Fall Soccer Wrap Up

"Pumpkin Patch"

I am always annoyed by gratuitous use of quotation marks, but I think they are warranted when I post about a "Pumpkin Patch" in Rock Springs. Because a real pumpkin patch would be an actual field of lovely pumpkins growing on their vines, not a chain link fence corralling them with other random Halloween decor. But because we live in an area where literally nothing grows and pumpkins have to be shipped in by truck for festivities such as this, we will take whatever we can get. It still beats buying your pumpkins at Smith's.

And boy, was it a beautiful afternoon.

The haunted ambulance.

We went as a family on Saturday, and the following Tuesday Declan and I got to return with his preschool class for a fun field trip.

Fall

Here goes another "random events" post with what we've been up to!

Garreth and Liam went to Salt Lake to the Foo Fighters concert and had a blast.

The kids and I went over to Logan to see one of my favorite shows ever, "Stomp." This was my second time seeing it and it was every bit as good as I remembered. We went with my parents, and Garreth was originally supposed to go, but couldn't get more time off work after Foo Fighters. So even though I usually like to wait until the kids are 8 to go to big shows like this one, Sam got to use Garreth's ticket. He got a little tired and antsy at the end, but he loved every minute of it.

Grace also loved it. And Liam?

Well, let's just say that Liam has found his new calling in life.

Declan stayed at my parents' house with a babysitter and didn't even feel bad about not being able to go. He was so stoked about having his "very first babysitter EVER!" (I guess Grace just doesn't count!) After the show, we went out for ice cream with Papa and Nana, then spent the night in Preston. It was such a fun night!

We left early the next morning and I intended to get the kids back for the last half of the school day, but Logan Canyon in October was just much more appealing. We had to stop. The kids had a great time playing by the Logan River and I had fun playing with the camera on my phone. It was a morning well spent.

Here's Sam and Declan at the Wild Horse Corrals, killing some time while the big kids were at some sort of practice.

And here's Declan and his new best friend Steve. Steve came from Evanston to clean out our HVAC after the toilet incident and as we were talking, boxing came up. Turns out that he has sparred with Mohammed Ali and actually got his front teeth knocked out from a jab by Floyd Patterson. He was such a cool guy with the most amazing stories and was so cute with Declan. We were both sad to see him leave when the job was done! Steve runs the youth boxing club in Evanston and told Declan that he was going to take him back and train him and let him live with him. Declan was seriously ready to pack his bag.

Just a sweet pic of Grace and her biggest fan.

Declan and I spend most of our mornings at the rec center. He loves swimming lessons!

And he especially loves when I let him get in the dressing room hot tub afterwards.

Liam went straight from football into basketball season. He plays for the Timberwolves and has improved so much since last year. We think that playing football has given him a lot of confidence and made him a little more aggressive on the court. He has scored at least once in all of the three games they've played so far and is so fun to watch. At the last game, Garreth said, "It's so fun to have little athlete studs as sons!"

And among all the buzzed Wyoming little boy heads on the court, it's nice to see Liam's long, hippie, surfer hair bouncing up and down as he runs!

It's going to be a great season!