Woody and the astronaut

Halloween this year was filled with the usual family parties, trunk-or-treats, and candy! Although we spent part of the week at the Mitchell cabin to spend time together before Alex, Jared's brother, went off to Afghanistan. Good times! I love this time of year!

Dawson was supposed to be Yoda (long story) but ended up sporting an astronaut costume. He didn't seem to mind the mix up.

Hayden had been waiting for months to be Woody for Halloween. He loved answering the door and handing out candy. In fact, sometimes when the door rings he'll yell trick-or-treat and ask me where the candy is to hand out.

Decorating cookies at our annual Halloween party.

Grandma Mitchell tried to combine Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas into a couple days for Alex. So Hayden got a new robot at the cabin. I think he's happy about it, don't you?

Carvin' up pumpkins

A nice leafy salad and a swing

The weather was warm enough on Saturday to take a trip to the park. Hayden demanded on bringing his bike with us to ride when he didn't want to be in the stroller. He always does this and then never rides it. Me or Jared end up dragging it behind us the whole way. Funny boy! I think he's so proud he can pedal now he doesn't want to leave it behind.
Below are quite a few pictures of our fun day at the park.

Dawson was terrified of the swing at first but soon warmed up

In the background you'll see Northridge Elementary. That's where I went. Go Northridge Nighthawks!!

Hayden is quite the climber these days. He tries to slide down the "fireman pole" by himself. He currrently wants to be a fireman when he grows up so he can "drive the firetruck really fast".

Dawson's first salad. He seems to like it.

Dawson liked the taste of sand too. I found a few rocks in his mouth later on.

Team Buddah

11.2 miles of running in the hot Nevada sun. No sleep. No showers. The constant smell of sweaty bodies crammed in a van. One of the best times of my life!

I just got back from a weekend of fun running in the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay 2009! Jared, the boys and my parents all drove me down and stayed in Vegas while I ran. I loved it! It's an awesome feeling to accomplish something I've always wanted to do but never thought I could. My team was so much fun! This was definitely something I want to do again in the future. There's something cool about running 4 miles at 1:00 in the morning.

The only down side was that a tragedy happened during the race. A member of another team got hit and killed by a drunk driver while trying to give his team mate water. It was incredibly sad since he was so young and had his wife with him. Stupid drunk people!

Below are a couple pictures. Unfortunately I had my crappy camera with me and forgot to take pictures most of the time.

Megan Daniel (Brett's sister) trying to catch some sleep

After our first run and looking sweaty

Marly is passing me the baton for my first run. It's 85 degrees outside but it feels like 105.

Team "Buddah"

Shoe Drinks

This past Saturday we were bored (we live at my parents now if that explains it) so we decided to wash the cars. Dawson sat in his bouncy seat very quietly almost the whole time while Hayden helped Jared, Scott and I soap down and rinse off the cars.
Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!!

washing the car soon got boring and Hayden moved on to more interesting activities.

You might think he's just giving his shoes a good rinsing.....

nope....

ahhh, refreshing shoe drinks!

He'll stick with the hose from now on.

4th of July 09'

I know this was a while ago but I finally got the pictures that my brother, Scott, took at the Provo Temple grounds while we watched the fireworks. Hayden had a lot of fun throwing a frisbee and showing off. We almost got rained out but it ended up being a really nice time together.
You may notice that Hayden's hair is a little wacky. He had just woke up from a nap and I never comb his hair except for Sundays. I'm saving all my hair-doing skills for when I have a girl. Besides, his hair does what it wants anyway.

I put this picture in purely because it reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite.

Aren't those the most pinchable and kissable cheeks?

This Family's a Zoo!

We all spent the weekend visiting Temple Square and the Zoo. Jared's mom and dad took all the family there to stay in a hotel and have a lot of fun!

I guess we did decend from apes, look how alike we are! Actually if evolution were true every mom would grow a third arm!

Hayden didn't want to slow down for a family picture.

We had many great babysitters. Hayden was stuck to grandma like glue, and Jeremy was stuck to Dawson like glue.



The new baby elephant was on display! We spent a lot of time there. She (I think it was a she) was so cute!

Friday evening we went to Temple Square. This was Hayden and Dawson's first time (I know, we're neglectful parents since Hayden is almost 3 yrs. old)

Funnt Story: It was dead silent as we sat in front of the Christus. People around us were crying and all emotional when Hayden shouts out, "Jesus' shirt is falling off"! Everybody busted up, it was pretty funny!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell for a great weekend!

The many uses of a fork...

There a hundreds of things you can do with a fork. I am well acquainted with many of them but here are a few that I know especially well....

"Brudders"

I have been amazed at how good Hayden has been with his little "brudder". Although, lately he will hit or pinch him when I'm not looking and then give me an innocent smile. But on the whole, he's very protective of his Dawson. Some nights we've teased him by saying Aunt Heather is going to take Dawson home with her. Hayden is never too happy about that arrangement. As you can see in the picture, he means business. He'll beat up anyone on the playground that tries to bully his little brother.

The funny thing is that Dawson looks about twice the size of Hayden. I'm not sure yet who will be doing the beating up.

Another milestone...

Heber Valley Camp Reunion

If you've never been to the Heber Valley Camp outside of Heber, you're missing out. We have a family reunion there every year. The camp ground can hold thousands of campers at a time without hardly seeing your neighbors. We participated in a confidence course, paddleboats and canoes and just good old family time. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have but here's a few.

We are trying to make our way around the rope without falling into the "hot lava". I died a few times.