Four Family Outings

In the space of the last 24 hours, we've been a busy little family.

Outing #1

Last night we attempted to take in an art auction that the school was putting on. I was looking forward to a night out, particularly some adult conversation and an excuse to dress up. We had little choice but to take our children along with us since we failed at finding a babysitter amongst the other art students, seeing that they were all planning to attend the auction as well. So with Isla dressed up as Snow White and her sidekick Roscoe the Reindeer, we headed off at exactly bedtime to the Halloween themed party instead of to their beds. Being the only small children at the auction, they were admired and fawned over. But their cuteness only lasted about 1/2 hour before Isla was refused anymore chocolate from the buffet table and Roscoe had rubbed and smeared his painted nose so that it looked like he was a reindeer with two black eyes.  That was the end of that outing, but on a positive note,  we saved ourselves some money by leaving before the auction really even got going.

Outing #2

Morning came sooner than we had hoped and once we were up and fed we headed down to mainstreet to take in the Homecoming Parade. It was a morning full of Frat cars, sports team floats and frenzied candy throwing competitions. Now that I have been to TWO American parades (remember the Apple days parade), I have learned that parades here are really all about the candy. Candy gets distributed in mass quantities by the parade participants by throwing, tossing, hucking and some even hand deliver candy to the screaming, waving children on the sidelines. Isla was very excited to spend the morning chasing after tootsie rolls and suckers as they skittered across the pavement, only to have 98% of her earnings donated to the clay department promptly following the parade. Poor kid. 

Outing #3

We highly encouraged a naptime between outing #2 and outing #3 but Isla was not interested in the least. So after some considerable time pretending to be asleep in her room, we packed the kids in the car and drove up the canyon. They both promptly fell asleep in the car as we drove east towards the Tony Grove turnoff. It is a fair distance up the canyon and then another 7 mile climb from the turnoff to the lake, so the car nap was welcomed. Unfortunately it was terribly windy up at the lake and our mountain walk was cut short. It still felt good to get out on a little nature excursion after having sat on the side of a curb all morning. 

Outing #4  I should have read the signs and decided against this last outing, since it was two nights in a row that we had the kids out, but instead I was selfish and around 7 p.m. (once again, promptly at bedtime), we were in the car again. This time we were headed for the North Logan Pumpkin Walk with our friends Kate and Mike and their kiddies. It was worth taking in, not knowing at first what the expect. 

The pumpkin walk o is a community event held annually in residential area of North Logan, just about 10 minutes from our house. It is similar to the idea of a Christmas lights display, but with pumpkin scenes instead. Very creative. What we weren't expecting was the hoards of people. A shuttle was provided to take people into the community, seeing that parking was an issue. And it is a good thing we took the shuttle bus.  There must have been at least a thousand people there filing through. By the time our kids were done in and we were stepping back on the bus, the lineup to get into the park was as long as the parking lot. Incredible really. I am glad we went, it was a fun way to socialize for a hour with our friends, despite our children falling apart at the seams.