fall photo shoot numero uno

 I didn't want to miss out on the fall colors this year and so decided to take a drive up AF canyon for a peek. There were some very pretty spots but know that I will be going back again to take another look.

 What I love about fall...

sleeping with the windows open

everything pumpkin flavored is coming back

the leaves

school starts

all the yummy fruit and veggies that are in peak season

turning on the heater in the morning and the a/c in the afternoon in the car

getting the jeans and boots out of storage

trying new soup recipes

A September to remember.

So my month of full time wasn't too bad, I did use all my vacation and user time to make sure I was at hours but overall it was super duper fun. I did a fun trip to Toronto, even though I didn't get to see anything I was flying in good company. At the very end of the month I go to do a trip with my girl  Jamie. We flew from SLC to SFO and then up to Calgary. We were there about noon. We unloaded our stuff changed out of uniform and headed over to Tim Hortons. A luxury the states doesn't have yet. We got our 10 pack of timbits and hoped on the train to the mall. We were actually in search of a mani-pedi place, we ended up finding one but it was too expensive so we just walked around and window shopped I did end up getting Ben his favorite foods from the homeland. The top choice (pic below) Crush creme soda, Fudgee-o-s (double stuff) Cheezies, Old dutch salt and vinegar chips and some Caramilk I looked high and low for the Macintosh toffee(not the chewy kind) and didn't find any.

Here are some pics below....

My attempt to take a pic of myself and not look crazy, it looks crazy..


Me getting a ticket for illegally riding the train... just kidding me and my friend making friends with the transit police in Downtown Calgary.

  These pics are a few months late, the neighborhood we live in has an annual Canada Day parade, I am not sure who puts it on but every year its gets bigger and bigger.

Why does Ben not believe me when I say, here put these on I want to see what you look like and then take a picture and then say I won't post it....sorry Ben. (these are fake glasses Alivia bought with some of her allowance money)

This beauty of a quilt was made by my Aunt and entered into the fair and received a blue ribbon!

Some good times we have been having at Neptune Park!

NAKED BUM ALERT BELOW!!

Why do boys think it is funny to run around naked or try and pull each others pants down? (sometimes)

Update

 I think I saw on the news somewhere that there were 1200 fires in the western U.S. and two of those were right in our back yard. this doesn't look terrible but it ended up getting pretty crazy for the people to the north and west of this fire, luckily we were east of it but still a little un-nerving when it's in your backyard.

 Hooray for school, this for some reason has been a tough summer for me, the kids seemed especially crazy. As I was cleaning a very quiet house today, I was thinking about our summer and how fast it went. Even though the kids were crazy we had some really great trips this year and enjoyed lots of time outside in the HOT, SMOKEY air.
Alivia is in fourth grade and has two teachers this year, a half day split. She was super excited when she saw some familiar faces this morning. She is still doing piano and choir this year. Getting better.

 Bauer was so excited this morning he woke up before the alarm and came upstairs and tole me he didn't want to lay there and wait for the alarm. He is such a cute sweet boy and will miss him for the 6 hours he is gone. He was so excited to take his lunch today and is even more excited when he gets to try school lunch. Bauer has the same teacher Alivia and Cooper had for second grade she moved to first grade this year and so she got the 3rd Whidden.

 Cooper has Alivia's 3rd grade teacher, whom I LOVE. I am hoping he has a good year this year and had a good talk with the teacher about his struggles and it seems like putting him in a different math class for some extra help.

 Kessler the big boy, Ben said a few times how crazy it is that he is going to be gone 3 days a week for only 2 hours but still. HOW fast times flies!!

 BTW.....I really hope Mitt Romney wins the presidential election, not that he is Mormon and all but that I am really hoping he can turn things around, around here. GO MITT!!

 One thing I love the most about the end of the summer, fresh fruit and VEGGIES!! Kessler and his cherries.

Too much

There is always too much to post about but I am so lazy/busy (ha) to post more than twice a month.
First- full time status isn't so bad (it is only the 8th) but I did do a new trip for me I flew out to Toronto and stayed the night. We had 14 hours on the ground and had the intention of going to Niagara Falls and the car rentals ended up being to pricey for one day and so it didn't work out. We didn't really even leave the hotel because it was by the airport and nothing else.

Chopped 8 inches off of my hair, give me a hallelujah!! my hair was annoying the crazy out of me and it is nice to feel a little more free.

Boat broke down, booo. We finally found out what was wrong and it isn't too bad but bad enough it will stay off the water for a while, parts are ordered.

We actually broke down at Flaming Gorge on the water and it was scary there for a while to be stuck on the lake with no one around to help. We made it back to our campground but had to be towed to the marina to get the boat out of the water and come home.

School starts in less than 2 weeks, sad and glad at the same time. This has been the hardest summer I have ever had while being a mother. It has been hot and smokey and I think they has made the kids grouchy and in turn makes the mom grouchy.

We missed our trip to Canada.......sigh. We really wanted to go and even up to the last minute checking car rentals and options of not spending 1000+ to get there.

We have our first knee boarder of the family. Before our boat broke in Flaming Gorge we were bribing the kids who ever was the bravest and would try knee boarding first would get a special prize. Well surprising Cooper was the one who we coaxed into trying it. Ben got in the water and stabilized him and we started out very slow so Ben could just be dragged behind as well and he stayed up. He got brave enough that he even would move from side to side. He even had a pretty cool wipe out when some waves came from another boat and made him catch air and crash.

Poor Cooper he has been complaining that his teeth her and we found the reason, since this picture has been taken he has lost the tooth under the tooth coming in but has the same thing happening on the other side. He is kind of self conscious about it, he asks if he looks like a freak.....It puzzles me how teeth are so unpredictable why don't they just come down in normal where they are supposed to go?

I almost have all the school shopping done just a few more pants for Cooper and a pair of shoes for Bauer and a pair of shoes for Alivia. Kessler even starts some school this year. Monday-Wednesday and Friday so a little bit more freedom if you can call it that.

We took the kids to the new West Valley Target for the very important guest night, which is usually the team members family. So I decided to dress the boys up as Target employees and go show our support. Well they were a hit. People were cracking up as they walked past and were taking pictures of them. Ben's boss and his boss's boss were very impressed. The picture really don't even do it justice. It was fun.

Happenings

 Alivia was able to perform at a Bee's game with other members of her choir group. It was a fun excursion for a Saturday night. We decided to take the kids on the light rail system here in Utah and started out really close to my Mom's house in West Jordan. We made it there safe and sound and got our tickets, took our seats, watched Livi perform and then had to sit through 9 innings of Baseball, the first few were quite boring so we decided to go get some snacks, buying snacks for 7 kids and 3 adults is pricey so we all pitched in some cash and went and bought some ball park snacks, nachos, licorice, kettle corn and cotton candy. (luckily they gave out water cups. Well that sugar overload made the next 5 innings a little bit more exciting and the game ended with a great fireworks show.

9$ Bee's Ticket, 5$ Nachos, Licking the Nachos bowl clean-Priceless.

Where our night hit a snaf-oo was on the way home the trax system had a pretty significant delay because of an accident farther up the line and set us back about 1 hour and 20 minutes. It is hard letting little kids sit on a train platform for that long. However we really didn't have any choice to go anywhere because we were not really sure when the train would come.

We finally got on the train and made it another 30 minutes to our West Jordan stop. AND THEN Cooper forgets his Nintendo DS on the train. Cooper falls to his knees crying and so upset that he left his DS. So we decided to wait and see if the train would come back and I would jump on and look for it. 10,20,30, 40 minutes pass no train. So I decide to drive a little further up the line and see if I can see and of course as soon as I come around this corner I see the train. So I flip the car around drive like a crazy person down this 35mph road. Stop at a red light, look both ways, go through (I know, my justification is the light in the other direction just turned yellow) So I drive and the rail road lights start flashing I step on it under the arms and drive into the parking lot, jump out of the suburban just as the train is pulling up I go running up to the train and the conductor? holds the DS out his window and says "are you looking for this". I was so happy and relieved I couldn't believe it.

What a crazy night.

Other happenings

Haven't heard about our appraisals?

Ben went to his first training session to be a DTL (District Manager) He got so sick, throw up sick, he said said he had to run out the room with throw up in his hands....gross!!

I went to San Diego for a few days, to hang with my cute pregnant friend that never had her baby but is being induced today.

We had to drain and refill the pool. 

We had to buy new tires for the suburban, Ben got a flat on the side of the freeway on his way to taking the kids to Seven Peaks. The tire was not fixable and all the other tires wouldn't have passed safety due in September. So a huge chunk of change, mostly all of our money we would have used to go to Canada this week. Temporarily off the schedule unless we find a really cheap car rental.

I am going to be a full time flight attendant in about 8 days and we will see how this goes. I got all my regular shifts but bid two-two days ( I haven't flown those kind of trips in years.) pretty cool overnights though, one in Toronto and one in Vegas. They both get in really early so I am hoping to go to Niagara Falls and Vegas we stay at a really nice hotel off the strip so maybe just go and hang at the pool.

I am realizing I need to blog more so my posts are so long and boring.