October

The girls' activities definitely slowed down in October but the fun stayed strong!

September 30th-October 3rd: Andy and I took a trip to Los Angeles/Hollywood to see Jack Johnson at the Hollywood Bowl. It was so much fun! 

October 1st: Andy's cousin, Claire, lives in West Hollywood so we got to hang out with her for an afternoon.  She took us on a little tour of the area. 

Later that afternoon, we explored Hollywood Boulevard and acted like typical tourists.

We stopped at a cantina Claire told us about.  The inside resembled Star Wars.

October 2nd: We started the day with an 8-mile (roundtrip) hike to the Griffith Observatory.

That night we went to a Jack Johnson concert at the Hollywood Bowl!

The girls rotated staying with Andy's mom and my sister and, I think, had just as much fun.

October 5th: Abigail had her last soccer game for the season.

October 7th: For ELA, Emma had to read The Outsiders.  As a final activity, they dressed in character and watched the movie.  

October 8th:  We went to see The Lion King at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake.  It was awesome!!

October 13th-16th:  Fall Break!  We ventured down to Cedar City to do some mountain biking and hiking with friends.  

The fall colors were spectacular!  We drove to Cedar Breaks National Monument one afternoon.

October 14th: We had to buy tickets for this hike, but it was well worth it!  Kanarra Falls is a 4-mile (roundtrip) hike through amazing scenery--along water pretty much the entire way.  We did some research and learned that there are a few crossings so we purchased some neoprene booties to help with some of the cold from the water (and it was cold).

getting our booties on

We even had to climb up this ladder.

This was where it got the deepest.

There were a few small obstacles along the way--all very doable.

October 15th: bike ride!

October 18th: Emma had a fall band concert.  Ahhh...brings back memories of my own band concerts in middle school.

October 23rd:  We got some snow today--a lot of snow, actually.  After a delicious breakfast at Five 5eeds, we walked around the bat exhibit at the Swaner Nature Preserve.

It was perfect conditions to walk the Moose Trail in our neighborhood.

October 24th: The 4th grade classes at our school made altars for the upcoming Dia de Los Muertos. Abby did hers on her great-grandma Abbie.

October 29th:  We had our pumpkin carving party tonight!  It had been a couple of years and it felt good to get back to "normal" again.

October 31st: Halloween!  Abigail dressed up as a zombie cheerleader and Emma wore a penguin onesie.

 Andy was a wizard and the Sp.Ed. team were Giving Trees.

We went trick-or-treating in Summit Park this year.  It was great!

It was a little hard for the girls to go through their candy.  With both of them wearing braces, they couldn't eat half of it.