carving the pumpkins

Last night I had my mom and brother Curtis over for dinner and to carve pumpkins with us. My mom and Josh started with a little MarioKart waiting for the pizza. Josh loved doing the hardest race tracks trying to get my mom to lose.

Curtis got to dig out the guts and help with the artistic piece of pumpkin carving. Josh helped some, but really lost interest quickly.

So Michelle and I finished the skull pumpkin while Josh and Curtis played MarioKart. I think the pumpkin turned out pretty good!

tuesday playdate

Josh and I haven't had a play date for quite some time. We have been missing our time! Tuesday we went to build a bear and made a new friend. Josh picked a husky and named him Jeff Gordon to go with the race car driver clothes. We had fun playing.

pumpkin hunting party

The Monsen annual pumpkin hunt was held this morning. Everyone is able to pick out a pumpkin as long as they can carry it to the wagon. Josh spend quite a bit of time checking out every pumpkin to make sure he found the perfect one.

This pumpkin was the winner!

We had a great time and even enjoyed lunch at Hires after the pumpkin hunting.

first field trip

Today was the first field trip with Josh's first grade class. He was so excited to go to the pumpkin patch, in part because I got to drive him and one of his friends Jackson. We got to the pumpkin patch and his whole class got to sit in a giant tee pee and listen to Mrs. Jones read Halloween stories. Then we got to explore the pumpkin patch.

Each student got a dollar to pick out and buy a pumpkin. They were so excited! At school tomorrow they are have a math pumpkin center with the pumpkins they bought today. We had a lot of fun and I am grateful that I am able to go and spend time with Josh at school.

Happy Halloween!

fiesta fun

We had another relaxing day today. We slept in while the rest of the crew did a hike. I wanted my sleep. Everyone came over to watch the Utes dominate over Colorado St. GO UTES!

After the game, we did a little shopping at the outlet stores.

We met up for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. The steak was just what we needed!

Then it was time for some fun. Denice, Deanne, JoyLynn, Mons, & I decided we needed to play so we headed over to fiesta fun for arcade games, go karts, and miniature golf.

We had a blast goofing off. Laurie met up with us for some ice cream and then it was off to bed. We drive home tomorrow. It has been a fun weekend!

so much time and nothing to do

I love the kind of vacations when there is really nothing planned and you can just relax. This trip is just like that! We woke up, had breakfast, played some cards, got ready, did some shopping, came back and too a nap, and then headed to the movies.

We went to the flick Eagle Eye. It was a bit long and the idea of the storyline is quite frightening, but it was worth seeing.

Then it was time to celebrate. Laurie came down and is staying at her sister's. We all went over to say happy birthday and enjoy cake and ice cream.

I love that I know have spent two years in a row celebrating Laurie's bday out of town. I love my Disneyland, scrap booking, Utah fan friend!

UEA Trip

It is too cold for me and I am not ready for the hot weather to end. So we are taking advantage of the UEA weekend and heading to St. George...

Unfortunately, the rest of the people up north had the same idea!

When we finally got to our destination, the weather was beautiful! We got settled at the Monsen condo after hitting the grocery store. We fixed dinner and got ready to watch the Y get a beating. I was prepped for it!

Joylynn, Denice, Mons, Deanne, Carole, Me, Denice and Lorinda

The beating came in a BIG way. We had fun hanging out and given I was one of very few Utah fans in the room, I had a grin on my face the entirety of the game while the rest had tears. We will play tomorrow in the warmth and sun and then of course get ready for the next big game on Saturday.

playdate

Our Tuesday playdate consisted of a number of activities today. Josh had a short day at school thanks to SEP conferences and UEA weekend. So we hung out at home until his SEP conference at 3. He is doing amazing in school and is one of the highest readers in his class.
After the parent teacher conference, we went to Color me Mine where Josh picked a skull to decorate. Next, some window shopping, and then we visited the pet store. And then it was time for his soccer game. They lost tonight, but Josh made his first goal of the season and it was the only goal for his team. So of course we had to go celebrate with ice cream. We had a packed and fun day!

my army man

Josh is fascinated with the military...anything military. He has decided he needs 2 costumes this year. I have no clue where that came from. We had already gotten his Indiana Jones garb at Disneyland for Halloween. Recently, he decided he would do a costume change before trick or treating and Army man was the winner.

We went to the army/navy store and he got to pick out his fatigues.
These were the winners and his pal Nathan put his fatigues on when we got home. We played army for the rest of the night!

lake powell party

I miss Lake Powell! It is so beautiful there and so peaceful and so much fun. Tonight we had a Lake Powell party at Deanne's with all the gang (although we were missing quite a few). We got to see every one's pictures from the trip and put together a DVD slide show.

We had some grub, and then got busy reminiscing and choosing the best songs for our DVD.




Goose, Steph, JoyLynn, Gus, Me, Mons, and Deanne. We missed the rest of the crew who were all traveling to fun and exotic places. It just means we get to have a reason for another party. We have to show off our hard work!

Gus gave Josh a chopsticks piano lesson. He learned it pretty quickly. Thanks Gus!