Carving pumpkins

Saturday, was a cold and wet day, so we spent the day inside. We were able to finally get our pumpkins carved. The boys did all their own cleaning of the insides. Carson carved his all on his own, Travis did most of his, and Landon had help from dad.

Landon helped poke the holes around the stencil so that Christian could tell where to cut.

Lots of concentration went on!

The finished products:

Landon's spider

Travis carved a wolf howling at the moon.

Carson and his skeleton face.

Trampoline park

One of the items on the boys' Summer Bucket list was to go to the new Trampoline Park in Billings, MT. The kids didn't have school on Friday, so we decided to head up to Billings and mark the last thing off their buckets list (even though it isn't summer any more). They had so much fun! It was nice that we were able to go on a week day and that it wasn't super busy! After jumping for an hour, we had some lunch and then hit a few stores for some shopping.

The ninja course was one of their favorite parts. They have made up an American Ninja warrior course at home, so this was super awesome!

Landon jumping into the foam pit

Carson trying to jump from one hanging thing to another.

Travis doing a flip into the foam pit.

Showing off their nice pink socks. You had to purchase special socks to jump with. This month, because of breast cancer awareness, they were pink.

Star Valley Temple

Today we had the special opportunity to watch the dedication of the Star Valley Temple, the first temple in Wyoming. Travis and Carson both got to attend with Christian and I (grandma Asay watched all the little kids that weren't able to go). They had to obtain a special recommend to attend, so they each had an interview with a member of our bishopric. I am so grateful for the blessing of technology that made it possible for us to witness this special day (and wish that we could have gone through the open house to see it in person...some day we'll make it there). We got to hear from Elder Bednar and his wife(who is from Star Valley) and many others. The spirit was so strong during the meeting and I was especially touched during the singing of The Spirit of God. I hope this is something the boys will be able to remember later in life. I can remember when I got to attend the Billings, MT dedication as a youth and got be in the same room as the prophet. I felt the same strong spirit that day as I did today. I am so thankful for temples and all the blessings we get because of them. I am thankful that we have one so close and can attend often.

Travis and Carson with their special recommends so that they could attend.

Meet Frankie and Spook!

Last Saturday, Landon finally got to pick up the kitties his uncle Jacob and aunt Mikayla gave him for his birthday. He was BEYOND excited. It had been rainy and yucky for a few days that week, so we decided to wait until it was nice to get them so the boys would be willing to go outside and play with them. Since we didn't get the kitties home until late Saturday night, so first thing Sunday, the boys were up and playing with them. Landon thought hard and long about their names and decided to name the black and white kitty Frankie (short for Frankenstein) and the all black one Spook. Spook comes by his name rightly...he isn't super friendly. It took him about three days to stop hissing and clawing at us every time we came close to them (we had a use leather gloves to get him out every time we wanted to hold him). They have been getting lots of loves and we hope they will stick around for a while!

With Spook.

Frankie. We tied string around their bellies the first few days so that if they decided to dart, we would hopefully be able to catch them.

Before we went to get the kitties, Christian and the boys built a great little house for the kitties. Landon was pretty proud of it! The lid comes off so the boys can open it up to feed them.

We got some fake mouse toys while we were in Billings a few days later and rigged them on the end of a fishing pole and tease the kitties. The black one never really wants to play, but we're working on it!

The first few days we had them, we kept them down in one of our window wells with their food and pet carrier so that they couldn't run away and didn't have to be locked up all the time. At night we would find them on top of their little house watching tv. The boys thought it was hilarious!

Fall Fishing Trip

On Tuesday, October 11th, Christian and a group of guys from the Co-op made their way up to Craig, Montana (up by Helena) for a fishing trip. They fly fished all day Wednesday on the Missouri River and had a blast! Christian caught the biggest fish, a Rainbow Trout, that day. It measured in at 24 inches and they figure it weighed about 5 pounds.

His prized Rainbow Trout.

 Thursday, the fly fished again for most of the day. Christian was able to catch the biggest fish again this day. He caught a HUGE Brown Trout. He said it looked like a football is was so fat. They didn't measure it with a ruler, but it was at least 24 inches long and weighed around 7 pounds. It was strictly catch and release, so we don't even get to eat them. And acutally, Christian said that the guides would hardly let you touch the fish or take a picture with them. They were so worried about getting them back in the water before they died. The guide that was with Christian this day was super excited about this fish and said it was probably the biggest Brown they had pulled out of the river this year. He even won a new shirt because he had the biggest catches both days.

They fished out of these little boats.

Jeremy, Jason, Jared and Christian after their fishing trip.

 They drove home Thursday afternoon and made it home around 11:30 that night. It sounded like they had a blast fishing!

October phone pics catch up (so far)

October is Fire Safety month, and Landon's preschool class got to take a field trip to the fire station to learn and to see the fire trucks. The had lots of fun and loved getting to get inside the trucks!

 On the 9th, we attended church in Burlington where Jared and Renee blessed baby William. It was a beautiful fall day and I couldn't help but take a picture of my cute boys in the fall leaves!

Monday and Tuesday last week, Christian had meetings in Billings, MT. Monday night, they have a dinner that the spouses are invited to and then they will pay for a hotel for those that wish to stay the night and then attend the meeting the next day. Grandma Foulger came and stayed with the boys so that I could go with Christian to the dinner. We enjoyed Rib and Chop for dinner and stayed at the Hampton. Tuesday, Christian attended his meetings and I did some shopping. I met up with him around noon so that he could get all his gear and head out on his fishing trip. He met me at the car carrying all sorts of goodies. They had a quiz at the end of the meeting and he had the best score (only beating Jared, his brother, by one point). He got a carrying case for a hand gun and one for a larger gun, a jacket, a couple of hats and thermoses, rain gages, corn shellers and some gift cards to Scheels (which he immediately used to buy a little gun for the boys). He was super excited!

Happy about all his new prizes!

 Tuesday morning, we woke up to snow in Billings. They were calling for it, so it was no surprise. What was a surprise was how much we ended up getting in Lovell! When I left Billings at 12:30, it had stopped snowing and had started melting. The roads were dry clear until Frannie. Once I hit Frannie, it was snowing and got thicker and thicker the closer I got to Lovell. We ended up getting around 9 inches of snow during the day! It was beautiful: big flakes and NO wind! The boys had a blast playing in it!

This is what it looked like when I pulled into the drive way around 2.

My mom and I decided to measure and see how much snow there was. We did this before it had stopped completely!

 24 hours later, the sun had come out and this is what it looked like. By the next day, it was completely gone and by the weekend it was back up into the 70's (after it had gotten down to 10 degrees for a couple of nights)! Crazy Wyoming weather at it's finest!

Last Thursday, the elementary school had their PIE (parents in education) night. Parents were able to come and learn how the students do their new way of math. Travis and his friend, Kaeson, worked together to teach the adults how to use number grids for addition and subtraction. They did a pretty good job of explaining to us how to use a number grid.

Travis and Kaeson heling some of the adults.

 We have a new set of sister missionaries in our ward that the boys have decided they really like. One of them, in particular, is really outgoing and always remembers their names. Travis noticed they were out helping our neighbor Bob rake, so he decided that he was going to go help them. They raked all the crab apples that had fallen off the tree so that they wouldn't get smashed.


Megan and Jabin came over the weekend. We went and shot guns Saturday with everyone and then that evening, we had dinner at grandpa and grandma Foulger's house and Great g-pa and g-ma came too.

Carson, Travis and Jabin conquered the big hill before we got started.

A little family bonding time!

The boys and I played slap stache while the others were visiting. It was a cute game for the kids to play

For family home evening this week, Grandma Asay invited everyone out to pick pumpkins and have chili for dinner. It's always like Christmas when we get to pick out pumpkins. It's fun to see the different kinds that have grown all summer!

Our pumpkin picks for this year!