May the force be with you

The first Halloween event for us this year was Boo at the Zoo. We had never been before, but the kids were begging to go this year. I took them last weekend and we ended up having a great time. Even though we met lots of bad guys....

Trick or treating in the ape house, I mean, Candyland, was a little strange and smelly. But the kids didn't seem to mind. Candy!!!!!
Go Yoda!
Leia in battle mode:
Luke "the lover" Jedi
The kids and I, ok they were no help at all, carved pumpkins at a birthday party last weekend.
Brooks picked a hard pattern and then right when we got home he knocked it off the counter and it broke into a million little pieces. We tried to save it with some toothpicks...
But they were moldy in two days. I mean, mold seriously GROWING like fuzz out of the ghost. I guess you know you live in a humid place when your pumpkins only last one day!!

Island Style

First stop

In order to break the airplane rides up, the kids and I stopped in Utah for a few days on our way to Hawaii. It really did make the long flights more bearable. (at least on the way there)
I didn't take may pictures because Lewis was in charge of bringing the good camera, but here are a few shots. We went to the BYU homecoming parade. I had forgotten how, um, different Provo is. The university students were singing Scripture Power and cheering for service, etc.
B and the Y.

We had to make a stop to the bookstore to get some chocolate covered cinnamon bears. Then I thought it would be awesome to make a quick stop by the track to let the kids run on the blue awesomeness. They loved it and we lucked out because the gates were open while we were there--they were cleaning up the homecoming 5k finish line.
My dad and Jackie took the kids down to Provo for a BYU women's soccer game. My cousin, Lindsi, plays for them and they had a great time getting all decked out. We even bought some pom poms to convince A to go. I guess B spent the whole game pointing his painted belly toward the cameras. And chanting "Carli has a boyfriend" (she's another cousin), and also chanting--YOU CAN'T SLIDE THE KEEPER. Thanks, Uncle Mark!
We also got to spend and evening with my cousin's family. A and S are the greatest little friends. I love it but I wish we lived closer.
See, that's not too many pictures, is it? Don't worry, the next post will be chock full!

ok so now it all makes sense

Now I see where Cate got the crazy hair. And it's all downhill from here....

(Although I do wish I could still pull off a dress that short once in a while)

Can you say wiped out?

We are home from our autumn adventure, but we are all exhausted. We feel like Cate looked this afternoon:

Not a joke

The rash strikes again.
Last Tuesday Aiden woke up with what looked like 3 mosquito bites on her chin. We had been outside the night before and the mosquitoes here are totally relentless. Cate came in with around 10 bites and I had 6, so I figured A just got 3 on her face and sent her to school. When I picked her up that afternoon she was starting to look more like this:

Lovely, isn't it? It was mostly on her face, but she had a few spots on her arms, legs, and body. Lucky for us we have 2 friends who are pediatric infectious disease doctors. One came over to look at it while we emailed pictures to the other and they did a consult over the phone. The verdict: rash is a mystery. There is a chance it was chicken pox. But they were able to rule out anything really scary which is the most important. She decided to stay home on Wed. and Thurs. because she didn't want to let everyone see her like that. But she was never really sick. It's so weird.
So, we spent the weekend about like this. Hanging out in the tent and taking it easy. Hoping to avoid more strange rashes.
Oh, and Brooks is totally fine. His rash was never itchy or bothersome to him at all. He never had a fever or felt sick, he just had this super crazy rash. Most likely a penicillin reaction.