October was a great month around here, as it should be.  

Paul’s work hours have been a bit crazy (nothing too new), but we took high advantage of our weekend hours to make up for not seeing him most of the week.

There was Touch a Truck


Free lunch.  Prizes.  And a ton of trucks for the kids to climb on and horns to honk. 

They “drove” a city bus, explored the back of a vacuum truck, walked through an ambulance, watched how they use robots to find blockages in pipes, and got to see how big a stop light really is.  

Orem is pretty much one of the coolest cities ever and all of the city workers were amazing and kind.  Love supporting local events like this.  

The mountains. One Saturday was spent exploring and seeing the changing leaves in the mountains. 

It was perfection. 


Everytime I cross a bridge I am always dealing with those pesky trolls under the bridge.  Every. Single. Time.  

We of course had to find our “secret spot”, it’s not quite as fun when you don’t get to play in the water.  But, I am just glad my kids have their traditions with our hikes and are really starting to love it.  

One day I will make it past this meadow! But for now, this is always our stopping point.  

It’s a perfect place for hide and seek.  

Seriously though, those trees, Utah really likes to show off sometimes.  


We convinced Paul to come home at 5:00 on a Friday and we hurried over to the Children’s Museum.  


We are hoping to send more cold evenings here and it’s always better when Paul is there to entertain the kids.  

And we can’t forget our monthly cold weather trip to Scheel’s.


And Ruby finally wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel, so i got to go on my first ride.  It was slightly terrifying, but i held it together for the kids. :) 

Paul and I got tickets to listen to The Minimalists. 


It was awesome. It helped me refocus on what I love about living a minimalist lifestyle and reminded me that not all minimalism has to look the same.  In the next few weeks I cleaned out my closet, craft drawers, kid’s school files, linen closet and toys. 

We are starting to see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel that is Sunday’s for us.  


The amount of time we’ve had to take these 2 and Miles out to the hall has lessened drastically.  They still all have to go out at least once, but it’s not a constant struggle.  

Getting Miles ready for church is still quite the process, with finding proper clothes and dealing with his screaming fits about going to church.  But sometimes he gets his own row and all is right in the world again.  

And this girl, I have to dress her cute to help me when the screaming comes. :) 

We keep busy during the week with our normal things:

Thanksgiving Point

We went right before the Scarecrow festival started.  It was amazing, all the scarecrows were up, but no crowds and no bounce houses to deal with.  

So much drawing and coloring for these two. 


Not used to having kids want to color and cut and draw, it’s been pretty nice. 

I got to go on Crew’s first field trip to the Fire Station.  

 

One of my favorite field trips ever.  I forgot how much I love kindergartners. 

Crew skipped school and we went to Coconut Cove with Lottie and Liam.  It was perfection.  Kids were so well entertained, Michelle and I actually got to sit and talk without too much interruption.  

Errands with friends are always better. 

We’ve been doing less electronic time around here and it is helping things to run much smoother.  


I just have to survive that first 15 minutes of whining, screaming and crying (mostly Miles) until they figure out a better way to spend their time.  


Love to see what they come up with.  

And this girl, she likes to be ready for all situations.  She can never leave the house empty handed, even if it’s just out front to play with friends.  

We also had a house divided when the Texans played The Seahawks.