Halloween 2008

Oh, Halloween-one of the best days of the year. We started out by going swimming in the Dennet's new pool. Yep, it was warm enough to swim. MJ made sure Tigger and Pooh were buckled up for safety.

Then we went to trick-or-treat at Mark's work.

Uncle Clark and Uncle Carlos went too. They were a lot of help.

My Dad was an even bigger help and washed the car and gassed it up for us while we were visiting Mark.

We did go Trick-or-Treating. Jens favorite house was the one that just left the candy bowl out. She went to that house twice. MJ thought everything about it was fantastic. She loved handing out the candy just as much as getting it. (They didn't get any soup though :))

Check this out

Have you ever thought, we can do this project, it wont take too long. And then forever later it still isn't done? Last week we had our carpets cleaned. While the furniture was all moved Mark and I thought it would be a good idea to paint our room. Our room isn't that big, and we have painted every other room in our house. Only problem, we knew we couldn't do it with the kids around. So after they went to bed on Friday night (10/24) we started to paint. At about 4am we called it quits. We have worked on it just about every night since. We still have some touch ups to do but here are the before and after pictures:

I almost forgot to take the before picture

I love it!!

Halloween is my FAVORITE

Ok, lets be honest. Does it get any better than an abundance of candy and dressing how ever you want? Oh no. Halloween is by far the best holiday. We went to a fall festival (and the camera fell out of my pocket in the car, so this is the only picture I got), and this is MJ showing off her Hello Kitty painted arm and balloon sword. The picture I wish I would have gotten was MJ finishing the obstacle course, or Jens in pure delight blowing on her "loot" as MJ would say (I think the rest of us say flute).

After the fall festival we went to a Halloween Party. They had a bunch of different themed rooms with things to do. It was well decorated- they had spooky decorations, and they had a bunch of things to do.

pumpkin patch

We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends. It was super fun. MJ loved everything about it, but mostly she loved the slide.
Jens like the animals. She kept signing dog though. That was about the only thing she liked. Oh, except when we went home :)
PS- it was HOT?!! So much for fall weather.

And that's all I have to say about that

Thanks for the buttons Mom.

My pumpkin

Today MJ wanted to wear her Halloween shirt. Only one problem-- it is too small. We went round and round about changing. She is soo stubborn- and I have no idea where she gets that from :). You can see who won this battle.

Harry Reid

We went to listen to Harry Reid today. What I heard was interesting, but I didn't hear too much. MJ was more interested in crawling on the library floor. I know, gross. And, all MJ wanted to see was my cousin Tessa. Jens slept almost the entire time. I dunno, I think this could be a cover pix for a magazine.

Cans

I would love to say that I have instilled a great sense of environmental responsibility in MJ by teaching her to recycle. But the real story is she loves to take the cans out to the recycle at my parents house. I think it is a game she plays with herself, how many can she possibly hold.

Fall time

We thought it would be fun to go to a pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin. We must have missed the memo that said you should go a week earlier. Pickings were slim, but it was still fun.

DC Day 6

I was truly bummed we were not able to spend more time in WV. We got up early (5:30 am-- thanks Jens) and got on the road. This picture is taken outside the awesome resort that Mandy and Matt put us up at. The fog is from the lake.

Google suggested we take highway 50 back to DC. Had I looked at a better map I probably wouldn't gone that way, but I am so glad we did. It was phenomenal. The colors were so vibrant it seemed fake. I was so freakn tired, but didn't want to sleep because it was way too beautiful. Sam got most of the pictures, so I will have to snag some from him, even though I don't think they do it justice.

My favorite lunch was this day because we met up with our Uncle Mark in Winchester VA. It was great to see him and Ginny- even if it was short.

We rushed to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye to Sammy. We had so much fun, and made so many unforgettable memories. Good times, good times.

I almost forgot to add that the best part of our trip home was randomly running into our favorite Utahan Mike! Made the whole trip worth it :) hahaha.

West Virginia Day 5

You know how you meet some people and you just automatically like them? When I was a freshman in college I met some really super fantastic people. One of my very favorites was Mandy from West Virginia. And it wasn't just her accent I loved. She is the most genuine, generous, good person all around. The crappy part is we are on opposite end of the US and don't get to see each other near enough. So we could not miss seeing her and her just as cool husband Matt and kids Keller and Landon. It helps that they live in one of the most beautiful places- I would have to say "almost heaven." Matt took the boys out for a bike ride, while the kids, Mandy and I checked out the scenery. It was so much fun to see places that I have heard so many stories about. I was sad it was so short. I wish we could have spent weeks there.

DC Day 4

Our hotel was about 4 blocks from the Zoo- awesome. I think you can almost always count on the zoo- or at least I can- to be cool. But maybe someone called ahead for us, because this zoo was so much fun. Almost all of the animals we saw were doing something, not just sleeping- like, an elephant getting a bath, a hippo walking, 2 lionesses playing, a cheetah and zebra playing chase through the fence, Sam posing. Check these pix out:

Funny side note, when the elephant got his bath, he also was weighed on this gigantic scale. After he got off the scale a zoo person got on it to clean or something. They didnt turn the number reading off, so we saw how much she weighed.

After the zoo and lunch (at a yummy sandwich shop) we trecked out to Mount Vernon. When we got off the metro we were a little turned around, and by the time we got to the bus stop we realized we missed the bus by just a few min. Usually not a big deal, but in this case the bus only comes once an hour. We bit it and took a taxi.

I liked seeing Mount Vernon. It has been kept up very well, and the tour people were very informative. I am glad we went, but probably will not go back.

That night we decided to try out a place to eat across the street from our hotel. There was always a line there, so we figured it was good. They had a very unique menu with "fall foods" like squash. It was yummy, that is until about 2 hours later. Something I ate (rosotto squash) hated me HATED ME. Needless to say by morning I had barely slept, and had nothing left in me. But I was way too excited to go to West Virginia to see the Bennetts to worry about it.

DC Day 3

Our appointment for the White House Tour was at 11:30. At 11:30 when we still were not there, and still had not met up with Sam I was freakn out. We literally RAN to get there, but we made it. Come to find out, if you are not there at your assigned time it is not a big deal.

I would have to say the White House was an extreme disappointment- And not because of who lives there. I think we saw 5 rooms- and when I say saw, it means we walked by. I think it took a total of 20 min, and that is because there were so many people there. But check out this cute picture:

Next we were off the Natural History Museum. We had more fun posing.

We stopped at the Jim Hansen exhibit- but someone was having a melt down, so we didn't get any pictures, and did it fast.

Then we were off to Arlington.

We watched the changing of the guard, and Jens was quite the entire time- and she was awake too!

We hadn't really eaten yet, but thought we better stop by the Sep 11 memorial while we were close.

This is how we all felt

I think that night we were asleep before our heads hit the pillow.

DC Day 2

Sam had to work so we went to the American Indian museum. The outside architecture was just as interesting as the inside. Jens wasn't too impressed, she slept the whole time.

We went to the botanical gardens next. They had the coolest orchids- and a ton of them too!

We walked up the hill to meet Sam at the Hart building for a tour of the Capitol. The tour of the Capitol was definitely a highlight. It was so cool to see the art, architecture, and tunnels. We had a great guide-Emma, and we were the only ones in the group. It was super packed though.

We had a lot of fun posing like the statues and pictures.

The balcony was one of the best views!I was bummed we were not able to see where Sam's office is. I guess we will just have to go back :).

After the Capitol we went to see Sam's place. It was in a really cool old neighborhood. After dinner we started the monument marathon. I swear we walked 10,000 miles. But we got some great pictures.

Trip to DC day 1

We went to Washington DC!! It was awesome. This is day one. We had to get up way too early. Thanks to Eric for taking us. MJ was so excited she talked the entire way to the airport (at 5am). Here is a pix from the plane ride. Jens first plane ride.

We dropped MJ off at our layover in SLC. Thanks to Gma and Gpa Lemon- they made the trip possible by watching MJ.

We made it to DC. Jens did really well on the crowded plane.The first night we ate at an interesting Indian place. We stayed at the Omni, and there were a bunch of different places to eat all around.