Sunshine and Snow

About 10 days before Thanksgiving the weather was perfect. We spent lots of time outside and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 

And then...it snowed. A lot. Like a foot. In 24 hours. No kidding.

The boys loved the snow.

We don't have a snow shovel, or a sidewalk. So the boys used a regular shovel and dug through the yard.

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

A couple of weeks ago the boys were feeling bad that it would be so long before our family had another birthday, so naturally we pretended it was my birthday. I made myself carrot cake and Dash made me a birthday present and even wrapped it himself. I was very impressed. I don't think I get this good of treatment on my real birthday.

The boys and I with my wrapped present.

This is the present Dash made me.  He came up with the idea himself, punched the holes in the paper, strung the rope, and drew the pictures.  I absoluetly love it!

Sport

Sport is such a little man now.  He runs around, climbs on everything, screams all the time and yells my name for everything.  Such a pleasure!

Sport standing in the movies.

Sport climbed onto the computer desk by himself one day and started ordering things off Ebay.

Sport at the park.

Sport at the park.

Sport in the sand.

Sport "Alfalfa" in the bath.

Sport right before his first haircut.

Sport right after the haircut.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. You always know Halloween is a success when you have candy left over two weeks later.


Dash dressed up as Spiderman. Here is he ready to go to the ward trunk-or-treat and then a party.
The boys all dressed up and ready to go.
Cinderella and all her little messy makers at the ward trunk-or-treat.
A geek and the cool kids playing angry birds at the Farella's Halloween party
Bobbing for apples. Gross.
Sport and Daddy.

Mr. Incredible takes a swing at Cinderalla.

Spiderman takes a swing at the party pinata.

We finally got around to carving pumpkins Sunday night.  The boys wouldn't touch guts.

Sport was actually shoveling things back into the pumpkin.

The boys and their pumpkins.

Halloween night.

Big Business and a Little Charity

The day Grandpa and Grandma left the weather was beautiful. So nice in fact, that Dash decided to do a lemonade stand. He made his lemonade out of Crystal Light, wrote the price ($5/cup) on a piece of paper he taped to a table and hauled it all out to the front yard and set up shop by the road. Colt was his first customer. Since Dash refused to give a family discount, I printed a five dollar bill off the computer and gave it to Colt as his method of payment. Dash was happy to have a customer, but he wasn't satisfied. He invited me to step right up, if I had $5. Colt and I went back in the house and I watched Dash from the window. After a while I started to feel sorry for the little guy. He wasn't giving up and he looked so hopeful every time a car went by. About an hour later, I finally convinced him to shut up shop, but just as we started packing up, the husband of one of my friends stopped by and insisted on buying a cup. We had to pick the plastic cups up out of the dirt in order to pour him a cup of now very warm fake juice. Dash was rewarded for his efforts with $2. Then before we were able to get everything back in the house, another customer stopped by and "bought/donated" $3 worth of juice. Dash was so super proud of himself, he even decided to lower the price to a dollar for next time since "it seems like people mostly have one monies".

Grandma and Grandpa Clayson Visit!

Grandma and Grandpa Clayson came over for a visit on October 25th.  After much anticipation, they arrived in time for Sport's birthday dinner and cake.

The next day, we decided to brave the chilly weather and head out Devil's Tower.



Overlooking the valley at Devil's Tower



Dash loved climbing the rocks and dead trees.

Colt really wanted to do everything Dash did, but he was a litle more cautious.

Grandpa carried Sport around in the backpack all weekend.  He even climbed the rocks with the rest of the crew.

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids.

Sport looking at the prairie dogs.

Dash taking pictures of the prairie dogs.

Thursday morning was even colder than the day before, but we bundled up and headed out for Mount Rushmore.

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids at Mount Rushmore.

Walking the Mount Rushmore trails.

On the Mount Rushmore walk.

The boys took almost as many pictures as I did.

Mount Rushmore

After Mount Rushmore, we were delusional enough to think that we could have a picnic at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.  The scenery was pretty, but the weather was awful.  We ate fast and got back into the car with the heater full blast.

Shivering at Sylvan Lake

After our picnic we took the Spearfish Canyon over to the sanctuary to meet Brandan.

Grandpa and Sport at Roughlock Falls.

Grandma at Roughlock Falls.

The boys found trees to climb everywhere we went. Here they are climbing at the top of the falls.

We beat Brandan to Spearfish so we stopped by the fish hatchery.

Looking at the lions.

Looking at the buffalo.

Looking at Hercules.

Grandpa and Grandma posing with Hercules.

We had a really great time playing with Grandpa and Grandma and we were sad to see them go, but now the kids are already getting excited to see all their family at Christmas.