Fall Break

Twelve hours after Gregg picked me up at the airport from my sisters' trip, we were back at the airport dropping him off for an Inntopia executive team meeting in Stowe for four days.  That week was an early out schedule at school for Callie because of parent teacher conferences (side note: she's rockin' kindergarten!) followed by fall break (a day early for kindergartners!).  We did our parent teacher conferencing on Monday (the 15th) afternoon (Sam got to go play with his friend Charlie and was psyched about that "I get to go to Charlie's all by myself!"), hung out on Tuesday (I really don't remember what we did), and had music makers on Wednesday (the 17th) morning.  Then it was off to Cache Valley for our mini Fall Break/Sleepover fun.  We took a quick pit stop at Maddox for lunch on the way (it wasn't planned, but my car just turned left when we got there, I swear!) and then Sam fell asleep in the canyon, so we drove the long, beautiful way through Wellsville, and then to Benson, and then up and around Smithfield where he woke up.  Since my mom wasn't home from school yet, we made our way to Hyde Park to visit my grandparents (and play with the trucks, of course).  Eventually we made it back to Providence were we got to try out the new playground Grandpa and the uncles installed the weekend before.  The kids loved it!  We played and ate dinner and played some more and then it was time for bed - Cal in "the napping bed" and Sam on the couch bed (a first for him and he quite liked it!).

Mini cheeseburgers and fries for everyone!

Sandbox heaven!

So fun to swing!

The platform on top has a car track to drive all the little cars on.

A song I found in the piano bench, one I
accompanied my friend Jessie on in a high school
solo and ensemble festival, probably in our junior
year?  Needless to say, it's been a long time since
I've even thought about this song, let alone
remembered it existed, let alone played it.  But I pulled
it out and was amazed at how much I could remember -
my brain totally knew what was coming and my fingers
did pretty well, too.  That was fun.

Thursday (the 18th) morning, after waffles for breakfast (my fave!), we met up with Heather and Grace and Kylie in Providence Canyon for a beautiful morning hike.  Before we left, I noticed my tire had a foreign object lodged in it (no wonder I had a low tire pressure warning on for the past few days!).  My dad topped off all my tires from his air compressor, and after our hike he went with me to drop off my car at the new Big O shop down the street.  So glad we had that warranty on our tires!  A couple hours later they had it fixed and we were off to the Pumpkin Walk, where we met up with Heather and Grace and Kylie again plus Grandpa and Grandma Elwood and Evelyn and Bradley.  The displays were adorable, as usual, and we all enjoyed our donut hole and the wooden cut-out photo ops.  Then we headed back to Providence (with a stop in River Heights for some Zollinger's Apple Cider, of course!) for sloppy joes for dinner before we hit the road for yet another trip (but the last for a good long while) to the airport to pick up Gregg.  It was definitely a quick little getaway up North, but it was full of fun!

Lots of down leaves, but it was still gorgeous
hiking weather, and a new trail for me!

The stream was full of these picturesque cascades.

Holy cow, he's stinkin' cute! 

Group shot!

Sam was carrying rocks in his hat down the trail.

Who's that tromping over my bridge?

The theme for the pumpkin walk this year was "Where in the World".  It was fun to try to figure out "Where IS the World" by finding the small earth-painted pumpkin hidden in each scene.

An octopus's garden.

Winnie the Pooh.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (a big favorite of the 3 and under
crowd).

Where's Waldo?

Aliens.

More Hungry Caterpillar.

It's a Small World (this one was super cute!)

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
(This one brought back some fun memories!  We used to watch
this show and even had a board game that we loved.)

"Go Ye Into All the World" missionary scene.

"Where in the world is my (fill in the blank)?" by the Maple
Springs Assisted Living Center.  (Where are my glasses? my
teeth? my remote? etc.)  (This is the place my Thornley
Grandparents live.)

Coco.

"Where in the World is Mendon?" (famous
for their May Day celebration).

Puss in Boots from Shrek.

Random eyeballs (Sam loved these for some reason).

Oh the Places You'll Go.

Pumpkin Walk within the Pumpkin Walk.

So meta.

Finding Nemo (this one was made by my high school friend,
Katie Hatch, and her family and friends).

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Fish tank.

Pelican with Dory and Nemo inside.

Pumpkin posers.

So fun to have all the grandkiddies walkin' with us this year.

Great pumpkin group.

bonus video!

"the elwood five - next generation?"

Kylie got Cal to do some pumpkin posing
(in the bright sunshine) outside Zollinger's
while we bought a gallon of liquid gold.