A Celebration for Life As We Know is Over

The time has finally come. Danny starts basketball on Monday. We are excited, and a little nervous for what these next few months are going to be like . We are not new to the coaching thing, but are new to the varsity coaching thing. So to savor the last few days of good family time, Danny took a personal day on Friday and we headed to the Boise Zoo. This was McKay's first trip to the zoo. He liked all the birds and cats, and especially the huge tortoise, but kept asking where the 'doggie' was. This zoo is pretty small, so there were no big animals to amaze him. We did get to be one of the first people to see the new baby gibbon (a type of a monkey, is case you didn't know, because I didn't!). She was so cute. After the zoo, we had lunch and then headed to the factory outlets, because we were so close anyway. But really, I'll take any excuse to go there. And I found a $2.00 oh so cute shirt! One of the rare times in our marriage that Danny out spent me. The day was so fun, I think we'll make this a tradition.

There were lots of animals for kids to play on, but this one was the only one McKay would go near to.

"Get me out of this dinosaur egg!"

Our silly McKay

Happy Halloween!

Danny and I were a little nervous how Halloween would go this year, considering McKay has been terrified of all things Halloween. We were even more worried when Danny went to put on McKay's monkey costume. McKay starting crying like he had been hurt so I ran into the room to see what the matter was and asked what happened. Danny said, "I took the pants off the hanger." Once the costume was on, all was well and McKay liked being 'George.' Danny was a vampire, and I was a preppy witch. I was confused though with a teenager (I have no idea what that person was thinking) and Pippy Longstocking. I liked my costume though. We first went to our ward's Trunk or Treat. McKay's nursery leader dressed up as a scary witch (I was even a little nervous around her.) She even took out her teeth, which made it a little too real. McKay was not sure about her at all and I'm praying all our hard work to get McKay to like nursery isn't out the door. After that, we then went to our friends Halloween party. Danny made his oh-so-good french fries and I was reminded why we don't own a fryer anymore. They are too good! McKay loved running around with all the kids. I loved this, because he doesn't do that often. The day turned out very fun and I'm glad McKay enjoyed it too.

"I'm ready to go!"

Dad kind of looks like a meat head vampire.

McKay has loved his jack-o-lantern pail all month. He would hold it like a purse and collect his things in it. One night I found a few blocks, a cracker, a sippy cup, a book, and a football all in it. so cute. On Halloween though, he wanted nothing to do with it, and I got to carry it.

The hood got to be too much.

We are with our good friends, Breanna and Landon. McKay loves London, and wakes up in the morning sometimes saying "LanLan?" They are so cute and I think so are we!

Happy October!

October has been a busy month for us. Every time we would do something blog-worthy, life would pick up so I couldn't post what I wanted too. So now I'm making up for that. The month started by going to the pumpkin patch. We have a great farmers market about 10 minutes away and they do tractor rides out to the pumpkin patch where you can pick your own pumpkins. McKay loved just sitting in the dirt pounding on the pumpkins like they were drums. I found a white pumpkin which I think is so cute.

This is McKay saying "cheese!"

"I found you!" McKay says this when he finds something he's looking for. A ball, his blanket, and the pumpkin.

I thought he would love a ride in the wagon, but it kind of looks like he's holding on for dear life.

The farmers set up an area full of pumpkins and hay bails to take fun pictures with. I love McKay's face, even though he's screaming for us to go.
When the time came for carving the pumpkins, McKay was really excited about the whole thing, until he realized what was involved. he spent the night on the couch eating Cheerios while Danny and I carved. I think we did a pretty good job.


Danny finished football and also got to go to a basketball clinic at Pepperdine University, in Malibu, CA. The trip was short, but that was good because he left the same day all the fires started. As for me, I've been busy reading. The girls in my ward put together a book club and our first book was "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. I loved, loved, loved it, and the other two books in the series. If you haven't read these books, it is a must!! The symphony I'm in performed our first concert series of the season. We play for a bunch of schools, so in three days we performed seven concerts. Whew! To make things harder, right before the concerts my violin bow broke. The tip had been cracked for a while and it finally broke in two. What a sad day. I thought the bow's life was over because the material it's made of isn't a simple fix, but I sent it to the makers and they just called the other day to tell me that they are fixing it under warranty. Yea! My mom sent me an old bow to use in the mean time, but I'm so excited to get my nice bow back. and also, I've been substituting a few times for a couple of college music classes for another teacher. I'm glad I've had many opportunities to teach and play this month, but even more glad not to send McKay to a sitter so much this month (Breanna- Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!)

Our Cone-head

McKay found his sand bucket the other day, and now it's his new favorite hat. Well, whatever makes him happy, huh?

FUBALL!!

This is McKay's word for 'football'. He can't get enough of the sport. He loves playing with his football, watching it (luckily we are gone most Saturdays, so most of the watching has been live or the Payton Manning commercial because there is football and dancing), and saying 'Fuball' with his hands raised in the air all day long. I thought we would brave the cold, windy weather last Friday and go to the Nyssa vs. Ontario game (Nyssa was slaughtered, as most predicted). For about a minute, McKay loved the scene, but then realized that maybe football wasn't all cracked up to be that great. We only lasted for the 2nd quarter. Sadly, we didn't hear many 'fuball' over the next couple of days.

Well, Danny's middle school football team finally had a home game, so I tried to restore McKay's faith in football again. The weather was perfect fall weather, and McKay loved it all.

"Go Nyssa!"

"This snack is too sour, Mom."

"Why are those people shouting?"

There were a couple of little kids playing with a football by us, and McKay was very eager to join in. But he didn't understand why the kids might want the football back when they threw it to him. We are still working on the concept of tossing the ball back when you play catch.

And one last thing, Good Luck to my Dad this weekend in the St. George Marathon! What number is this, 29 or 30? We love you!!

A Pirate's Life For Me...

...But not for McKay. McKay and I went on a quick trip to Utah to celebrate Aidan's 3rd birthday. McKay was loving the pirate party, which included a treasure hunt, until we got our party bag. I put all the great stuff on McKay, and that was alright for about two seconds. I'm so glad Joseph and Juli got this picture.


The whole rest of the party McKay was in a bad mood. No more pirate parties for McKay in the near future. The rest of the weekend was fun though. I love being with my family, but loved coming back to Danny.

Happy 28th Birthday, Danny!

On this wonderful day, we celebrated Danny's 28th birthday. Danny didn't want anything too fancy, so we just went out to dinner. I was going to make cupcakes, but decided it would be easier to just do a cake instead. I wasn't happy with my end results, so after dinner, we bought a Cold Stone ice-cream cake. My cake went straight in the trash. Oh well. The best thing about being 28 Danny says is that now he knows how to change his own oil for his car. A friend of ours taught him Tuesday night, and I'm still hearing, "I can change my own oil!" every few minutes. I'm proud though. Here are pictures of Danny's two cakes.

On Labor Day, we were craving some water that wasn't a swimming pool. A student of mine suggest Black Canyon Dam, which is about 30 minutes from us. We had such a good day. McKay loved the lake and beach area. He fell in the water a couple times, and that made him nervous. After a few minutes of playing on the beach, he was in the water again. I'm excited for Fall and Winter, but will miss the water fun.

Our legless boy