October shenanigans

 October started with Gavin receiving a certificate for reading 1000 books before Kindergarten! This was a program we had him in when we lived in CT, and he probably completed it there but we never did the paperwork. So now we got the numbers filed with our local library here and he was very excited about it!

Then we unexpectedly got snow in mid-October! Not a lot but enough for the kids to play in for a bit. Here is a pic of Gavin and a video of Avery - check out her eyes as she turns away.

I have this cute video of Avery singing along with a book. She loves singing to herself and she loves this Paw Patrol book!

Then we had a costume try-on session. Gavin is a knight this year, while Avery is a dragon. Then they decided to switch.

Then we had to take a picture of Avery in pigtails. They are not even because she would not sit still while I was doing her hair but at least they got the hair out of her face!

Both kids are still enjoying their swimming lessons. They are both working on the same skills although Gavin is in the older level. 

Here is a video of each of them in their most recent swim lesson this past weekend.

This weekend we also carved our pumpkins! The kids chose Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This was Avery's first time since we did not carve our pumpkins last year. Here is a video of her helping Daddy.

Here they are with the final results!

And here is one last picture of the kids at a local Halloween event we went to yesterday. The library hosts a little Halloween walk where the kids can dress up, get some candy and look at Halloween decorations.

Happy Halloween!!

Waterslide, School, Playing, Swimming and Hiking!

Gavin has been enjoying his Kindergarten prep class online. He will also be starting an online preschool class in October. It's once a week for 6 weeks and it will be an interactive class using Google meet, so different from the Waterford program!

Unfortunately the evergreen tree we planted in the front yard has died. The summer heat was too much for it and we shouldn't have planted it in the summer anyway. Now it has cooled down and we have planted a Black Hills Spruce. Hopefully it will do better than the White Fir!

Here is a video of Gavin making our slide into his own waterslide. Avery was not as fond of it as Gavin, she went down a little too fast for her tastes, but Gavin loved it!!

 
In our daily adventures we discovered that a playground we had visited over the winter had been completely redone! So the kids got to enjoy a new playground (which we have now visited 3 times in one week).

Here are a couple videos, one of Gavin going down the big slide...

And a video of the kids on the cool seesaw swing.

We have been able to return to our library for weekly story time, which the kids really enjoy. Here's a video of the kids doing a more interactive part of story time.

Both kids continue to enjoy their swimming lessons. Here's Gavin practicing his floating skills:

And here is Avery getting the ring off the bottom of the pool (about 4 feet deep):

To finish off our weekend, we decided to check out a hike in the nearby mountains. We did a 3 mile hike to Donut Falls and Gavin hiked the whole way!

The kids helped me with the pictures! On this last picture, Avery was ready for a nap and very unwilling to pose for pictures!!

Graduation and Phoenix Visit

 Avery has graduated from the Parent & Tot class in swimming to the next level where she is in class with three other kids! She was very excited for her first class last weekend!! So excited that she jumped in a couple times when she wasn't supposed to. Maybe next class she will pay more attention.

We also made a quick, somewhat unplanned trip down to Phoenix. My Aunt Bev passed away after years of declining health due to Parkinson's. We were very sad to hear of her passing but glad that we could make it down to Phoenix for the Memorial Service.

The sunlit smile Beverly Anne Ferguson shone on this world 
rose on Saturday, October 20, 1934, and set on Monday, August 23, 2021.

It was nice to see my Uncle and spend some time with his side of the family.

We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in Phoenix, so Gavin and Avery got lots of time with them! But we also checked out the Children's Museum, which the kids really enjoyed!

Mommy and Daddy both climbed through this play area. Not easy for adults but especially Daddy!! They had an Eric Carle exhibit that was interactive and had lots of neat areas. This is Avery as a butterfly. And Gavin as a caterpillar making his way through the grass:

Then Gavin got to use a die cutter to make a 3D spider.

And Avery got to paint a giant robot! They just had buckets of paint out for kids to add more paint to this sculpture. It was large enough to go inside although you risk getting paint on you!

The rest of the time was spent playing. Coloring with Grandma. Playing Mousetrap with Grandpa. Gavin was obsessed with this game!

Some downtime with Grandpa watching a movie. Of course we had to go to the sand playground too!

Then Grandpa helped build a house with Lincoln logs and joined the kids playing with playdough.

I managed to get a haircut while we were there too!! It was much needed!!!

And here is Gavin and Grandma posing with their castle on wheels!

We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. When we got home, Gavin was already asking when we were going back!

Park Strip Done in Time for Company!

We were finally able to finish our park strip!! Carlton rented a mini skid steer to help move the rocks around which really helped speed up the process. It was a bit nerve wracking to watch him use it though, not the most stable device...

After two days of working on it, we finished!! The bigger rocks had to be hand placed, so it took a bit longer than we thought it would. Now we just need to figure out the best way to break bricks in half! Any suggestions??

We also added some painted rocks for extra color! We decided to have our visitors paint a rock to help decorate the front yard!

Maggie decorated this beautiful rock!! Leaving behind a piece of California to commemorate her visit.

We loved having Maggie and Bill visit us on their extended road trip! The kids really loved having visitors and someone else to share the pirate ship with.

Now our future visitors can also paint a rock to help us decorate the front yard!

In other news, here are some pics of the kids and their latest shenanigans. They got clown noses at the library for doing a scavenger hunt for clown pictures in the kids section.

And Avery tried on her fancy dress just to see how it looked!

That's about all that is going on here! We are very relived to finally have the front yard done. We enjoyed our visit with Maggie and Bill and hope to see more visitors!!

Stay safe and healthy out there!!

Front yard is done! (mostly)

Our front yard has been an eyesore since we moved in last year and we have been dying to do something with it, especially since the weeds were out of control! We decided awhile ago that we wanted to do xeriscape with a flower bed by the front porch and an evergreen tree. There are lots of landscapers out here but many of them were super busy. One company I called said they couldn't do it until January! So we lucked out and found someone who did it about 2 weeks after he gave us his quote. Here are some before pics:

Just ugly!

Here are some pics while the work was in progress:

The dry riverbed coming from the rainspout.

Our lovely evergreen tree before being planted.

Our flower bed with a boulder border.

This is the finished yard once the landscaper was done. It turned out a bit more bland than we thought it would. So we decided to add a bit more...

Here is the flower bed with the plants and mulch added.

For the rock area we decided a few red lava boulders would help add some color!

The yard definitely looks a lot better now than the field of weeds it was! The next project is our park strip. Since we are on the corner, we have a very long park strip that we have to maintain. So we opted for rock again since it will be much easier! We had some rock left over from the front yard, so we decided to use some of it for the park strip and we will be getting a different kind to alternate sections. Poor Carlton spent about 4 hours this past weekend shoveling rock into these sections. Hopefully he can rent a bobcat or something to finish it!

In other news, the kids got to see their first real parade in person this past weekend! Pioneer day is a huge holiday in UT and they had a parade in SLC for it. Carlton ran a half marathon that morning and we met up with him to see the parade. The kids enjoyed the first hour and then Gavin was done! LOL It was pretty hot and we were sitting directly in the sun, so we were fine with leaving before it was over! Here are a couple pics:

 

Hope you are enjoying your summer and staying cool!!