October

October is my favorite month of the year. This year, however, the weather has not been cooperating.  Halloween is still 4 days away and it has already snowed 3 times! That's not cool. At the high school they always do a huge banner that hangs on a fence by the football field to honor all the Seniors that participate in fall sports. Here is Britton on the banner.

I stepped back a few feet to get a bigger view of the section he was in.  The banner keeps going for awhile since there are quite a few Seniors involved in fall sports at Ridgeline.

AJ was with me at the one  XC meet we had at home this year.  This is how he waits for the runners to come by. 

He is definitely a thumb sucker. I haven't made it an issue so far because it is such a source of comfort for him, but in the next few years we are going to need to come up with a plan because he REALLY LOVES to suck his thumb and he hasn't shown any desire to stop.

Our annual fall visit to the American West Heritage Center for the Board of Realtors night fell on October 3rd this year. It was already chilly but we got there plenty early so we wouldn't have to wait in line for the food trucks and activities. AJ and Jameson loved the pony rides.

But I think the train was still their favorite.

AJ loved the petting zoo, he thought it was hilarious when one of the goats tried to eat his shirt.

At the entrance of the corn maze.

Korinne and Jameson had a random Tuesday off from school for Parent Teacher Conferences so after we all dropped AJ off to his afternoon preschool I took them out for pancakes. They were thrilled and I took this picture to prove that they actually do get along sometimes. 😀

Jenna, Korinne and I enjoyed going to the Women's session of General Conference with Grandma P. before she left for her trip to Manchu Piccu in Peru.

Jenna really enjoys puzzles and did 2 different puzzles while listening to General Conference. This one was quite challenging but she was able to finish it before the last session ended. 

Jameson finished out his football season in October. Here he is with his team "The Falcons".

With both soccer and flag football going on this was the scene on many evenings in October. My folding chair gets a lot of use in the fall.

Before we knew it it was time for Region Cross Country. Britton and Jenna have run together on the Cross Country team for 3 years so it is kind of like the end of an era.  There are over 50 guys on the XC team and only 7 go to State so this was Britton's last race as a Riverhawk. He had a great race and felt really good about his last season.

AJ got to come and cheer them on before going to afternoon preschool at the University child development lab.

To say Britton and Jenna have enjoyed being part of such large and and fun XC team is an understatement.

So many friends, so little time.

The Ridgeline girls took 3rd in State and had 2 finishers in the top ten and the boys took 5th so I think they were pretty happy with the season.

It's fall time! AJ enjoyed playing with the leaves all month long.

He also enjoys writing on the walls with a marker. Seriously, how many times do we have to deal with this?!  😣

So. many. forts. and not a lot of motivation to clean them up afterwards. Yup, they are typical kids, I guess.

For my birthday this year my sister Heather hooked us up with a Worldmark condo in Bear Lake so Adam and I got to spent 2 nights away. It was awesome! We went up on Sunday night, October 20th and came back on October 22nd.  

It is officially off season in Bear Lake so the place was dead. Firehouse was one of the few restaurants open on my actual birthday and we were pretty much the only ones there for lunch that day. Thank goodness there was still a raspberry shake place open! They assured us the raspberries were still fresh, they were just from Oregon this time of year.

A few weeks ago Adam and I decided to go to the CV Parade of Homes just for something different to do for date night. Imagine our surprise when Adam received an e-mail last week telling him he was one of the grand prize winners and won this big tool chest.

Hmmm, I wonder if all 5 of his tools will fit. . . .😂😂😂 I guess he could sell it and buy more tools, but that defeats the purpose now, doesn't it? He really enjoyed getting it set up in the garage yesterday. Clearly it is something we never would have purchased for ourselves, but I think he really loves it.

Adam is the "fun holiday Dad". The boys don't even ask me to do stuff like this, they know to go straight to the "fun" parent for pumpkin carving.

Jamo's witch.

AJ's creation.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa P for growing the pumpkins in their garden! Anyone want to come over and help clean up the mess?? 😆😆

September

Adam's sister Bethany and her family stayed with us the weekend after our niece's wedding. It was Labor Day weekend so we took them to Wellsville for their "famous" Labor Day parade. If you are looking for a small town experience with all of its charm this Labor Day parade never disappoints.

Adam, Bethany, Britton

One of the houses on the parade route had a Bison fenced up in their yard. A little random to us, but maybe not so much when you live in a small town??

It just happened to be Easton's 10th birthday so we had our neighbor Cara whip up a Birthday cake for him and celebrated with cake and ice cream after the parade. Then the kids all went to the Aquatic Center to swim outside one last time this year.  

Yummy! The cake was a hit.

Cousins: Easton, Kaly, Jameson, AJ, Ashlan, Jenna and Britton

The beginning of a new school year is full of fun activities when you have high schoolers. Ridgeline Homecoming was the second week of September and it was a full week for Britton and Jenna.

Britton, Collin and Adam

Britton and other Exec Officers making a pancake breakfast for the students before school.

Britton asked someone to Homecoming with a poster that said, "On a scale of 'one to America' how FREE are you on September 14th for Homecoming?" He put American flags and patriotic streamers all over the front lawn of her house. I thought the way she answered him was hilarious. She left this poster:

And then had Union Jack Flags and everything "Great Britain" in the yard. It was pretty funny and such a clever way to respond after he asked with patriotic American stuff.

Jenna got asked by Josh, a fellow cross country runner on the team.

He filled up all of the cups with water and even got all of the neighborhood kids to help him since he knew Jenna was with all of the other girls at an event. "I don't want to go SOLO. Will you go to Homecoming?" Clearly Josh made the poster all by himself. 😀

At 10:30 p.m. on the Sunday night before Homecoming week, Britton and the other Exec officers and some of the art students went down and painted the street at the intersection leading into the school. It's a tradition and I always wondered how they did it every year. Now I know that they do it in the middle of the night before Homecoming week.

They finished at 1:30 a.m. and then went to Denny's for breakfast so he got home around 2:30 a.m. Fortunately he planned ahead and took a 4 hour nap on Sunday to prepare so he felt pretty good at school the next day.

The Homecoming parade was on Wednesday evening and even though it literally "rained on their parade" we had a lot of fun and saw a beautiful rainbow. The high school Homecoming parade reminds me of how much I love living in a small town. 

 Britton and Jenna had a XC race across town that afternoon that was postponed twice because of lightening. By the time they finally were allowed to run in the freezing rain the entire team had to rush back across town to get to the parade on time.

Britton was on the Exec float.

And Jenna was right behind with the Junior Class Officers

Britton was in the first truck, Jenna is walking behind the second truck.

After the parade Jenna played with the Juniors in the Powder Puff game at the High School.

I remember playing in the Powder Puff game at my high school during Homecoming week, but no one actually showed up to watch us play. At Ridgeline the Power Puff game is a big deal and EVERYONE shows up to watch the game. They even have someone announcing the game and have refs and everything. In fact the stands were full and there were over 1,000 people in attendance to watch the Senior girls beat the Junior girls in the last minute of the game. Just before half time I saw a bunch of boys lined up near the side of the field. After looking closely I said to Adam, "Wait, is that Britton??" Yes, it WAS Britton. He neglected to tell us he was going to dance as part of the "Hawketts" during half time of the game. We would have missed the whole thing if we were weren't already at the game to watch Jenna play! When I asked him why he hadn't told us about it he simply said, "Oh, I didn't tell you? I guess I just didn't think about it." It makes me wonder how many things we have missed over the years because he didn't think to tell us about it.

I really wish I could post the video of their dance. It was hilarious! And Britton looked great. They got a standing ovation for their mad dancing skills. The whole thing was very entertaining.

 The Senior Boy "Hawketts" and the drill team members that taught them the dance. Britton is on the left standing with a white bandana on his head.

All of the Exec Officers at the Powder Puff game.

Both Britton and Jenna had a great time at the Homecoming Dance on Saturday night.

Jenna and Josh

Britton and Maleia

While they were at Homecoming the rest of us were at a fall neighborhood party enjoying dinner and wagon rides with our friends and neighbors.

The Kirks also had a few neighbor get-togethers in September for dessert and games while the weather was still good.

Cross Country was in full swing during the month of September and Britton and Jenna had some really great races. Mostly they loved hanging out with the team. They both have a lot of great friends on the team.

Jenna on the girls bus. Ridgeline fills 2 full buses for every race.

Britton also continued to play soccer with his club soccer team.

We sat through a VERY wet and chilly game on September 28th. Grandma P was able to come and see him play. Can you say Brrrrrr??

Adam, Britton and Jameson went down to SLC for the last REAL Salt Lake game of the season. Jameson even got to go on the field before the game and hold the big flag.

Jameson lined up with other kids to go out on the field with the flag

Britton, Jameson

Jameson has been playing both soccer and flag football this fall so he can decide which one he likes better. Much to my chagrin football has been the clear winner. 😓

AJ goes to all of the games and does a pretty good job of entertaining himself. He obviously likes it  better when there is a playground at the park where Jameson is playing.

Jameson playing soccer. He scored several goals during the month of September.

Jameson in a football huddle with his teammates and coaches. 

Jameson was always the fastest kid on the field and it wasn't even close. He scored a lot of touchdowns because no one could run him down. Yeah, this is probably why he likes football more than soccer right now. I wish I could post a video of him, when he turns on the jets he leaves the other kids in his dust.

I love everything about the fall, especially where we live. The kids are back in school with schedules and activities to keep them busy and it feels like the start of new things. We had a great September!