Happy Halloween from the Sanford girls

This year we had a clown, a pantomime and a fortune teller.  I have to say, these are two of my favorite costumes our girls have picked out.  They both did such a great job embracing their character and had a blast all day.  The costumes were not the hardest to put together (last year's costumes required a great deal more time and effort) but this year's costumes have re-usable parts.  And that I love!

 

 

Every year I am a witch of some sort.  This year, I decided on some gypsy flare and some belly dancing jingles.  It wasn't the traditional "witch" but it worked.

Happy Halloween from the Sanford Family!

We have a cool dad

I don't know where he saw it, but I'm sure glad he did.  For breakfast, while I was preparing my Sharing Time lesson, Scott made these extra special waffles.  There was some trial and error but in the end, they turned out pretty awesome.  

 

Pointers from the chef?  

1. Don't have your waffle iron as hot as you normally would because you have to pour multiple colors and you want them to blend and cook together.  
2. Don't cook them for very long.  Once they start to brown, you won't see the colors as well.

Thanks Daddy, for making a very special Sunday breakfast!

October Full Moon

I am fascinated by the sky, the clouds, the moon, sunsets and sunrises.  So as Scott was running an errand and saw the full moon over Timp, he was thoughtful enough to call me to check it out.  I ran out but by the time I had my camera, the moon was higher than it had been and the sunset was darker.  But I still managed to get a couple pretty fun pictures.

 

 

Vineyard's Corn Maze Postcards

One of the fun things that the kids get to do at the Vineyard Corn Maze is take pictures in their postcard frames.  The kids all argue over who gets to be in which hole but in the end, they almost all look happy and adorable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can tell, not everyone was thrilled about more pictures.  :)

Not quite a tradition - but we've done it a few times

Unfortunately I don't get to participate in many of the camp grandma activities that my girls get to do with my mom and sister.  When I do, I tend to take lots of pictures to capture the memories forever.  (The girls need to know that my job doesn't keep me from all of the fun).

My mom and I took the 5 Utah grand kids (minus Sammy) and went and enjoyed the crisp fall air and the challenging maze down at Vineyard.  This year the secret room was much harder to find than it has been in the past.  For awhile there was one of the kids being very cocky that he knew exactly how to get there because he ALWAYS is the one to find it.  We went past the entrance to the secret room at least 4 or 5 times until we figured it out.  

The secret room was a "Very Merry Un-Birthday" party to go along with the Alice in Wonderland theme they had used throughout the maze.

I am so glad I was able to go and participate in some of the Halloween festivities. 

The Results of a Holiday Sleepover

A sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma's is never just a sleepover.  

We had to have the girls there by 6:00 in the evening for Aunt Anne's Chicken Curry and then they were off to a special Halloween Play.

(Scott and I had a very quiet and lazy night.  I don't think we moved from in front of the TV).

The next morning all of the kids played on the new swing set, watched Face Off and did pumpkins.  By "did pumpkins", I mean they carved some and they painted some....

 

 

 

 

And that was all before it was time to go to the Corn Maze.

I love that they have so much fun crafting with my folks.  And I'm glad that they can go and provide smiley faces and giggles for my dad.  He needs all of the medicine laughter can provide!

Crazy Hair Day 2012

Both girls were very pleased with their up do's for Crazy Hair Day.  And I have to say, I think that this year is my favorite as well.

 

 

 

 

A dad and his boys, I mean girls

After we spent the weekend in Yellowstone and Scott was remembering all the fun he used to have with his dad and grandpa hunting, he decided it was time to teach his girls how to shoot.

We went to Cabela's and found a pellet/bb gun and found a location near by that would allow us to shoot at targets.  (Shooting a pellet gun is different than shooting a real gun because the pellet is shot with air instead of gun powder).  So we headed out to the other side of the lake for Family Home Evening.

I was really impressed with how well the girls did.  They both struggled to keep one eye closed so we were glad to have the work around of an orange headband our stylish younger one had worn.

It wasn't easy getting them to feel where to hold it against their cheek and there were times the gun was more resting on their shoulders but eventually they caught on.

We all took turns and had fun racing up to see if we'd hit anywhere on the target and were always thrilled when we actually nailed it.   As you can see below, we hit the apple a couple of times, tore through the can and grazed the yogurt bottle.  But we have several hits on the wood.  Which, in my book is pretty darn good.

The kids loved it and are looking forward to going out again.

Grand Teton National Park

It would appear that we are not very good at just "driving straight through" when we go on road trips.   And frankly - I love it this way.  Sure, it may take us hours more to get to or from our destinations but those stop offs are sometimes the part that we remember the best.

 

On our drive home from Yellowstone we stopped in the Grand Tetons for a couple of photo opportunities.  

 

One of those stops ended up being about an hour long break where we let the girls wander around down by Lake Teton.  The weather was pleasant (which it hadn't been the day before) and everyone was tired from sitting. 

 

Because our girls are almost always filled with some sort of mischief, they hid from grandma in the weeds and tried to scare her.  They were adorable but failed at scaring anyone. 

 

Island Park at Sunset

We also stopped off in Island Park on our way to Yellowstone.  We got there as the sun was going down and it was getting chilly so we didn't hang out for very long.  The girls loved feeding the fish and nibbling on some bread of their own.

 

It was absolutely beautiful there.  I would love to go and spend some time in a cabin up there.  Escape the business of the real world and enjoy the natural spring river, go check out the lake and just hike around.  

 

I think that will be something we add to our bucket list.  It is also really close to Yellowstone so you could explore both the National Park and the Island Park area.

 

 

 

Yellowstone Bear Country - Rexburg Idaho

On our way to Yellowstone, we stopped off at the "Yellowstone Bear Country" in Rexburg.  It was the day before their big winter hibernation festival (which would have been fun to see) but it was much less crowded.

 

In Bear Country you get to drive through a bear habitat.   The bears wander around, play and sleep while you drive just feet away from them.  We've heard that the bears can actually paw at your car, or stand up on it if you stop.  So, we did our best at not stopping and keeping our windows up.  Just like they told us to.  But we may have taken a picture or two with our window down.  Oops.

The petting zoo was a lot of fun for the little girls.  They took a million pictures and had a blast petting and feeding the animals.  The pig was my favorite but he didn't really care for people. 

 

 

 

 

I would definitely recommend it as a stop if you are heading through Rexburg to West Yellowstone.  It was a great break from the drive and we saw WAY more bear there than we saw in Yellowstone.  (And just for the record, 1 would have been more than we saw in 2 days at Yellowstone).