Utah Symphony Halloween Hi-Jinks

This is the first year that we've attended the Halloween family concert. We thought it was great to see the musicians dressed up in costumes. We posed by the Chihuly scupture in the lobby of the concert hall. 

Boulder, Utah

We stayed at Boulder Mountain Lodge and ate three times at Hell's Backbone Grill. It's good. We never did get kicked out, but our big table with four kids from 5 years old to 2 was kind of obnoxious. The drive from Boulder to Escalante is totally fantastic with drop-offs on both sides and something different around every corner. There are outrageous views in every direction!

My dramatic new haircut!

 

Anasazi State Park in Boulder

This is how most "hugging" poses start or end.

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef has everything: amazing geology, bridges and arches, pioneer buildings and orchards, Native American history, beautiful views, and no crowds! We met the Kanshepolsky-Gotshalk family there and hiked with them to Hickman Bridge.

Todd and Andy with Ikey, Jovie, Avi and Ellie.

You can just see the bridge.

The kids all hiked this two mile trail that wasn't too treacherous, save for one "cactus in the bum" incident.

Ikey was only a little worried when I told him that this bridge would fall down some day. October 26, 2012 was not the day it fell down.

 We had a picnic by the orchard with a lot of deer watching and we checked out the petroglyphs.

The view from Panorama Point was amazing.

We ate lunch at Cafe Diablo in Torrey and it was really good. Ikey liked the artwork and spent the rest of the day as Sparky the Coyote. http://www.coyotecartoons.com/store/art_gallery2.php The drive from Capitol Reef to Boulder that evening was spectacular.

Calf Creek Falls

This is a six-mile round trip hike to a beautiful waterfall. Ikey (3) and Avi (5) hiked it with minimal help, but a lot of encouragement. Jovie (2) hiked over half of it and rode about half in the backpack. Ellie (2) hiked just about half too. The kids were amazing.

It was so cold right by the water, like a wind tunnel.

Todd poses like this every time.

Superheroes of Kindness

Our friends, the Kanshepolsky-Gotshalks, invented "Superheroes of Kindness" and it sounds like fun. Our friends, the Billings, invited the little superheros to visit a grandma in an assisted living facility and we showed up with bells on (well, a dragon costume and jack-o-lantern costume).  

Skuut-ing along

I loaded up my bike, the bike trailer, and Ikey's skuut for a ride on Jordan River Parkway. Looks like I forgot something kind of essential.

So Jovie and I walked and Ikey rode. He is so fast. He prefers the "single-track" on the side of the paved trail.

 

 

He rode away from us so I couldn't see him anymore, so Jovie and I ran and I yelled for him to stop and we caught up with him in the parking lot about ten minutes later. I took his skuut away for two days and gave him a spiced up version of the regular lecture...What if you got hurt or took a wrong turn or if a bad guy stole you? I was going on and on like usual. When I was pretty sure everyone was ignoring me, I laid off the lecture and turned on the radio. Jovie asks "Who's singing?" and "What's this song called?" for every new piece.
I answered "This is Taylor Swift. She's singing "We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together."
Ikey said, "The bad guys that steal little kids would like this song."

The Great Pumpkin Party

We made a lot of chili, breadsticks, popcorn, apple cider, and cookies and invited a lot of friends over for a backyard screening of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". We had every kind of delicious treat and the kids decorated pumpkins and ate a lot of cookies.

Grandpa and Grandma were pretty much buried with leaves and just very popular with the little people.

I made Peanuts shirts for our family. I failed to take pictures of the kids, so I'll stage those later.

 

 

Somebody in our neighborhood set off some fancy fireworks right after the movie and I totally took credit for those.

Cute little Benny Dalmation.

Garden After Dark

Ikey started asking about Garden After Dark last December. It's his favorite event. We met the Billings and Kanshepolsky-Gotshalk families there and glowed in the dark like crazy.

Ikey's haunted train lantern. He can write BOO on anything.

Jovie is not afraid of anything. Ikey said he just wanted to look at this Frankenstein sign, but Jovie walked right up to it with her torch. I think she's doing "Statue of Liverty".

Jovie's first professional face painting! Ikey requested a dragon and fire all around his eyes. We didn't wash this off until the next day.
 

Halloween message from the blondes

Here's an early morning conversation about Halloween: http://youtu.be/AcA_aKXotJc

 

Ikey was complaining that Jovie stole his box car sticker. He insisted! Todd figured out the mystery and Ikey was very surprised to see this photograph.

Rocket, Todd, Ice Cream Cone head to Freaky Friday at Wheeler Farm.

Ice Cream Cone, Aimee, Rocket at Wheeler Farm.

Lots of buffalo at Antelope Island

Ikey was all over the tractors at Garr Ranch.

 

Ikey climbed up to the counter and grabbed this pizza and said, "Dad, cut it in half for me." His eyes were bigger than his stomach.