The Browers: October 2016

I have so much to catch up on so I'll make these short.

We drove back down to St. George for the first weekend of October. All the Browers came and we watched conference together and played in between. Beck and Olive:

While the boys all went RZRing on Saturday, Lorna, Malorie and I took the kids to Glitter Mountain. It's an old gypsum mine near St. George that we had heard about. The directions to get there were pretty bad and there was a lot of off-roading and even a drive through a full wash (the Mazda did surprisingly well) but we made it to the mine in the middle of nowhere. It was crazy to see the white mound of rock glitter in the sun! Pictures couldn't catch how bright it was.

We had come prepared with hammers and chisels and the kids went to work mining:

On Sunday we watched conference again and then drove back home. Short and sweet!

Ellie's class took a field trip to the Gateway children's museum. Mrs. Barbano always takes a class picture when they do fun things and sends it out:

My friend Amy and I started walking (in September) most Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Olive was never very cooperative but it was a fun way to get a little exercise. This picture is from one of our last walks in October because it suddenly got cold! Olive all bundled up:

Dan had to stop by the moto store for something for his bike. Alta went in with him and decided she needed a mini dirt bike:

My parents had been out of town for weeks and weeks on a huge road trip but they got back a day or two before my mom's birthday. So that Saturday the 8th we drove down to Provo to finally see them and say happy birthday to my mom. It was fun to hear all about their trip.

The very next day my dad went to the ER where they found a brain tumor. I've been putting off blogging the month of October because it's hard to put into words what I felt that whole month (and beyond) but I think I'll save it for another day. Along with the pictures from when all my siblings came out for my dad's surgery.

So I have very little from the rest of October. I started feeling like I had more energy and wasn't sick anymore so I tried to catch up on the months of housework I had neglected during the first trimester. Olive was pretty good at entertaining herself. She would get all the stuffed animals out and play games with them and give them tickets as prizes:

We made rice krispie pumpkins for family home evening one night:

The next day I had my 20-week ultrasound and everything looked great, the baby was still definitely a boy, and he was measuring the right size (a first for me!).

After my dad's surgery we were all pretty emotionally exhausted, including the girls, so Dan and I decided a quiet St. George weekend with just our little family was exactly what we needed. The girls had two days off of school so we drove down Thursday night and spend a few days relaxing.

We explored the new, huge, really fun Thunder Junction Park...along with the rest of Utah that was down there for UEA weekend.

It was insanely crowded but the girls loved it. We will definitely go back, but not on a holiday!

And Dan texting me pictures to make the all-important decision of what Ben and Jerry's to get:

We always love St. George "date nights" after we put the girls to bed. We hot tub and eat treats while we watch movies in the theater room.

Alta and Ellie were having a hard time getting along the next day and I found this note that Ellie had written:

"to Alta I am feeling (sad) so I am mad at you Alta"
It was funny but I was also impressed with Ellie for expressing her feelings. They made up shortly after! And we drove home at the end of the weekend feeling happy to have spent so much family time together.

The next week Olive and I went to the zoo with Mal, Beck and Penny:

A few days before Halloween, Anna took Alta with Ruby and Ellie to find the witches at Gardner Village. I am the worst pregnant person and hardly do anything so I was grateful that she brought Alta along! The thought of walking all over Gardner Village was exhausting.

We carved our pumpkins that night as well:

And then it was Halloween. The girls wore their costumes for the Halloween parade at school and Olive and I came to watch (with Olive in her costume of course).

Alta thought about being Hermione months ago and then changed her mind, and then changed back when she found out Ruby was going to be Hermione! We borrowed the shirt and tie, found the skirt at Savers, and I made the cape:

Ellie wanted to be a spy and after looking at really intricate-looking trench coat patterns, I found this at Target. It was a no-brainer!

I've grown to really love sewing little kid costumes so I definitely wanted to make something for Olive. I bought a couple patterns and let her choose. She went back and forth so many times but finally decided on a unicorn. It turned out to be a lot of work but I love the end product! (Plus she has worn this almost every day since Halloween, and I'm writing this in April!!!)