Halloween Events

The girls were very excited to play with the Halloween finger puppets Mimi sent them. Of course you have to be in costumes while playing with them. Elise STILL wears her size-18-months dragon/alligator/dinosaur costume she wore for Halloween in 2012. It does not come close to fitting. She also received a new dragon costume for Christmas in 2015, yet she returns to this one. 

Elise and I were practicing her hair for her Halloween costume- Belle. 

I added this skeleton to our Halloween decoration collection. We all loved him and the girls named him Mr. Bones. Unfortunately, Mr. Bones scraped up our beautiful door. Wish I could insert crying emoji here. He ended up on the stoop leaning against one of the door sidelights.

We attended the neighborhood HOA Halloween party for the HOA a couple blocks over from us. The highlight for the girls was the horseback riding. Even if Sadie looks angry, she was excited. There were a bunch of boys from her grade waiting in line and I think she was trying to look cool?

 I got Camille some adorable Halloween pj's on clearance

I dressed up as Damian from Mean Girls for my Halloween bunco. Half of the women did not have any idea who I was.

We finally went to the pumpkin patch a week before Halloween. It was a hot, sunny day, as you can see. Lots of real photogenic pictures to choose from. 

The girls were much more willing to touch the pumpkin guts this year. Every year they reenact 2 years ago when Coco was here and Elise thought she was going to die from touching the pumpkin insides. Our pumpkins turned out decent. Elise chose a very elaborate design (on the right, below). Sadie wanted a scary pumpkin (on the left). And I chose to freehand a very basic pumpkin for Millie. I was done carving Sadie and Camille's pumpkins before Daniel finished Elise's. 

Elementary school costume parade. I love it. Elise was happy to pose. Sadie was a little too cool for school. All my pics of her are slightly blurry. But I guess that is fitting for her "rockstar' outfit. 

About to go trick-or-treating. It was a nice temperature as we started, but then got down in to the 50's when were running around the neighborhood. I got pretty cold. 

 Sadie ran off with her friend Bentley and ended up staying with her until she was done trick-or-treating. Elise and Millie loved it, but they were done after 2 streets. Millie has asked to go trick-or-treating several times since Halloween.

 Daniel's team came over for dinner that night and handed out candy while we trick-or-treated. It is kind of a tradition now. In the past we only had a few players, but this year most of the team came so we had a full house. The girls were all excited to be home so they could hang out with the team and stuff their faces with candy. 

Haunted Half

As I mentioned, at the beginning of October I decided to run a half marathon with two of my running friends, Jenny and Savannah. We signed up for the Haunted Half in Provo Canyon, which starts up above Vivian Park in South Fork Canyon. Our long training runs were hard, but I felt really good during them, so I felt well prepared. I actually never even listened to music during training runs; we just talked the whole time. 

Leading up to the half I tried a couple different fuel options to see how I liked them. This PowerGel stuff made me gag. Very glad I tried it before the race so I didn't throw it up on race day. 

When I woke up on race day some neighborhood friends had left me some love on our front porch. It was about 6 AM and dark when we left so I took this later. 

The details on my race: We took buses from the University Mall up to the staging area at the starting point. The weather was pretty mild for early morning on the last Saturday in October. It had rained the night before so the ground was a bit muddy, but luckily none of the actual race was on dirt. We hung out for an hour or so until race time. The time felt like it passed really slowly until I decided to go potty 20 minutes before. Time flew by and with the long line I barely got out of the port-a-potties before race time. We threw our extra stuff in the back of the truck to be brought down to the end point. Then we wound our way through the crowd to try to get towards the front. It was kind of a mad dash and I felt very flustered as we started. With all the excitement and the people, we ended up using a lot of energy going around slower groups and trying to find a good spot. We were also running 8 minute miles, which were a bit faster than our training times. By mile 4 we were already split up. Jenny is an experienced runner and she is 6 feet tall (literally- that's not an exaggeration), but I am competitive and tried to stay with her. Around mile 5 my left foot started going numb and I just started feeling weird. I told Jenny to run ahead because I was slowing her down. My foot continued to go more and more numb as I ran and it spread up into my calf. I kept saying prayers and hoping I would get feeling back. I was incredibly uncomfortable and it was distracting me mentally. Right around mile 8 or 9 the numbness stopped. At mile 10 I was feeling SO good. I was just under pace for my goal of under 2 hours and I only had 3 miles left! I texted Daniel and told him I was feeling good and I would see him soon. Right after mile 11 I felt like I was going to die. I really thought I might. I struggled my way into mile 12 where.....I let myself walk. I was SO close to calling Daniel and telling him to come get me. Another mile and a half just didn't seem possible. Plus I knew there was a big hill right at the end. I walked for a few minutes while drinking some water and then got some energy to run. I walked up the big hill because I knew it would probably be faster than running. Right as I reached the top I saw the 2 hour pacer ahead of me! He must have passed me on the hill. I tried to muster more energy but I couldn't find any! I still wanted to quit. I wanted to finish the last mile feeling strong and amazing but that feeling didn't come until I saw Daniel and the girls, about 75 feet from the finish. I just loved seeing them. It was such a pick-me-up. I kind of wish they could have come helped me at mile 12. When I crossed the finish line it turned out I had finished in 2 hours and 34 seconds. Just missed my goal!! It was slightly disappointing, but not really because I cannot believe I ran a half marathon! I never ever ever thought I would run that far. I currently have no desire to run one again, but maybe if the timing works out perfectly like this one did. 

It turned out Jenny, Savannah and I finished the race within 10 minutes of each other. Jenny was about 5 minutes ahead of me with Savannah 5 minutes behind. And for some reason I always have tall friends so I look like a midget!

My absolute favorite part of the race was seeing Daniel and my girls cheering for me. It felt amazing to do something I never thought I could.

John Visit #1

Anthony and Carrie rolled into town for Carrie's sister's wedding on October 13. The kids were all very excited to see one another.

The next day I checked Sadie out of school at lunchtime and we all met up with Matt at the Cougareat for some lunch, long lines, and reminiscing. 

We didn't think about the fact that not only was it prime time for lunch but it was the day of the homecoming football game. Long lines. It was alright because we all had a good time. 

After lunch I took Millie and Elliott home while Carrie and Anthony took the oldest 4 cousins to hike the Y. I was a little nervous, but I knew Sadie and Elise could do it since we had done it in August without me carrying them at all.

It turned out Elise was a stinker but she did make it up with some coaxing. Not only did they deal with whining, but the John family got to battle the elevation change and dry air.

My girls came home talking about what a good time they had.

That night much of Carrie's family attended the BYU football game. Sadie chose that as her game to attend this season so Daniel brought everyone down on the field before the game started.

Will and Sadie had a very good time.

The next day was the wedding of Carrie's sister so we didn't see the Johns very much. I realized after I got home from my long training run that morning that I had agreed to do Lauren's hair before the wedding, but they had already left for the day. I still feel so bad about being flaky. 

On Sunday we had a little celebration for Lauren's birthday since it was later that week. 

The cake I made was pretty much the saddest, most deformed thing I have ever baked, but with lots of frosting it looked somewhat OK. Millie has a very hard time remembering to stay away from candles when it isn't her birthday.

Other favorite cousin activities included playing outside and reading bedtime books to one another. 

Each kid got a turn reading to the group. It proved to be difficult for some kids to sit through their cousins' turns to read (ahem, Elise). 

Our goodbyes were not very sad since we knew the Johns would be back 2 weeks later for Carrie's other sister's wedding. 

October Smattering

Other stuff from October

Sleep struggles. Camille doesn't nap most of the time. I don't even put her down for a nap most days. But if we are in the car longer than 15 minutes in the afternoon she falls asleep. 

Sadie wrote/drew this on the back of her spelling test. I love it. 

Saw some hot air balloons after a long Saturday training run for my half marathon. Which reminds me, at the beginning of October my running friends and I decided to run a half marathon. I NEVER thought I would even consider it, but we were already running 5-7 miles, 3 or 4 times a week. We shifted our training to shorter runs during the week and 10 mile runs on Saturday. I could not believe that my body was able to run that far.

Millie was eating an apple in the backyard one day and I kind of forgot. Two days later she walked in from playing with the apple. Yum!

I ordered a new iphone and case. The case came with a belt clip. Sweet.

This tree in our backyard changes color first every year. 

 Sadie wrote out some rules for everyone in the family. This sheet was how Daniel and I can help Elise, Millie and Sadie. 

1. Say "I love you" and help us

2. Write nice notes to us (and we'll write note back)

3. Make dinner we like

4. don't go on lots of dates

5. give us good lunch

6. give us presents

7. Don't call us bad names

I went to a Halloween dance show called Thriller with some friends. My friend's daughter was in one of the acts. I loved most of the acts, but this one with Frankenstein and his bride was probably my favorite. 

One morning I watched my friend's 2-year-old when she was having a minor surgery. I brought Camille and Kayden on a few errands and everyone thought they were twins. I just let them think that. 

A gorgeous sunrise after one of our morning runs. 

 By the time I reached our house it was already quite a bit lighter. I miss it being 40+ degrees for our 6:30 AM runs. The 25 degree runs now are hard to stay motivated for (AKA I turn off my alarm and go back to bed)

Snuggles with a tired Millie who doesn't nap anymore

Our primary program. Camille was very sad that her big sisters got to go up on the stand and she didn't. Sadie and Elise both did a great job on their speaking parts. Sadie sang every word. Elise sang when she felt like it. She smuggled a toy frog onto the stand with her and tossed it up and down several times. During one of the songs when they did sign language she stuck the frog under her chin to sign.

We got a tour of BYU basketball's new practice facility. The courts are done but Daniel's new office in there won't be ready until December. Elise kept crouching down to smell the fresh polyurethane on the floors.