Halloween

My goodness! It's almost Christmas and I am just getting to Halloween. I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog. Lucy seemed to change her mind about what she wanted to be for Halloween on a daily basis although the most oft requested costume was to be Princess Nausicaa. Due to my limited (read: non-existent) sewing skills, that just wasn't going to happen. Maybe if I had asked my mother way in advance, she could have come up with something but with her being in Japan and shipping costs, borrowing her sewing skills wasn't really an option either. My brother-in-law, Damian, even found a lady who would make a Nausicaa costume on Ebay but I was just going to take the path of least resistance - that is, using one of the many costumes that we already had. In this case, it was Lucy's cousin, Maya's old butterfly costume. I mostly just wanted something that would be warm.

Even though I didn't spend a cent on Lucy's Halloween costume, I still wanted to get some good mileage out of it. The way Halloween is set up these days, kids definitely rake the candy in. In mid-October, our church ward had its Trunk-or-Treat activity in the church parking lot. I was actually glad that they didn't do it on Halloween because I feel like Halloween is a community thing and it's so much better to go out to your neighbors' homes. But Lucy definitely didn't mind having the opportunity to pick up some candy earlier. We invited Emily, Jared, and Olive to join in on the fun (and free dinner afterward). We were late but the kids ended up getting more than enough candy in the limited time they had to run from vehicle to vehicle to get candy.

My mom did make Olive's super cute Totoro costume. 

Lucy chose a different costume to wear to preschool (pretty much a fancy dress she had so we will just say she was a princess) then did some indoor trick-or treating there during the day (her preschool is connected to the high school so I think that the students hand out candy?). On the actual Halloween evening, we were blessed with incredibly mild weather. This was our first Halloween in our own neighborhood (last year we were renovating the house and living with Brandon's brother, Damian so we just did trick-or-treating at Brandon's work & church and in 2010, I can't even remember what we did but Lucy was only a year and a half so we might not have done anything at all). Lucy got to go trick-or-treating with some of her neighborhood friends but knows her own limitations and after a small radius, told her daddy she was tired and called it quits.

We still have a bag with a substantial amount of candy in it on top of our fridge but it does include all the treats she gets all throughout the year (Pioneer Day treats from July as well) and we aren't always consistent in distributing them to her unless she asks directly. And sometimes Mommy sneaks a treat for herself here and there. It's never too early for Lucy to learn to share with her younger brother.

St. George Marathon - October 6, 2012

Are you wondering if I trained for and ran a marathon this year? Hell no! But we did make the drive down to St. George on the weekend of October 6th to support my brother-in-law, Adrian as he ran his first marathon. Even though Adrian and his family (Natalie and Taylor) live in Buffalo, we are lucky that we get so see them quite frequently throughout the year with all the traveling they do. We didn't want to pass up the opportunity to see them again even if we had to make the drive down to southern Utah. And fortunately, my sister-in-law Natalie's  parents own a gorgeous vacation home in St. George so we had lovely accommodations for our weekend stay. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of leaving Salt Lake later than we planned on a Friday night and hit lots of rush hour traffic as well as BYU football game traffic while heading south so we didn't get in until really late on Friday night. But at least we had beautiful weather to greet us on Saturday morning. And we didn't even have to get up early because we were planning on cheering on Adrian at the mile 23 marker.

Here we are waiting:

Brandon had done the St. George marathon back in 2003 when we first began dating so I think he was just as nervous for Adrian because he could relate to what he was going through.

Natalie's parents, brother, and his wife came down for the weekend as well.

We were glad that we brought Lucy's scooter while we were waiting so she could be entertained.

But her and her cousin, Taylor get along amazingly well considering the age difference (he's a year and a half older) so they kept each other entertained as well. I just can't believe how small she looks next to him!

I have so much respect for all the marathoners out there. A marathon is one of those things that I have absolutely no interest in doing but just watching one, you get really pumped up for the runners. Adrian blogged about his experience on his personal blog HERE.

Post marathon was a little crazy as we all tried to find and meet each other as we all drove different vehicles and the roads were packed with runners and supporters. Having two pregnant mamas with their two young children was also exhausting and we weren't really prepared with adequate snacks and strollers for our little ones (it was my first time attending a marathon so I had no idea what to expect). Eventually, we all reconnected and got the kids some shaved ice to appease them.

Resting after the race...

The rest of the weekend was just spent relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous weather. On the way back to Salt Lake, we stopped by Brandon's aunt & uncle's house (Liz & Lyman) to visit.

Lucy had so much fun playing with her cousin and visiting with family. Sometimes the little get-togethers where you get to spend more one-on-one time with family is just as fun, if not better than the giant gatherings. Spectacular weather certainly doesn't hurt either.

Marlo's Birthday Party

Looking back on September and October, it seemed like it was crazy busy but all I can really remember is feeling sick. At least I wasn't so sick that Lucy still didn't get to enjoy some activities every once in a while. Thank goodness for birthday parties where all you have to do is show up and someone else has done all the work to keep your kid entertained.

We were lucky to be invited to Marlo's birthday party at Imagination Place. They have Music Together and Anti-Gravity yoga and lots of other programs there and I've always been curious what it was like. So we got to experience first hand some of their classes. The kids started off painting and decorating flower pots. Then we moved into the classroom where they had a movement/story/dancing class.

Following the class, the kids headed back outside to plant flowers in their little flower pots.

After finishing with the planting, we headed back inside for lunch and cake. Marlo's mom, Kim put so much work into the decorations and food and it all was so cute. Marlo had a unicorn themed party.

Lucy loved spending time celebrating Marlo's birthday!