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October 2023 - Fish Ranch

Tad has been on an origami kick lately and keeps renting different origami library books for new ideas.  For his date this month we did some YouTube tutorials to make frogs and squids.  We used construction paper and quickly wished we had actual origami paper that folded better.

For Liam's date, he asked if we could please please please play tic tac toe.  Gosh, I love that kid so much. 

He asked for a Funtopia minecraft birthday party so that's what we did.  His big gift was the Minecraft Dungeons game on the Nintendo Switch.  Alexa has been having a lot of fun on Canva lately and even made Liam's party invitations.  For his birthday dinner he wanted to eat at Feast Buffet and he wanted a Minecraft cake so I learned how to make marshmallow fondant.  







Alexa was invited to go to St George with Kalle and they had lots of fun swimming and going to a show at Tuacahn.  

Tyler chose Indiana for his state project and was obsessed with telling anyone and everyone all of the cool facts he learned.  He made a big power point and awesome 3D box display complete with a race track, corn, lakes, a big city, the Indiana flag, and a forest.

For Fall Break we went up to Fish Ranch in Ashton, ID.  Shauna and Darrell were so generous to let us stay there and we had such a wonderful time.  On the way up we stopped at Bear World, which also now has a dinosaur park attached.






















We spent a day playing in Yellowstone, specifically looking at waterfalls, LOTS of wildlife (hundreds of bison, lots of elk) in Lamar Valley, and the white crystalline limestone at Mammoth Springs.  We didn't do any of the high tourist areas like Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic that we hit on our lats visit there in 2020.  






The next day was a quieter day at the cabin.  We did a local hike to a beautiful waterfall, played Clue Jr, ping pong and billiards, and read books on the deck outside.  





On the way home we stopped for a swim at Lava Hot Springs, which the kids thought was really cool.


Liam made an adorable Bible Stories book during church.  






For Halloween, Kyle and I were "Dr Pepper" for a party, I was Napoleon Dynamite for work, and our kids were the Queen of Hearts (Alexa) and Alice (Audrey), a ghostbuster, Dr. Strange, a ninja, and Mario.  







We got Swingle family pictures taken and they turned out so well!















In other news, Alexa got braces!!




I had a work retreat in Midway and had fun horseback riding through the beautiful mountains.  

My wonderful co-workers decorated my office for my birthday.  

Tad enjoyed playing I9 baseball. 

Audrey is still cute.








Dean and Tyler are gangsters


Funny Stories:

At the dinner table:

Lily: Did you know that it's better to breath through your nose instead of your mouth? My mom read it in a book.

Liam: Yeah, because then you can do snot rockets! Like this! (proceeds to plug one nostril and demonstrate)


Videos:

We went out to eat for breakfast and all of the kids meals came with a Dum Dum.  We laughed when we noticed that Nathan was repeatedly dipping his in a cup of syrup.

https://youtube.com/shorts/NCDhWlSywxs?feature=share


Liam basketball

https://youtube.com/shorts/A-h1k3ZBGO0?feature=share


Tad basketball

https://youtube.com/shorts/iHmlDfYB2rs?feature=share


Liam and Lily keep getting married at the encouragement of their siblings.  I finally caught the ceremony on camera.

https://youtube.com/shorts/1YptN9xPPvQ?feature=share


Bear World: 

https://youtu.be/Ow7gvkYR59M

https://youtu.be/xPvyv0hiuvI

https://youtu.be/-hHtx-IF1Q0

https://youtube.com/shorts/YF2S3e1CNtM?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/5lxXg1PEoKo?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/HsR33og6eTc?feature=share

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