Halloween with the Porter Hospital

Right before Halloween Parker had a little accident with his tonka trunk. It got a little carried away and zoomed right over him.

No problem! Our house had just gone through emergency training. Surgeons Aaron and Mariah took him in right away and fixed him up. He is now being monitored by Dr's Caitlyn and Andrew. Nurses Helen and Alyssa are making sure he is comfortable.

No fears. We prescribed 1 hour of trick or treating and 2 lbs of candy for our patient Parker.

We were right! By morning he was just fine.

Witchapalooza

The girls and attended our Young Women's 2nd annual Witch-A-Palooza. We had a crazy mixed up dinner and had table topics. It was fun to spend time together.

Alyssa's concerts

Last week Alyssa had both her band and choir concert.

Alyssa is in advanced band and plays trumpet. They band did great in their Halloween concert. (Do you see the boy on the right of Alyssa? That is her not so secret crush) Shh don't tell her I told you!

Alyssa has choir as school this year. I was not able to hear her sing, but I made Aaron take the camera and get a few pictures. I am sure she did great. I am so glad she has more musical talent than me.

Arches National Park - Part 2

More hiking. This first picture is actually at the end of our trip. By the balanced rock the kids found this great dead tree. My kids are so cute!

Best buds.

Andrew in one of his may poses.

Aaron doing what he did most of the trip. I think this is probably what i looked like.

Teenagers. Moody or tired? You guess.

More of the monkey boy.

Caity and Parker.

Can you find Andrew? Hint: look for the blue dot.

Alyssa didn't climb as much as the others. I think she was just taking in her surroundings.

Cailtyn is queen of the rock.

Can you find Andrew now?

I couldn't resist this picture. Alyssa was playing with my camera and snapped this one. I love my wondeful husband.

Sweet siblings. I was so happy to see them take care of each other all weekend.

Mariah was taking in the amazing view while the other kids climbed up, down and all over the sandstone.

Ignoring Parkers smirk you can see our entire family in one picture.

Most of the kids. This is near the end of the day and some of the kids had enough. Overall they were great.

Love the view.

Clayton imitating me. I need to get his copy of me!

A happy Alyssa!

The kids climbing up. Do you see them?

Clayton trying to get Alyssa to smile.

I couldn't resist sharing this picture. Isn't she adorable?

My sweet baby boy.

Cousins and friends. I love seeing the kids spend so much time getting to know their cousins.

This is what it looks like when you hike with a handful of little tiny ones.

Moab was great. We loved spending time with our family and seeing part of Utah. We ate, played games, talked, hiked, picnicked and had a great time. Next time we need to get the entire family together. Love you all!

Family Time in Moab

These first pictures are just random cute pictures. The entire family stayed for 4 days in a 2 story, 8 bedroom house. It was fun for the cousins to play and be silly together.

Ben and Parker squeezing into small places.

I loved seeing these 2 together. They had fun all weekend.

All the kids got together and put on a play Mariah wrote and brought costumes for. With just a little practice the did great.

Another activity we did was inspired by my girls camp days. The kids were put into 3 groups and were given 2 rolls of toilet paper. They had to make an outfit for one of their group members.

Hole N" The Rock is on the South side of Moab. It is a 5,500 sq foot home built into the rock. We went on a tour and the kids played in the collection of items around the outside.

The 3 boys are in an old Twirly Whirly car. They each took turns flying and then all climbed in together.

The group waiting for our turn for the tour.

Who do you want to be? The Mine Boss or the Miner?

There was even a "Mater" car.

Arches National Park - part 1

During our stay in Moab we spent a good part of two days at Arches National Park. This was our first time there. It was beautiful. October is a good time to spend there since it was cooler. We did a few different hikes. These pictures are from various places.

The family at balanced rock.

mariah and Andrew were my brave climbers. They would scury up each spot and get as high as they could.

Mariah loves to climb. She had a hard time only doing the little hikes. Since we had so many little ones we were not able to do an all day hike like her and I like to do on our vacations. We will have to back another time.

Alyssa was a good helper with Parker. He loved hiking, but as a little kid, he also loved being carried.

I think this is from the North Window. All of my lovely kids.

I even managed to have a few pictures taken of me. I actually like this one!

Mariah and a few cousins sitting on top of the window. They are quite high up.

Andrew has over 50 pictures just of him. Every chance he got he would climb a little higher and make a pose and tell me to take a picture. At one point he told me I should save all the pictures and give them to him when he gets older so he can have memories. Good thinking little man!

Caitlyn is growing up into a beautiful young lady.

Parker is my little cheeser. The kids kept telling him he was at Archeese National Park. He loves to smile. :)

Aaron with his eyes open and a smile. That does not happen often.

Aaron and I together with Delicate Arch in the background. I love that we could do this as a family.

This picture cracks me up. Parker and Taitt were taking some great pictures when baby Edynn decided she needed in on the action. She walked over and plopped herself in the front, got herself posed and gave a great big smile.

Before our first hike to the overview of Delicate Arch.

A Panoramic shot of part of Arches. It doesn't do justice, but you can see a little of what we saw.