Obedient

I bought the kids goggles.  

I told them to Sharpie their names onto them.

Gary did.  

Turkey

Gary won this turkey at our local community "Turkey Toss," by doing this:

(I don't know what illegalities I'm committing by including this professionally scanned photo.  Hopefully Mike Donahue has a forgiving heart and a sense of humor.  I think he does.)

So, back to the story. 

Chad and I and the three older girls were planning on attending my brother's wedding in DC over Thanksgiving, so, what to do with the turkeys?  Lexi and Lily had also won in their age groups, (though they had to heave real 10-lb frozen turkeys--our hidden family talent:  turkey tossing.  Who knew?) so we had a freezer full of birds, and weren't even going to be here for the big day. 

We knew, however, that the rest of the Leavitts etc., etc., were throwing a big shindig, and Grandpa Gary would be readying his pit to bar-b-q many a turkey. 

"Lets give the turkeys to Grandpa," I said.  "They are having a big party, and the turkeys will surely get eaten."

"Don't give the turkeys to Grandpa!!!"  Gary exclaimed. "He'll just shove them in the ground!"

Realizing he didn't understand pit-bar-b-q-ing, but not knowing what he was thinking, I had to ask, "And then what?"

Gary shrugged, "They'll grow turkeys?" 

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving

My Favorite Halloween Pictures

 Lily and Lexi before school on Halloween.  I just realized we should have painted Lily's face green and called them Ga-linda, and the Wicked Witch of the West. 

 Bloody Samuel

 The Mummy Game in Eden's class party

 Gary as Gumby?  It's a green stretchy shape-suit thingie intended for imaginative play.  He really wanted to wear it, but when it came time to trunck-of-treat that night, he wouldn't wear it because he said, "People laughed."  It was pretty funny.  I wish it hadn't bothered him, because he was adorable and unique.  That night he put white gauzy fabric over his head and was a ghost.  Nobody laughed. 

 If you can't see her carving, you can click on the picture.  It's worth it.  She carved it herself.  It is my favorite pumpkin ever. 

He wouldn't wear this at Sage's party earlier this week.  On Halloween night, I mentioned candy, and he had no more problem with it.  He understands SO much more that I think. 

Hope you had a Happy Halloween. 

Family Journaling

For the sake of the FamilyJournal aspect of this blog,

there are some things I need to post. 

I am feeling behind! 

We've been busy. 

As usual.  

 We took a last minute fling to Disneyland.  The kids had finished their Disneyland goals (things like, have a bread-baking lesson with Aunt Bonnie, learn to vacuum the car, memorize your address.  Stuff like that.) and Lexi didn't want to miss school to go, so we squeezed it in during the last weekend of Summer Vacation.  Grandma and Grandpa Leavitt went with us, and Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Tim, and their four cuties. 

I got the camera out for this picture because we were so bedragled.  We were in California Adventure and had done the river ride multiple times, so we'd been soaked and air dried repeatedly.  Chad and I are both carrying sleeping children, and we all have sweat dripping down our backs.  It just so says "Disneyland":  happy and having fun, but worn out!

Breakfast in the hotel before day 2.  Yellow day.  

A moment that made us laugh: 

A woman with an elegant British accent walked past us next to the teacups and said to Grandpa Gary, in his almost-yellow-but-mostly-tan shirt and said, "Oh, you'd look lovely in banana!  That's the worst cop-out I've ever seen!"  Now everytime he wears that shirt, we remind him it's his cop-out shirt.

 Another sticky, sweaty, happy moment.



 And then we had to get down to business.  School!

Lily joined Lex at the middle school this year. 

 Here are my three elementary schoolers. 

 And then the adults went back to school too! 

Jared and Marie came out and went with Chad and I and Chad's dad, to Front Sight.  We took a four-day defensive hand gun training class.  Hm.  I never saw that one coming.  I'd never even heard of Front Sight until a few months before, when the opportunity came up to go.  Until the course, I'd shot maybe 50 bullets in my entire life.  Before we went I jokingly told friends we were going to "handgun daycamp".  It ended up being more like a 4-day college degree, complete with lectures, internship, and final exam.  We learned so much, and had such a good time doing it.

 On the last day we got to compete against each other.  Marie challenged me.  I took her on and beat her.  Not because I'm better or faster than her.  I'm not.  But because I can take down my targets and eject brass down the front of her shirt at the same time.  In this picture, I am reholstering, and she has handed her gun to the instructer next to her, and is fishing a hot shell out of her clothing.  She did continue to take down her last target while her skin was blistering, (Go Marie!) but it gave me just enough of an edge that I did finish first. 

One last adventure before we settle down into volleyball games and soccer schedules...  Chad and I spent this last weekend in Utah.  We went for the BYU/Utah game(we won't talk about that), and some face-time with our friends up there.  Five days before our trip, Annette, (the blond to my left) asked me if I wanted to run the Dirty Dash with her.  It's a 10k through mud pits, mud tunnels, mud walls, and the marshy part of the Deer Creek Reservoir.  We certainly didn't run the whole way, partly because in certain places, if we ran, we'd end up rolling, partly because in certain places we needed to swim, climb, or crawl, and partly because in certain places, we were just laughing too hard.  It was so much fun.