Carving Pumpkins

Our family carved four pumpkins this year, since we now have four people that can participate in the fun.  Daddy helped MayLynn design and carve hers, although we did have her help clean the guts out of the pumpkin.

Owen designed his own pumpkin, and cleaned it out, although I helped him with the carving of it.

Bryce and I each carved a pumpkin as well.  Bryce chose a more traditional route, while I opted to spell out ALLEN since I've always wanted to try a pumpkin like this.  We all had fun carving our pumpkins and River enjoyed playing on the floor while we carved up some fun.

More October Fun

One fun thing that the girls and I get to do each day is go pick up Owen from school.  Since Columbia Elementary is only a few blocks away, I pack up the girls in the stroller and we walk there.  Once we get to the school, MayLynn likes to get out and play until Owen gets out of school. Lately she has really enjoyed playing in the leaves.  River has just enjoyed being outside and watching her sister run around.

Another fun thing that Bryce and I did this month was go on a date to Frightmares at Lagoon.  It was my first time at Frightmares and it was a bit anti-climatic.  I once again have proof that Bryce's work in theater has made it really, really hard for anything scenic or costume related to scare me in any way. So what would have scared the beejeebers out of me before I met Bryce has now become common place and humorous instead. I did really enjoy going on a date with Bryce, riding rides, and enjoyed not having to watch the kids every moment.  

Here's an October update on how our cute little river is growing.  She's been interacting with her toys more and really likes this little turtle that plays "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and vibrates. She also likes playing with her brother and sister, which resulted in Firegirl River!

On a more gruesome note, Owen got his first stitches this month.  He accidentally knocked over his hermit crab tank while feeding them and the glass broke over his knee. I was really impressed with how calm he stayed while I pulled the tank off of him and got the glass cleaned out of his wound.  Because the tank was used for pets, and because I wanted to be sure that I got all the glass cleaned out, I took him to the doctor and they cleaned it up for us and put in two stitches since he's a very active boy and I didn't want it to keep popping open. It's healing nicely and I should be able to take the stitches out myself to save ourselves another trip to the doctors' office this month.

Fall Break Fun at Cherry Hill

Cherry Hill is a small family fun park here in Kaysville. They have a miniature golf course, a water park, and other fun activities that are great for families.  They also decorate their place for Halloween and offer discounts, so we decided to take the kids there last weekend as a fun Fall Break activity.

We all had fun playing mini-golf.  MayLynn had fun until she got bored, but Owen did pretty good and shows potential as a mini-golfer. I think this is an activity that we'll definitely try again.

After playing mini-golf, we went on a spooky tractor-pulled ride and saw all sorts of fun skeletons playing in the campground.  Then we made our way through a haunted maze.  By then it was getting late so we called it a night, but we sure did have fun.  It was a great Fall Break memory and a great way to get in the mood for Halloween.

It's Autumn Time

October is turning out to be a fun month this year.  We've been enjoying the nice fall weather and enjoying some celebrations as well. The first was a double birthday celebration.

Mom Allen's birthday is on Oct. 7, and my birthday is Oct. 10, so we celebrated for a whole week.  I made a birthday cake for Mom's birthday and we went to Joe's Crab Shack for our birthday dinner.  We also celebrated on  my birthday by staying home and having pizza.

One thing that I go to do on my birthday was go with Owen to his school's annual bike rodeo.  Owen got to learn all about bike safety and then was able to practice in an obstacle course.  He also won a helmet in a drawing, and then to top it all off, a couple of days later we took the training wheels off his bike and now he can ride like a pro without them.

The next day was Owen's last soccer game for the fall.  We had fun watching the game and I was able to catch a couple of pictures of him with his team at the end of the game.  He will get to play more games with the same team in the spring, but for now he'll just have to be satisfied with playing soccer at recess.

And what blog post would be complete without extra cute pictures of my kids? River is getting better at playing on her belly and is starting to learn how to roll over. Also, I think it's so cute to see how much my kids love each other.

Tennis Champ

On Friday, October 3, 2014, tennis history was made as my baby sister, Mary Royer, was only the 2nd girl from San Juan High School to ever take state in 1st Singles.  (The first person to do so was also my sister, Juanita, a couple years before)  The most awesome part of all was that we were able to see her do it!

The state tournament was at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, Utah, so we packed up the family early in the morning, let Owen have a vacation from school for the day, and headed into Salt Lake.  We met up with my parents; my sisters Emily and Mary (of course); my brother, Benny, and his wife, Kayla; and my brother, Danny, and his kids, Memphis and Kayzee. It was a day of Royer Family fun.

We watched tennis, visited as a family, chased the kids around, and just had fun together while we cheered for Mary.  She played extremely well, and even bounced back after having leg cramps to win her second game to enter the final round. Mary hung in there, through exhaustion and pain, and ended the 2014 2A Girl's Tennis Season as the best 1st Singles player in the state.

Way to go Mary! You're Awesome!