Postponed Birthday Celebration

Yesterday I finally "celebrated" my birthday with the kids.  As you may recall, my birthday weekend was spent with the four of us getting the stomach flu so most celebrations were postponed.  I finally had an open morning yesterday so I took the kids to Discovery World, my original plan on October 5th.  We had a grand time.

Flying a helicopter.

Controlling a digger.

Bridget is such an imitator.  Guess whose smile she picked up on?!

They had an awesome aquarium there that Marshall and I loved.  Bridget also loved everything about it with the exception of the plexiglass floors.  A little uncertain about the appearance of walking on the water.

Marshall and Finn loving the submarine.

Glacier Rock Farms

On Friday morning Anna, Katie, and I packed up our kids, plus Cole McAllister who I baby-sit, and went to Glacier Rock Farms.  Unfortunately it was the coldest day of the week, and the Leakes were slightly unprepared for that, but despite the chilly temperatures, we had a fun, fun time.

Unfortunately, this is Bridget's current reaction to Richard lately too.

Talk about an impressive looking turkey!  Too bad he was kind of intimidating with his size and odd noises he was making.  Didn't help that before this Marshall, Duncan, and Cole were each attacked by a crazed chicken.  Marshall had it jump up at his face, it chased Duncan all the way to Katie, and it cornered Cole.  All three boys are still talking about it.

Wisconsin In The Fall

The longer I live here the more I LOVE the fall in Wisconsin.  My memory may be a little fuzzy about Utah, but I seem to remember most of the fall colors being up in the mountains.  It is definitely gorgeous, but you either look at it from afar or drive up the canyons.  Not so here.  We are surrounded by color.  The other day I was driving down I-94 and was in awe at the immense color that surrounded the freeway!  I smile every time I turn down our little neighborhood street because I get to drive under a canopy of red, yellow, and orange.  It is simply delightful.  Take a look at our front yard.

I grew up with a yard that was full of trees.  I loathed raking the leaves up every fall.  I told my parents every year that when I had my own house I would only have two trees in the yard, no more.  A couple of weeks ago as I was on a walk with the kids admiring the gorgeous leaves that colored all of the yards I came home and told Richard that as long as our trees produced pretty leaves in the fall we would have a plethora of them.  

Sadly, I took this picture about a week too late, but you get the general idea.

Oh fall, how I love you. 

Trip To Notre Dame

This last weekend we made the drive to Notre Dame along with thousands of other BYU fans to cheer the Cougars on in South Bend.  

Our weekend began on Friday morning.  Marshall (Richard's best friend from Vernal) and his wife Marietta arrived late the night before.  We had breakfast and hit the road for Chicago.  It must be noted that this weekend was our most positive experience EVER driving through that dreaded city.  :)

We did Millennium Park, ate at Giordano's (YUM!), and went to the Museum of Science and Industry (coolest museum we have EVER been to).

A cold day in the windy city!

The infamous Chicago Bean.  We took a lot more pictures here, but they must be on Richard's phone.  I'll have to get my hands on those.

The submarine at the museum.  This really was the coolest museum I have ever been to.  Anyone who comes to visit us in the next year will get a FREE trip there, guaranteed!  Any takers?!

After those fun activities we drove to our hotel in Valparaiso.  The Hassells and Ricky Irion met us there.  The next morning after breakfast we made the rest of the drive to South Bend where we met up with the Kunz family.  

Notre Dame was such a neat place, but we were completely unprepared for how crowded it would be!  Talk about great game-day traditions!  I would love to go back there on a non-game day or at least with kids who are teenagers.  :)  

The BYU football team arriving at the stadium.

The Notre Dame football team.  They march in behind the band and they all wear suits and ties!  Why does BYU not do this?!

Marshall spent most of his Notre Dame time either being carried by Ricky or sleeping  in the stroller.

A beautiful campus!

During the game I took the kids to my aunt and uncle's house.  I really enjoyed visiting with them and the kids enjoyed the food and the toys.

Richard had a GREAT time at the game, despite BYU's loss.  He was fully expecting a blow-out so he was pleasantly surprised with the last minute loss.  :)  Richard has now been to games at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame and has decided that Notre Dame is for sure his favorite stadium.  He's already planning on going again next year.  :)

Unfortunately we never got a picture of our entire group nor did we get any pictures of our Marshall with "big Marshall".  Marshall was SO excited for him to come and both kids had a ball with Marshall and Marietta.  We are trying to get them to move here.  :)

While we were there we all ran into people we knew, such a small world when it comes to BYU sports!  We caught up with the Barbers, Tensmeyers (old Milwaukee friends) and ran into our favorite Milwaukee missionary, Elder Johns.

It was a great weekend; already looking forward to next year!