This year no one had much of an opinion on what they wanted to be for Halloween. Peter mentioned Spiderman, and I went for it. Here are our Spider-verse costumes. I’ve always loved Spiderman and loved doing this.

We went to a corn maze, and we’ve also stayed busy going to family events. And working on the house, trying to get it done before Thanksgiving!

I love the fall colors, the crisp air, and even the first snow. My kids were talking about how perfect the weather was when it dropped down into the 40s, and I had to agree. Do I always like the cold? Not winter cold. But when it’s just cold enough to need warm socks and a jacket, and you can come inside and be cozy.

We went down to the St. George area for fall break. I was a little reluctant to go, which is unlike me. I think life has just been very full, and I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to the work of packing, driving, and corralling kids everywhere. But once we got there we had a great laid-back vacation. We went on a few very small hikes, played in the sand dunes, and watched movies. I felt much happier after. Vacations are great to help us appreciate daily life and reset.

I love fall. The weather isn’t so hot all the time. The leaves change colors, it’s beautiful outside. The family stays busy. Flag football turns into basketball, and add a few clubs and wrestling. The kids’ school ramps up with projects and homework. The garden harvest is in full force, time to plant perennials and bulbs and take advantage of garden center clearance sales. There are fall leaves to go see before they turn brown, and parks to visit while the weather is good. The problem with fall is there are simply too many good things all at the same time.

When I have bad days sometimes I hate my life and want to change everything about it. But usually, I’m just being overdramatic. Bad days happen even when you have a good life. There’s often nothing much that needs to change, you keep going and it gets better.

We had a lot going on, and trying to fit in everything seemed impossible. But I really wanted to squeeze in a hike, and the only time it would fit was first thing in the morning. Usually, the kids complain about that, but that day, they all were quite happy to fill in the car at the crack of dawn and go off on an adventure. We hit two tiny hikes: climbed a hill called Potato, and a jungle trail that was designed for kids. Minus a bike crash (for the three-year-old who rides his strider bike everywhere), we all had a great time. It’s good to get out even when it seems like you don’t have time to. And it took less time than I thought and the whole day came together wonderfully.

Bonus pictures from the school fair, the baby because she is cute, and another outing to a new lake by my brother’s house.

I knew life would be a little hard right now. Remodeling a house, having a baby. And it’s been so hot. The baby is actually quite a happy baby. She’s sucking her thumb which helps with self-soothing and mostly sleeps through the night. Can’t complain. She’s adorable, very chumpy, and mostly happy.

The remodel is going really well. I don’t have to do much, just watch other people do the work and occasionally make decisions and buy things. It’s exciting to see it progressing, and I’m also eagerly looking forward to doing a lot of landscaping once that gets in. So much so, I spent a whole lot of money on stones and boulders.

The kids are busy with flag football, school, piano, and a few clubs mixed in. Zack started preschool this week!

We went to Highland Glen Pond over the weekend. We haven’t got the canoe out all summer, and it was fun to find a good place nearby to go.

We are back to school for most of the kids. They are enjoying their new schools. Curtis said that his new school is a better school, but he misses his friends. Here are the obligatory back-to-school photos. Taken the first day of school, but after school, because I am not always on top of things.

Here are some of the other children who haven’t gone back to school yet. And the quality of some of these phone photos is very low, but the subject matter is cute enough to still share. Zack is doing soccer at the local rec center. He’s enjoyed it, but he’s also very little and it sometimes is a little scary. And we are getting baby E smiles now!

Normally we try to have a big vacation every summer. But with moving and a baby, this year we had a two-day vacation. And it was a great vacation, where almost nothing went wrong. We went up to Lava Hot Springs with my sister and her family. We tubed, camped, soaked in the hot springs, and went to the water park. Fun for the kids, sometimes actually relaxing for the parents. I loved tubing, and I actually went off the high dive and down some slides. Even with having the baby to take care of most of the time, I had a lot of fun. I think everyone did.

The majority of my time is spent caring for children right now. Little Miss is growing and doing well. We had her baby blessing at our church, and she looked beautiful for it.

The other children are around too. I sometimes feel bad because we haven’t done that much this summer but they are having fun at home. Home is sometimes really fun too because of all the construction going on.

My other priority for the summer is to simply find beautiful places to enjoy. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and even found places just a few minutes from home.