I borrowed a bean bag toss from a neighbor as my game. They were so cute, those little kindergarteners! But, I had left my camera in my car.

Then, I was supposed to be in Sydney's classroom at the same time I was supposed to be in Amanda's. Somehow, I signed up for both....anyway, I took the same bean bag game to the 3rd grade classroom and just asked another parent there to run the game for me. I felt bad I couldn't help Sydney, but this is probably the last class party I'll do for Amanda. So, I headed to the 6th grade party. We played musical chairs...without moving chairs. They passed a bag full of costume items around and when the music stopped, whomever was holding the bag closed their eyes, reached into the bag and wore whatever item they pulled out. (thanks for the idea, Tiff) It was really fun until the last group came through with some really, really wild boys. I was glad they were last! But, it was fun to be there and put faces with names. I stuff the 'Monday folders' for Amanda's class. That means I just file into the take home folder whatever the teacher needs filed....every Monday morning.

Fun week all leading up to Halloween!

Pumpkins!

We invited the neighbors over on Monday night to carve pumpkins together! We had a little dinner and lots of fun! It was amazing how high the noise level went when we got all those kids together! I love it!

Mike got serious and used his roto-zip to carve! It was great and so fast!Amanda likes to scrape the guts out!

Adam and Abby (Abby got her finger cut while carving-poor thing...that's our first injury in 3 years of friend pumpkin carving!)

Mike giving Casey some moral support

Scott is serious about his pumpkin carving! This year, he carved fake pumpkins so they could keep his artwork...

The Morgans! Nat, Drake, Chris and one of the twins...I think it's Britton
Nicole & Zoe
Justin

Darin with his classic pumpkin face!

Thanks for the fun, friends!

San Antonio!

Mike & I got invited to attend the Allied convention this year with his bosses.

Can I just tell you how much I enjoyed myself!?!?! From the first day, I kept telling Spencer and Tyra that it felt so nice not to have a schedule or be anywhere or have kids somewhere on time, etc! Mike & I flew out with Spencer, Tyra, Barry and Julie on Tuesday morning. We got the kids on the bus and then took off for the airport! We ended up hanging out with Spencer and Tyra mostly. When we got there we were pretty hungry, so we called my Dad and asked him where to eat. He said to find 'La Margarita's' on Market Square. It was soooo good! We went back the last night with the others! Then, we found our hotel and we ended up with a room right across from Spencer and Tyra. The funny thing was that both our rooms had 2 double beds instead of a king! We both tried to change it, but nothing else was available!

I was soooo lucky to be included in the 'wife spending money' deal! The next day, Tyra and Julie and I went shopping! We mostly tried to stay at outlet places, TJMaxx, etc. We found this shoe store! I needed shoes and a purse. That was my mission with this 'extra' money.

So, I spent a lot of time in the shoe store! When I met back up with the girls, we decided to go find the mall. This mall was huge!!!!! I swear it was 2 miles long! We shopped in the outdoor area, kind of like Gateway. We ate at the food court, and Tyra loves Charley's....or the fact that she gets a punch card might be it. But the funniest guy with no front teeth was chatting up a storm and ended up punching all the rest of Tyra's punch card (free sub....) and then I asked for a punch card and he gave me 2 and punched all the slots! Sweet! (We ended up back at the mall the next day and just happened to redeem those punch cards! I gave Judy (Kevin's wife) my 2nd card.

That evening we had the 'Orange Blast' which is everyone has to wear orange (Allied's color). I found a shirt for Mike to wear during my shopping trip. It was held at the hotel's swimming area. We stayed at the Hill Country Hyatt. It was a nice, out of the way, resort. Really good barbeque! They had a longhorn steer there. You could ride it, but we opted out. I sat next to a guy from New Zealand who was very chatty! We mentioned the Mike's dad served a LDS church mission there and he told us he knew of the church because he had their account with his agency. He spoke very highly of the people. He said their word is their bond and that they also owned 80% of some area down there. I couldn't hear or understand him half the time because the music was really, really loud. But, it was fun to chat with him. He was going to do a world 'holiday' after he left Texas. New York to England to Greece, etc. He asked if we ever holiday abroad and we said no....pretty much we stay in Utah and go boating! Silly us! But we love it!

The next day, the boys had more meetings and more golf. They golfed everyday. Mike was wanting to tour the city a little more, but it was ok to golf, too.

The wives went on a barge tour of the Riverwalk. It was really fun. The guide was totally funny. Hugman is the guy who started the Riverwalk.

The dark tall tree is an avocado tree! Never have seen one before and I'm sure our kids haven't.

I really enjoyed the architecture.

These pictures were in the movie, Miss Congeniality as part of the pageant where Sandra Bullock says 'World Peace'

This tree's roots make up all the dirt around it and the bench behind the tree is a popular place to get engaged. We did see someone propose one night on the Riverwalk...not at this tree, but at a restaurant table next to the river. Ah, romantic!

This building has gargoyles on it that also serve as rainspouts! I can't remember how many millions it cost to build, but the owner couldn't come up with taxes, so the city of San Antonio bought it for $27, 000. Awful!

We also went to a famous restuarant that has been opened 24/7 since 1947 called Mi Terra. It's owned by the same family as Margaritas so we were thinking it would be awesome, but it was marginal. The funny thing was this painting of Bill Clinton! They also had this painted wall of people important to the Latino culture. We got the dessert to go and that was the best part of the meal! I love pralines...

That night there was a meeting at the Buckhorn Saloon. We got dinner on our own and then stopped by the party. We then walked around on the Riverwalk for a bit. It's quite a place and very crowded...a happening spot! We stopped by the Alamo and listened to Kevin, who is a history buff, tell us all about it.

The next morning, the wives went to the one of the keynote speakers, Tucker Carlson. I didn't get up in time to get ready and went to the other speaker, Bill Cowher. I heard Tucker was awesome and Bill was just ok. Oh well.....the girls did a little more shopping and I found a purse! It's the most I have ever spent on a purse, but it's cute!

That night was the closing night and awards ceremony. It's formal-ish. We were in dresses and boys in suits.....but no tuxes, etc. The food was awesome. The server couldn't understand I didn't want wine, just a diet Coke....and we sat next to some men from Turkey. They were not as chatty, but still interesting to hang out. After the awards they did a dessert buffet in the foyer and then the dancing started. The band was really, really awesome! Mike and I danced for a bit. Mike showed off his 'Hitch' moves....and then we called it a night. I think if we ever get invited again, then Mikey will stay and dance because we heard that Spencer and Tyra and Kevin and Judy danced until they shut the place down.

Saturday morning, the boys went golfing and I went to the spa and got a pedi. It was the best pedi I have ever been given! She worked on my yucky feet and they were as smooth as a baby's bottom! She was not chatty, so I could just sit and read my magazine and relax! Then, I met Tyra for breakfast and we hung out at the pool. My knee swelled up from wearing heels and walking so much in those heels, so I was glad to just relax. When the boys got back, we went to dinner at Margaritas and listened to the way too loud Latina singing in the square and watched the El Libre wrestler guys. After that, we went to the Alamo Imax movie and then walked on the Riverwalk again. The funniest part is we wanted to get some ice cream. But, no one would make a decision of where to go. So, all 8 of us would walk a bit, then stop and wait for someone to decide and then walk again. Mike told me later that everyone was just waiting for Kevin to decide. We ended up on a balcony eating ice cream and visiting and it ended up being really fun!

Sunday, Mike & I were on our own and we were excited about that, too! Spencer and Tyra had gone to breakfast with his brothers. The rest were already on their flights. So, we ordered room service and had a great breakfast as we packed up and tried to fit everything! We had space coming out, but it was tight going home! We went back to the Alamo and went inside the walls this time because it was open! We visited the bookstore and the tourist office and then headed for the airport! We had a layover in Phoenix, but had a little dinner with S&T and then we were home! After stopping at my Mom's to pick up the kids and thank her, we made it home!

We missed the kids and want to thank the Grandma's for tending for us. We had a great time!!!

We are the Champions!

During our UEA break, Amanda played in a 3v3 charity soccer tournament. Her team took first in their division! The first game was so funny because they got matched up against 9 year old boys. Weird...but the rest of their games were a challenge! Way to go, girls!

Keslee, Brittlyn, Signe, Makenzie, and Amanda

Oh ya...one more thing about Amanda's birthday

The Beehives from our ward came and surprised Amanda on her birthday! They 'heart' attacked' the door and decorated the porch. Then, they rang the doorbell and wished her a happy birthday with a cupcake! She was surprised! I asked Sydney to document since Mike & I were gone.

And see this flower? It looks so cute on the lawn. It's what we do for the young women on their birthday. But, it's heavy, awkward and it's my job to tote it aroudn the neighborhood! Although, I missed 2 birthdays in Oct and I'm going to miss 2 in November!! We are looking for a replacement. Any suggestions?