Fall-Halloween

So I know I said that in my next blog post I would talk about the Christmas ornaments that my wife had me help her make for her relief society activity, but I decided that I would first create Fall/October update blog-post before posting about Christmas, (seeing how it is now Thanksgiving: Hehe! I'll get caught up here eventually). October was a fun month overall.  Kim and I went to the Willy Wonka Play at The Old Barn Theater and we did several other Halloween/Fall themed events, many of which were done with our friends, Stephanie and Tomsen Reed.

This is us at Peach Days in Brigham City: Sadly there weren't any funnel cakes with peaches...but we did buy some really good deep-fried peach fritters. Yum!

 We couldn't pass up getting really good lemon-aid from a guy that traveled clear from Wisconsin with his nifty Lemon-aid booth! Mmm...Freshly squeezed! 

 And we had fun trying on western hats! Hehe!

 For one of our Family Home Evenings in October, we combined with Stephanie and Tomsen to carve Pumkins. A nice co-worker (Karen Cox) provided the pumpkins at no cost!

 Jocelyn Matheson joined us too (while her husband Ronnie did homework).

 My spider turned out pretty cool!

 This is us at the Halloweenie Roast in Paradise, UT. It's always a good time! We had to reminisce our wonderful date from last year, and it was just as fun!

 Haha! Our Modern 'American Gothic' take.

 Kim and I spent over 18 hours painting the backdrop for my work's Pumpkin Walk display. Then the wind came and blew it all over a few days later. We were glad we got to see it before that!

Yay for 'Up To 3'! I've loved my time working in this program.  If you look close, you can see the witch in the background.

I thought the pigs were a fun idea. Some people are so creative!

"The Grinch" and "Singing in the Rain" at The North Logan Pumpkin Walk

 
 We wrapped Kim up for a mummy contest at the Reed's Halloween Party...then she broke free!



 The pirate and his 'booty'; I mean "Treasure," ;) Isn't she great!

Great Halloween Costumes!  Now we can do the posts about Christmas.

Food Creations...

Kim and I have been experimenting with some new foods.  It has been so fun to cook together and to see what kinds of concoctions we can come up with. Some of the more memorable ones have been our Porcupine Meatballs, Cheeseburger Pie, Kim's amazing taco soup, and some yummy Sweet and Sour Chicken. We even got a chance last Monday to make some yummy chocolate-mint cupcakes! Sooo good! Then we attempted to deliver them to the neighbors, but only one other couple answered the door. Such is life. Oh well, at least we had some good treats to eat throughout the week!

 Just a little insight into what our Home Evenings are like!

 The whole purpose for including the almond bark into any recipe is to lick the spoon, bowl, and fingers in the aftermath.

Today after church we made Spanish Rice and Yummy Navajo Tacos! Soo delish!

 

 Darn! No tomatoes...or sour cream.

 This was our attempt to make our second batch of zucchini bread this evening, but it kinda got stuck in the pan. Still tasty though... 

MMM.....Kim's Sweet and Sour Chicken was the best! Thanks to The Greens and Daniel and Kaylinn Davidson for the crock-pot and Rice Cooker! They have been great!

Next time I'll upload some pictures of our Christmas-Ornament crafts that we did together...

Family Reunions

We didn't get to make it to all of the family reunions this summer that we would have liked to, but we were able to make it to a couple really good ones! First there was the Owens' reunion in the Tetons.  We didn't know a lot of the people, but we did have a good time with Gary, Shelley, Derek, and Krystal.  We even ran into one of Kim's extended cousins who happened to serve in the same mission as me.

There is always lots to see in the Tetons; we saw herds of buffalo, a grizzly bear, some pelicans, and lots of elk!.

 The bison nearly stampeded the car! (Near Gros Ventre (pronounced 'Grau Vont') Campground)

 Kim and I wading at Jenny Lake!

 Yes, we totally saw a Grizzly Bear near Oxbow Bend (which I decided is my favorite wildlife viewing area)!

 This is what oxbow bend looked like in the crystal, clear morning! We also saw 3 pelicans this morning, but didn't get them on camera.

  I was a little bit mean and had Kim wake up with me to see the sun when it was first hitting the mountains. Then we headed up to Signal mountain to get a few good shots.

 Early Rising in our pajamas!

 Signal Mountain Viewpoint!

 Whitewater Rafting was so fun! Yay! And the Barbecue chicken afterwards wasn't too bad either! Thanks Gary and Shelley for a fun day!

I stole these pictures off of their website, because I was too cheap to go and purchase them. :-P

 Zoomed and cropped (Layne K. and Derek Owens)

 

For the unofficial Koyle reunion (basically all of Layne's siblings except Corey and Robin's family), we headed to Paris, Idaho (near Bear Lake) where Eileen and Lawna had gone in together to rent a home that we could all stay in. http://www.bearlakeparis.com/Amenities.html 

The first day we had planned on going to Bloomington Lake, but after all of the kids hopped out on the playground (behind the tabernacle in Paris) and we had a brief lunch, all of the adults decided that they were not feeling up to driving the 14 more miles up the canyon to get to the lake. So instead, we toured the tabernacle. http://www.visitidaho.org/attraction/arts-culture/paris-tabernacle-historical-site/

Ahhh, such a nice day! And the clouds looked so cool!

Ethan and Levi debating over how to best build their castle and Karson getting picture happy! :)

 Naomi being her cute self! Awe, mud facials with Carter!

Aren't we cute...

Makayla throwing mud on us!

 Oh no! She turned into a mermaid!