Our Little Run Away

Do any of you remember running away from home? I do, but it wasn't until I was in Jr. High! Aspen surprised us the other night by telling us she was catching the bus and running away from home! What! Where in the world did our 6 year old come up with this plan. Basically what happened is that her dad had gotten mad at her for playing with our neighbors mailbox. She opened it and some of their mail fell out. He told her that tampering with other people's mail is a federal offense and she needed to go and pick it up. There was no screaming or tears. She simply went over, picked up their mail and headed back to the house. She was up in her room for a minute and just as I was wondering what she was up to, she came walking down the stairs with her purse, a rolling backpack and her My Twinn doll. When I asked her what she was doing, this was her response. "Mom, I don't know how to tell you this but I am running away from home. I am so mad at my dad. He hurt my feelings and I need to leave!" I was shocked but simply said, "Okay honey, I am sorry you feel that way. Your daddy wasn't trying to hurt your feelings and I know he loves you very much. But if you need to go, then I guess you need to go." I think she was surprised by my reaction. Zach was there but couldn't say anything because he was trying so hard not to laugh. We made sure she had a jacket and her favorite stuffed animal and we asked her how she was going to get to where she needed to go. She said she was going to take the bus. The bus doesn't actually come into our neighborhood but we humored her anyway. She knows she can't go past the corner stop sign so we wondered just how far she would go. Here are some pictures of her leaving. We had to get the camera for this one. It is a little bit blurry because it was taken through the window of our house.


Here is one of her looking back to see if anyone is watching her. Of course we were!


Here is one of her waiting for the bus. She never did pass the stop sign.


We gave her about 10 minutes and then Zach went out and got her. He told her he was sorry that her feelings had been hurt and that he loved her. She decided to come home. We are glad she did. We would have missed her terribly :-).

The Scarecrow Festival-Thanksgiving Point

We went with the LaFord family to the Scarecrow Festival last Saturday. Emily and Tyson have 3 adorable kids. Alex who is 7 and twin girls who turned 2 this past July, Avery and Kendall. Aspen is convinced that she and Alex are brother and sister. If you ask her if she has any siblings she will tell you she is getting a sister after Christmas and she has a brother named Alex. They honestly do act like brother and sister. Aspen also adores the twins and loves playing "big" sister to them! Here are some cute pictures from that day. We had such a fun time. The best part was watching Emily take both girls up the slide. By the time she reached the top, you can see a line forming behind her. It was priceless. Emily you are such a good sport and Tyson shame on you for not helping her up the slide. Just kidding, we all know how independent she is. She wouldn't have let you help if you tried.

Aspen and Kendall:


Tyson and Avery:


Aspen, Alex and some really tall guy:


A picture of Emily taking her girls up the slide. Notice the line forming after her... She is the person at the very top!

Halloween Festivities

Garden after Dark-Red Butte Gardens:

We try to make it to this event each year. It is so much fun. This year the theme was, "Once Upon a Time." The girls sang in a Shrek Karaoke, they made a seed packet, a witches hat and a monkey puppet. They traveled through a glow in the dark Gum Drop Alley and fell through the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. They also collected all their stamps from each station and received a prize at the end. No, it wasn't some random cheap toy, it was a tree for them to plant! As a parent, I thought that was a great idea. As a child, they probably wanted the cheap toy. All in all, it was blast.

KeLsie, Aspen and Cassidy doing Karaoke

Some Halloween Decorations and a not so scary spider.

My Niece KeLsie hanging out with a moose.

Catching Up!

It has been a long time since I blogged. It isn't that I don't want to blog or that I have nothing to blog about but more that I lack the motivation! So here is a quick catch up on our lives. Aspen has started 1st grade and loves it. She is learning so much and having fun at the same time. Her school is a bit on the extreme side but since she doesn't know any different, we don't tell her. With that said, it also demands a lot of our time so we are adjusting as well. Here is a picture from her first day. She is with one of her best friends, Alyssa.


Then about a month ago, Zach's aunt came to town to visit. Holly is absolutely amazing and we love spending time with her. Did I mention she is also beautiful. We were able to get together for dinner at Archibalds, we saw the witches at Gardner Village and went to Red Mango for Dessert. Then the next morning we met for Sunday Brunch at the Little America. It was fantastic! The weekend went by so quickly but we were thankful for the time we had with her. She reminds Aspen so much of her grandma Cam (well they are sisters) and Aspen just adores her. Thank you Holly for your visit and for spending time with us. We love you.






Aspen also started Ballet again. She had both Ballet and Gymnastics over the summer but we had to limit it to one extra curricular activity once school started. I think she would have chose gymnastics but we talked her into Ballet. Or rather the fact that her friend Cassidy would be in her class helped motivate her. She is at the Children's Ballet Theater and her teacher is amazing this year. It really is an adorable place. We love it there.


Zach took the day off a couple of weeks ago to go with Aspen on her field trip. They took the kids the the BYU Museum of Natural History and to Cabella's. The kids were studying natural animal habitats in class as well as the difference between Carnivore, Herbivores and Omnivores so these were the perfect places for them to visualize what they were learning. Here are a few pictures from that day. Zach still isn't convinced that 1st graders wouldn't have enjoyed a different kind of field trip but again, they don't know any different so why tell them :-). They had a blast.



I really do have more to tell you but the motivational thing is kicking in. I will post more soon.