Apple Juicing

This year we had the pleasure of going up to my Grandpa Cook's house for family Apple Juicing. We had recently purchased a Dodge Caravan, so we were also able to take my younger siblings, Shaina, Halie and Kaden. We checked Kaden and Halie out of school a little early on wednesday, October 17th, and headed out on our long drive to Echo Oregon. It was not the best trip, at least not MY experience of the trip. There was much contention and bugging in the back and we had to stop way too many times for bathroom breaks. We didn't get there until really late. I think the trip took more than 10 hours.
Thursday we were the only ones there and it was a little quiet but I'm glad we went when we did. Another group was coming to juice that afternoon and didn't show up with enough help so some of us went out to help them get their apples juiced. It got so cold at night out there since most the work is putting your hands in a bucket of water, grabbing apples. It was a lot of fun though the next two days when family came out and we were able to visit while we were working together and seeing all the kids have fun together was great! I always loved seeing all my cousins since it only happened maybe once a year.
We were also there to share my grandpa's 86th birthday with him. I am so grateful for the life he's led and that I am a part of it. I have been blessed so greatly to have such amazing family. I thoroughly enjoy every opportunity I have to spend time with them all and hearing all of their crazy stories.
 We drove home on Sunday the 21st which just happens to be Rick's Birthday. I felt bad we had to be in the car for his birthday.

Trip to the Zoo

On October 11th we went up to the zoo with Rick's Mom and Brother and we took Kaden with us as well. We decided buying a year family pass would pay for itself after just 2 trips to the zoo, so of course we bought one and we got Kaden in on it too! Score!! They had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they were/are doing construction in the area where the huge playground is/was? so they missed that. Something new that just came back to the zoo this year are the bears and seals. They would come right up to the glass and the kids got so excited. The Tiger came right up to them too. It was a great trip to the zoo!

looking at the monkeys

the polar bear

the poor little girl in this picture on the right here she is just playing with everyone...

and down she went. I thought it was kinda funny I caught it on camera. Didn't even realize it till later. It's a great picture of Kaden though!

Swimming Lessons

Owen took swimming lessons in September/October and absolutely loved it! He did SO well! He was a lot smaller and younger than anyone else there and even swam a little better than many of them. His teacher (Shannon) loved that he was so small and so she would give him a little more attention than the other kids (I kinda felt bad for the other kids) and she would hold him quite a bit (although he didn't need it). He really liked Shannon as well. I'm glad his swimming lessons were a good experience for him. They are currently constructing a new rec. center in Provo, so they aren't having any swimming lessons right now but hopefully we'll get him (and Sadie) back in in the spring/summer.
Here are some pictures from his lessons. They made the parents sit up in the stands, so the pictures are pretty far away. I'll try to upload some videos as well.

Rock climbing

Rick's mom got a new van and Willie wanted to take us somewhere in it so we went up Provo canyon for dinner and fun. That morning, Rick and I went on a lunch date up the canyon too. His mom watched Owen and Sadie and Rick and I rode the tandem bike from her house up to Vivian park, had a picnic lunch and rode back. Round trip it was 25 miles. It was the longest bike ride I've ever been on. I had a lot of fun on our date.

Anyway, back to that night. We went up to Vivian and had a picnic dinner and then the kids played for a bit on the playground. Owen even climbed a tree! After we got everything cleaned up we got the strollers and walked down to Bridalveil falls. This year they made a little pond and filled it with fish that you can feed so we have been up there a couple times. This time Owen said that he wanted to get in the water so he and Rick went off and I stayed with Sadie to feed the fish. After a bit we looked over and Owen was climbing up the rocks toward the falls. He just kept going and going and going. I don't know when he would have stopped if we hadn't made him come down.