Halloween Celebrations 2014

Red Butte Garden – Garden After Dark, Once Upon a Fairytale

Oct 16, 17, 18 & 23, 24, 25; 6-9pm 

The Garden has been overrun with your favorite fairytales! From wicked brambles to magic pumpkins, plants are surprisingly prevalent in these famous tales. Enjoy an enchanted evening exploring these connections and hunting for signs of fairytale villains hidden throughout the Garden.

With crafts, activities, light displays and more, this is an event you definitely don’t want to miss! This is an indoor/outdoor, costume, and kid-friendly experience in the Garden to celebrate Halloween.

http://www.redbuttegarden.org/garden-after-dark

Gardner Village – Witchfest

Now – Oct 31

Lots of events: Witches Brew Ha Ha 5K run/walk; Breakfast with a Witch; Wee Witches Playground. The village is decorated up for the season, and there’s a fun scavenger hunt that will get you peeking around every corner to find the hidden witches.  

http://www.gardnervillage.com/#

Sugarhouse Park - Ginormous Pumpkin Regatta

Oct 18; Carving Noon – 1pm, Race: 1pm – 3pm

The 4th Annual Mountain Valley Seed Co. Ginormous Pumpkin Regatta will take place Saturday October 18th from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm at Sugarhouse Park. Pumpkin carving from 12:00 to 1:00 race from 1:00 to 3:00. Come watch these heroic growers race their 1,000 lb. plus pumpkins for love, honor and bragging rights.

https://www.mvseeds.com/regatta.html

CLAS Ropes Course in Provo - Halloween River Cruise

Oct 1-31; 6:30 until 9:00pm on weekdays, and 10pm on Fri and Sat

A fun 20-minute boat ride along the decorated stretch of Provo River. Not too scary, but pretty and fun to be outdoors during a beautiful fall season. Be sure to print a coupon from the website. 

http://clasropes.com/halloween-cruise.php#Halloween

Utah Symphony – Halloween Hi-Jinx

Oct 28; 7 pm

A HUGE costume contest and the best-quality spooky classical music – you can’t go wrong! Tickets start at $8 and little kids three years old and younger can sit on a lap. Check out the program line up, and borrow some of the music from your library or buy it for your iPod and you’ll be a musical expert.

http://www.utahsymphony.org/component/k2/969-halloween-hi-jinks

Hogle Zoo – Boo at the Zoo

Oct 25; 9am-3pm

Every October, the Zoo puts out a casting call for all princesses, cowboys, superheroes and wild things! Kids 12 and under can come in costume to trick-or-treat at booths set up throughout the zoo grounds. There will be lots of candy and lots to see and do.  Trick-or-Treating activity is free with regular Zoo admission or membership.

http://www.hoglezoo.org/events_experiences/annual_events/boo/

Wheeler Historic Farm – Pumpkin Days and Haybale Maze

Sept 26-Oct 31; 11am until 8pm weekdays and 9 pm weekends; 10am-3pm Sundays

Hay maze, wagon ride, and a pumpkin to take home. The farm is also hosting a doggie Halloween costume contest and a festival of scarecrows.

http://www.wheelerfarm.com/events/fallFestival.html

Thanksgiving Point – Halloween Central “A Nod to Oz”

Oct 3 – Nov 1

Cornbelly’s Corn Maze and Emerald City at Farm Country include lots of fun kids’ stuff. You can add on the Insanity Point haunted attractions if you’re really brave.

http://www.thanksgivingpoint.org/halloweencentral

Heber Valley Railroad – Pumpkin Festival

Lots of outings from Oct 9 – Oct 30

You and your kids will enjoy the annual Pumpkin Festival trains. Your ticket includes a short 40 minute train ride where you will be entertained on board by costumed entertainers! You’ll also get to sample a pumpkin cookie.  At the depot you can take a trip through the fairly spooky haunted car, and then get a Halloween sticker or temporary tattoo.  And of course you also get to select a pumpkin from the Pumpkin Patch and take it home with you! Additional food and snacks will be available for purchase at the depot and in the concession car.

http://hebervalleyrr.org/specialevents/pumpkinfestival/

Tracy Aviary – Halloween Hoot

On October 18, 25, 31st, the Aviary in Liberty Park offers a 50% discount and fun Halloween-themed events. Always a good way to spend a nice fall day in the park. 

http://www.tracyaviary.org/upcoming-events/#hh

Retirement / Assisted Living Home Costume Parade

We love to dress up in our costumes, make some fudge, and hand it out to people living at “old folks’ homes.” Call a facility in your neighborhood and ask if you can schedule a little visit. We like to go during social hour when the residents usually gather in the dining room or lounge. We stay for about 30 minutes and hand out our treats, discuss all things Halloween, and make some new friends. 

Nikki's Birthday, Monte L Bean Museum at BYU, baby Julia

 We visited sweet Nikki at her airline on her birthday.

We visited the Monte L Bean Museum at BYU. It's free and it's new. We liked it. It had a lot of taxidermied animals and lots of school kids running around acting a lot crazier than we were. 

 The kids like the mosaic butterfly display.

 There was a weird beetle-y thing too. 

 The kids acted out this gruesome scene. 

After the museum, we went to meet baby Julia for the first time. Isn't she an adorable little thing?

Those kids...

Jovie: I need to bring a Barbie to school so I can play with its hair instead of bugging the other kids. 

Me: If you keep being good in school, I'll get you a Barbie. 

Jovie: I really want the Millennium Falcon. 

Me: Well, that's really expensive. 

Jovie: Spend some money Mom!

Isaac: Come on mom, don't be a tight-wad.

 Me: There are dirty fingerprints all over this house. 

Isaac: Well, you shouldn't have had kids then. 

Jovie practiced and practiced photo bombing me. Also, when did my elbows get wrinkly?

Wonder Woman Century

Nicole and I went on vacation to Payson. We loaded up the bikes, did a little shopping in Provo, and ate a delicious dinner of fried chicken, pork tenderloin, and carrots at Communal. We checked into our sweet accomodations in Payson and went to bed early!

The next morning, we started off on our first century bike ride a little late in the morning, but too early to see Ellen and Amy. Our PR long ride was the 50 miles we did at Little Red earlier in summer, so between our trepidation at our audacity to try a century and the poorly marked course, we felt a little lost.  

I cramped up at about 50 miles, but after cola and sandwiches (and cookies, lots of cookies) at the lunch break, my legs loosened up and we finished with no more problems. 

Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. I've loved riding bikes so much with Nicole this year and she was there for every part of the Year of the Bike: White Rim, Little Red Riding Hood, Wonder Woman Century.

Swimming stars

We've enjoyed swimming at the townhouse. The mom let the kids get their first sunburn of the year on the last day of the swimming season. =(

Movie of Ikey Swimming: http://youtu.be/YKbvfzfFmlc

Try To Be Amazing

Isaac makes up songs all day every day. Here's today's version, called "Try To Be Amazing": http://youtu.be/hMPvwBV7YW0

Ikey Reads

Ikey reads a book to Jovie while she holds his hair...
http://youtu.be/Z8eufn07YBw

This is what it's like to take Ikey furniture shopping...

Star Student

Ikey is the star student of his class this week. The team (me, Isaac, Jovie) worked on his poster to tell all the most interesting things about him. TB and I came to class to watch his presentation of his poster and it was predictably adorable. He asked everyone to be careful with his 3D paper model of a train "because it's precious to me and I need to take it back home."

Soccer STORM!

TB and I are coaching a team of kindergarten soccer players. 

We're called the STORM, and half of our kindergarten team is 4 year old girls, so we haven't won a game yet (not that anyone is keeping score), but the kids keep getting better and better!

Joelle's Birthday Party

It was a big party at NHMU for Joelle's 40th. The weather was perfect for dancing out on the 5th floor deck of the museum. TB even danced! Lucky for me, Joelle and I are friends with the same people, and we all had so much fun. 

Nicole, me, Jocelyn

Therese, Nicole, Deb, Faith, me, Joelle, Tamara, Christina, Jocelyn, Rachael, Karin

Nicole, Joelle, me, Deb

Haircut

Mr. Barney is the world's greatest barber. 

High School Mountain Bike Race

We went to Soldier Hollow to cheer for Sierra in her high school mountain bike race. She was really great - very determined. It was quite a production (her team has 110+ racers!) and totally fun to watch. 

Ikey the Entrepreneur

Ikey: I'm going to start a business. It's a gas station called "TwotoTwo" (He spelled it out for us.) It will be open from 2 am to 2 pm. 
Another is a joke mix between a time and a car. It's called Four X Four. (Say "X") and it will be open from 4 am to 4 pm. 
Also, I am going to have a store called "Wacky Poodle Pet Shop." 

He drew some cool Star Wars characters. 

Jovie LOVES the Star Wars soundtrack and she sings and kazoos it a lot. 

Ikey and Jovie's Ice Bucket Challenge

http://youtu.be/8DXc6GGpplQ

Jovie the builder

Jovie is a little bit of a night owl, and she stays up about an hour after Ikey falls asleep in their shared bedroom. In the morning, we often discover interesting buildings that she's created overnight. 

Utah State Fair

 We always love the state fair. Our favorite things to see are the farm animals, the 4-H Display, the crafts display with the butter cow, the fine art display (where the kids made and hung their own drawings), and the agricultural displays. I must have talked to the beekeeper for about an hour. Unless he made up all the stuff he told me, bees are the most amazing creatures on earth. 

Checkers and Chess

We taught the kids to play checkers one night and they both picked it up quickly. Ikey beat me in a game the next morning. 

Ikey's on the chess team at school and it's pretty fun!

First day of Kindergarten and Preschool

   Jovie is in Preschool and Ikey is in Kindergarten. What an exciting day!