Aruba, Bahama, come on pretty mama...

Last weekend Damon, Rebecca, and I took my parents to the Beach Boys concert for my mom's birthday. We had so much fun! Every year Verrado has a big "Founder's Day" celebration and this year our beloved Beach Boys performed. It was a great concert, totally family friendly and just a lot of fun. The best part was seeing my mom "getting jiggy with it"!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. The boys were so excited for it, Harrison was talking about trick or treating for months. Both boys had Halloween parties at preschool, Thursday night we went to our ward trunk or treat, and Friday night we visited the Grandparents. The boys had such a fun time trick or treating. At the end of the night I let them choose a few pieces of candy and they left the rest out for the "Great Pumpkin". The Great Pumpkin comes at night and takes their candy but leaves them a surprise. I was explaining this to Jackson and he started to cry, he didn't want the Great Pumpkin to eat his candy. But the boys were pretty excited about the whoopie cushions he left them!

Here are some pictures of our Halloween. Harrison was a skunk, Jackson was a monkey, Damon was Jack in the Box (that he made himself) and I was Wendy's.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

On the 17th Damon and I took a trip to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Stratosphere for free because we agreed to waste our time listening to a time share deal. It was fun spending time with just Damon.
We drove both cars to my parent's house so we could drive one to Vegas and leave one for my parents and Rebecca to drive my kids around. While getting on the Loop 101 from Camelback I got in a car accident! There was a car in front of me `and we had the right of way driving on the on ramp to the 101. A huge diesel truck was also on the on ramp and totally cut us off, almost hitting the car in front of me. We slammed on our breaks and missed getting in an accident but the car behind me turned the corner to find us stopped and ran right into me! My car was bigger so there wasn't much damage but his was pretty smashed.
We had a good time seeing the sights, eating buffets, and seeing a show. Tickets to the show were supposed to come with our free gifts from the time share thing but for some reason we didn't get them. We asked another couple if they received theirs and they gave their tickets to us! It was a hilarious show called American Superstar. They had people impersonating Elvis, Tim McGraw, Michael Jackson and Celine Dion.

It was a fun weekend although I was very ready to come home. I missed the boys and those casinos are nasty. We did not buy into the time share, I don't want to spend my money on that but also I don't want to go to Vegas again for awhile.

Here are some of the sights in Vegas.

Camping Trip

I took Harrison and Jackson camping with my parents and Dylan and Victoria last week. We all had some days off school so my parents planned the trip. Damon had to stay home and work, we missed him but that didn't stop us from having fun. The boys loved it, especially drinking hot chocolate and roasting marshmellows. Jackson said the other day, "go camping?" I asked if he wanted to camp again. He said, "roast marmellow!"
We played in the creek, went to Montazuma's Well and the fish hatchery and just played. We went at the perfect time because the weather was warm but not hot and at night it got cool enough to sit in front of the fire and drink hot chocolate. The day we left the wind was blowing and it was cold.
We will probably go camping a lot more because the boys love it so much, but next time I go I am bringing an air mattress.

Big Boys in Bunk Beds

When Rebecca moved she gave us Dylan and Victoria's old bunk bed. In between sessions of Saturday's General Conference we set the bunk bed up in Harrison's room and moved Jackson in there also. Harrison is sleeping on the top and Jackson is on the bottom. They are doing really well with it, except for the second day when Harrison got stuck. We put the boys down for a nap and shortly after Harrison started crying. Our first reaction was to ignore him because we thought he just didn't want to nap. Right away his cry got harder and louder. We found him dangling from his new bunk bed from his arm that was stuck in the slats of his foot board. He has been very cautious ever since!

Fire Station

My preschool and Harrison's preschool went on our first field trip to the Fire Station on October 2. The kids enjoyed going and I think the firefighters enjoyed showing off to the kids. They got to see and climb in a fire truck and they came home with hats and coloring books. I got some great pictures of each of my preschool students standing in the fire truck with a fireman and later realized my memory card wasn't in my camera!!! Luckily most of the parents had cameras, but still...
I am loving my preschool. I have six students, including Jackson. I really enjoy my little school and it's nice to have that affirmation and compliments from the parents. It's also exciting when my students repeat something that I taught them weeks before.
Our class today was a lot of fun. We planted carrots in my garden for our farm unit and made icecream to learn about the letter I.

Lake Powell

Damon and I went on an adults only trip to Lake Powell in September. We had a great time visiting with friends, swimming, water skiing, fishing and exploring the lake. My favorite part was when we would go on a boat ride and find inlets in the rocks and take our boat as far into them as we could. We would turn the motor off and move the boat further in by guiding it with our hands on the rock wall. If our boat was "stuck" but the inlet went further we would get out and swim until it ended. There was one time when it felt like we were swimming in a cave it was so dark because the rock walls were so high and so close around us. We came to a part were the mountain seperated and we could see a patch of the sky. It was beautiful looking up from the water at these red rocks that spiraled up with the bright blue sky in the center. If only I had a water proof camera! Here are some of the pictures I did take.