Oh, it was great fun this year. All the girls wore last years' costumes. Kayleigh had some good ideas for spicing up her indian costume with feathers and more ribbon. EV wore 2 different costumes, one for Trunk or Treat, the other for Trick or Treat. Thomas got a new one - he wanted to be the grim reaper. Luckily, we found the perfect costume on sale and I didn't have to break out a pattern. Jeffrey, his very first Halloween, wore the Little Devil costume worn by at least 2 other siblings, starting with Thomas.

Our ward had Trunk or Treat a few days before Halloween.

For Halloween, EV put on a different costume. She called herself a white witch. It was a wonderful costume to trick or treat in - I could see her shiny, white dress so easily in the dark. I love that costume now. Other changes were Kayleigh gave up on the wig and Thomas gave up on his reaper blade. They also wore glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets. Jeffrey went to one door, just to say he went. No candy, though.

That last photo is our neighbor's yard. Every year they go all out. This year they built a castle with great decorations. Then they dress up in costumes that go with their theme. And you can see that wonderful white dress of EV's, glowing in the dark. Great weather. Twas a very Happy Halloween.

It was great fun, that soccer season we just had. All other life seems to come to a screeching halt to accommodate the soccer season. We had 3 soccer players. That made 5 practices and 3 games each week. I team managed 2 teams. (yes, a very dumb idea). But the real fun comes on picture day. 3 games plus 3 photo sessions at a different location. To top it off, we only own 2 pairs of the uniform socks, so they have to share for their pictures. (we don't worry about the games) But I shouldn't sound like such a wimp. We all actually enjoy getting out and watching the games.

But I'm learning the beauty of simplifying EVERYTHING. I'd park in about the middle of the soccer area, and the kids would run off to their practices, then meet back at the car when they were done. Actually, most of the time I had it way too easy - Chad took the kids to practice as much as he could. And on Saturdays, we often split up the games.

Here's some photos of EV in her soccer games this Fall. She scored 2 goals one game - very exciting. I took this first photo after the first of her 2 goals - it's the score of the game, 3 - 0.

I would never exaggerate a story about my kids, as you know. So here's the honest truth. It starts out:

"Mom, the bathroom is flooded." A friend over playing had flooded the toilet, but was too embarrassed to tell me. So instead she went and found Kayleigh and told her. By this time the floor was covered. And by the time I saw it, the water had already dripped through the floor making 2 big puddles in the basement. My calling "Get some towels" produced one small floor towel. "5 big towels, please" was a bit better. I never got the 5 towels, but might as well shoot for the moon and hit a satellite.

After sopping up water from both floors, I started handing the kids all the wet stuff from the basement to be carried upstairs to dry in the garage. That's about when I heard Kayleigh telling her friend "Parents can be so unpredictable."

It was a great time in Utah. Here's some last photos:

We drove to Arches on the way home, and Grandpa Hansen came with us for the first part. This is a double arch:

And here is the hike we did to Delicate Arch, which I really wanted to go to. The kids put up with this hot hike pretty well. Good job, guys!

And the scenic drive home, going through Colorado. Very nice.

(August 2008 - As always, click on photos to enlarge)

The Hansen group all met up at some condos in Solitude. We ended up with a lot of space for just the 6 of us. We did some hiking...

Now, all I was trying to do here was show how much smaller cousin Maddie is than Jeffrey - Maddie is one month younger. So I laid them side by side, but Jeffrey just then decided he was extremely hungry. So my mild, mostly quiet baby started screaming his head off...

...And then look what happened.

Seems he told Maddie about being hungry and she either felt sorry for him or remembered that she, too, was hungry.

We spent a day at Snowbird, and there's a whole lot to do there. We were there last year as well and the kids (K & T) had a blast then too. There was the alpine slide, a zip line, climbing wall, electric bull, bungee trampolines, and some moonbounces for younger kids.

One thing I thought was fabulous was that when EV and Kayleigh got in line for the trampolines (and unfortunately it was long just then and they waited over an hour), EV was just going to jump, but the nice lady working there helped her and taught her how to do a back flip. And she got where she could do it all by herself. Yahoo. Kayleigh already knew how to do the back flips from last year, and was flipping all over by herself.

2 things about this next photo. First, Grandpa Hansen had fallen out of bed the night before and really whacked his face on the table there. Seems he was dreaming and sorta lunged out of bed, something about saving the US Olympic swim team, as I remember. So in some of these pictures he's sporting a pretty nasty black cheek. But also in this one, Melanie has fallen asleep on his lap while riding the chair lift down the mountain.

We definitely had a great time hiking around and just getting completely worn out.

(August 2008)

We had dinner 2 different Sundays at Chad's folks house. The first time was with Grandma Hansen, who'd come up from St. George and was leaving soon to catch a flight in SLC.

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A week later, Chad flew out to drive back with us, and we gathered for more good food and photo joy.

Wrestling poor Grandpa

Melanie had been getting Uncle Michael confused with Daddy. At first I thought she was just playing, but then realized that she thought Michael was her Dad. I even tried calling Chad on the phone and letting her talk to him while Michael was sitting close by, but that didn't seem to help. She hung around Uncle Michael quite a lot (she had stranger anxiety for everyone else and they had to work at getting to know her) and finally called him either "My other Daddy" or "Uncle Daddy". This was probably a drag for Michael, as he had his hands full already. Mel would ask Michael for help, ie, going to the bathroom.

(August 2008)

Jeffrey had a big time in Utah. He did lots of sleeping and lots of smiling, meeting all of his family except one Uncle and one Aunt (Chris and Rachel). He was 3 months old and put up with a whole lot of hours in the car.

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(This is from back in August, when we were visiting in Utah. As always, click on the photos to enlarge)

There are 16 grandchildren on my folks side. And there were 16 grandchildren at their house, all at the same time. Yes, 16 grandchildren but only 2 moms. The oldest is in college (Aubrie), then there are 3 teenagers. The rest are relatively closer in age to each other, and in available noise making manners. But I must say, it was a lot of fun.

Maximizing trampoline fun by adding water and plastic...

Group grandpa hug!

And the ever popular photo on the back steps.

BUT, tell us how you really feel!

Yes, lots of good food...

Then good naps...

Yes, a good-looking pile of young-uns.

But, once again, this is how they were REALLY feeling about all these photos!

Then one Monday evening, we got together at the park...

...And Grandma J told everyone stories about her life.

And just one last one. There's a blue phone in this photo that I remember playing with when I was about this same age. Grandma's toys were always (and still are) the most popular toys.

Just one more of Megan with Jeffrey. They were so cute!

(As always, click on these photos and they enlarge)

Well as you will see, the kids and I had a fabulous time in Utah. It was a long drive there, and we were all getting sick of the car. But Mom made it easier for us - we just kept driving into the night until we got there, arriving about 3 in the morning, I think.

First off, THE TENNEY COUSINS!

They were staying with my folks for a week, while their mom and dad went to a wedding in Nauvoo, Illinois. So my kids got to spend a lot of time with the cousins they've seen the least (my sister Lori Tenney lives in Washington).

Here's Grandpa Paul with Megan, EV, Hailey.

This is cousin Megan, and she was batty about Jeffrey. They were tight, right from the start.

Grandpa Paul took the kids to see some horses, owned by a wonderful nice friend of his named Odell Minor. He was terrific - he let the kids ride his horse, even coming out and saddling him up for them.

These were 2 young horses, not broken yet, that Odell let the kids feed apples and alfalfa (growing on the ground close by) to.

Here's each of the kids that came that evening, on Geronamo.

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The next day, Grandpa took the remaining 3 kids.

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Gramma J with Jeffrey - she loved all his smiles, and he sure gave her lots of them.

Gramma wanted us to help her make an apricot pie. She prepared the fruit, Kayleigh and I did the crust. With the remaining dough and filling, Kayleigh made small tart-things. She wanted to make them herself - NO HELP.

This is as far as I can go b/c my blog manager has gone to bed and I'm out of photos. The rest will be forthcoming. But my last photo is when Grandma Hansen came over to my folks house...