Family Pictures, September 2010

Grandma Edie wanted to get the whole Swan Family together for a family photo so here it is! And some pictures of our cute girls and little family as well...

Halloween

Halloween! One of my FAVORITE holidays. Abby decided she wanted to be Boba Fett. Yeah, my sweet little 3 year old daughter wanted to be the mean bounty hunter from Star Wars. During the weeks preceding Halloween Abby would tell people "I'm going to be Boba Fett. Boba Fett is a bounty hunter. He throws BOMBS!" I took her in to the pediatrician for her 3 year checkup and he got a kick out of her. He said "I was Boba Fett once!" He also said it was the first time he's had a little girl in his office who decided to be Boba Fett. Go figure.

Leah had her heart set on being a spider. I tried to talk her into being Princess Leia because I already had parts of a costume for that AND because I thought it would be fun to have both the kids dressed as Star Wars characters. But she still wanted to be a spider. And she was the cutest spider ever. Her costume was a pain to make but it was worth it, seeing her wave ALL of her legs around!

Leah designed her jack-o-lantern face and Mom helped her carve it. She actually touched the pumpkin guts this year. She giggled and thought it felt weird.

Dad "helping" Abby gut her pumpkin. Abby screamed when Dad touched the innards. She did not want anything to do with it.

Abs with her finished jack-o-lantern

They're all lit up...

Little Boba Fett - Abby wouldn't wear her helmet, not even for pictures. She had been wearing it all over the house BEFORE Halloween but I couldn't get her to put it on. So while we were out trick-or-treating everyone thought Abby was dressed as an army man and they thought she was a boy (because she was wearing a beanie to keep warm).

Leah's amazing spider costume. She wore it proudly!

Halloween is scary! Dad was at work so we were on our own for trick-or-treating. It was raining and looked to get worse so I took the girls over to the Stake Center to crash their trunk-or-treat. After 10 minutes of that and quite a bit of candy, it started raining even harder and Boba Fett had had enough. We came home to trick-or-treat the apartments and when we knocked on the door of Abby's friend, Weston, I asked his mom if Abby could hang out there while I took Leah out for more trick-or-treating. Abby was DONE.

So Leah and I went back out and she was crazy! She walked so far and knocked so many doors. She got so much candy we had to ask for a grocery bag to put some of it in. Her bucket was heavy and we trick-or-treated until way past dark. She said she wanted to trick-or-treat ALL NIGHT but I talked her into going home around the time that I had to start piggy-backing her, all of her spider legs, and her big bucket of candy.

It was an awesome Halloween night. The only thing that would have made it better is if Dad would have been able to enjoy it with us!

After spending our week in Oceanside we hopped on over to Tropic, Utah to visit Lenny's family. While we were there, we visited Bryce Canyon National Park. The girls LOVED spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Pollock. We hadn't seen them in a while and it was nice to catch up a little bit. It was a long two week vacation with time spent in Oceanside, St. George, Tropic and Mapleton. I think we were able to see ALL of our family on both sides! For weeks after we returned home Leah would say, out of the blue, "That was such a good vacation..." And it was.

Us at Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Grandma Sharon

Lenny and Abby peering over the rim

Leah doing an impression of Uncle Phill's 8th grade school picture

Grandma and Abby

We stopped in to visit Grandpa Gordon at work. The girls thought it was cool just chillin' with him.

Abby with her new dinosaur "Stomp". Grandma Sharon let the girls choose a toy at the Ruby's Inn Gift Shop and, of course, Abby chose a dinosaur.

Leah and her wonderful Daddy. We went on a drive to see the sights. Abby was smart and fell asleep quickly. Leah was patient and didn't complain. Lenny was like a kid in a candy shop and took pictures at EVERY pull-out and scenic overlook. I was a whiner. It WAS pretty. I just didn't need hours to appreciate it from every possible angle. :) I love my husband.

My beautiful Miss Leah

Oceanside, California

In October we took a trip with the Swan Family to Oceanside, California. The weather report promised "sun with 0% chance of precipitation" but it was foggy and cloudy and rainy the entire time we were there. We had a blast anyway. It was fun to spend time with the family and take an actual vacation. We desperately needed it!

Abby on the beach

Leah boogie boarding

Uncle Phill, all decked out for Canadian Thanksgiving

Uncle Brian doing a "beer brat binge". Inspired by the Tim-Tam Slam, the BBB is done by biting the ends of a bratwurst off and attempting to use it as a straw to drink Apple Beer. It didn't work very well and resulted in Brian and Phill ending up with a healthy dose of pure brat grease.

Abby with her Farmers' Market find

Leah discovering birds of paradise

Abby at Sea World. She stood by the Soak Zone sign but refused to sit in that section.

Dad and Leah, IN the Soak Zone!!

The Swan Kids (and kids) living it up

Casual Family Photo

GIANT pizza. We celebrated our last night in Oceanside with gigantic pizza.
And Brian's gigantic head.

Abby's Birthday, October 2010

Abby is three years old! She wanted to have a dinosaur birthday so that's what we did. We had plans to go to the American West Heritage Center for the party but as soon as we left the house it started to POUR. We decided to stop at McDonald's to get the kids some lunch and (hopefully) wait out the rain. The kids played and ate and the rain mostly stopped. I got Abby's cupcakes out of the van and we sang, ate cake, and opened presents in McDonald's outdoor seating area. It was nice and quiet outside and the kids had a blast! After cake and present we loaded up the vehicles and headed to the AWHC.

Because it was October, The American West Heritage Center had their Farmtastic Fall activities going on. Unfortunately, there weren't any volunteers available that early in the afternoon so many of the activities weren't available. Fortunately, because of the rain and lack of volunteers we had the entire farm to ourselves.

The kids played with the goats, climbed on a pirate ship made of hay, jumped into a big pile of hay, went through a maze of hay (we were all covered in hay by the end), ran on the grass, jumped over puddles and had an all-around good time!

The girls were exhausted by the time we left but it was a wonderful day. Happy Birthday little Abbers!

Abby and her new parasaurolophus

Dinosaur cupcakes

Blowing out candles

Abby and Mom

Captain Abby on her haunted pirate ship.
She loved her new superhero cape that Aunt Rachel made for her!

Zoey jumping into the hay

Dad jumping into the hay

The party girls: Leah, Zoey, Sela, and Abby

I loved this! I glanced up and saw the girls showing their bellies.
How curious and carefree they are!!