Columbus Day

Fortunately for us, Columbus Day happened to be free admission day at the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City. Last time there was a free admission day, I had forgotten to put shoes on Matthew, and I had a miserable time pushing him in a stroller while carrying baby Hannah. This time, I remembered their shoes, and I even had Mark with me to help out. We had fun seeing all the dinosaur bones and enjoyed seeing the special exhibit on Horses. We found out that Hannah is 7 hands tall, while Mark is 17 hands.

Afterwards at lunchtime, I was checking facebook, and my friend had posted pictures from her family's hike last weekend, and I decided that we should go hiking. So after nap time, we drove up to Snowbasin and hiked the Green Pond Trail on the lower end of the resort. We've decided that this is our new favorite hike. It was fairly smooth, with just enough rocks to interest Matthew ... and trip up Hannah. The path wasn't very steep. It was almost completely in the shade. A lot of the leaves had fallen, but in some sections you still got the beautiful fall colors. We just barely made it to Green Pond before we decided to stop and come home. Apparently we chose an apt stopping point because another hiker came by and warned us of moose just a bit ahead. We did see a deer on the way back. It was a lovely hike, and we'll definitely be returning there again.

Mark and Hannah at the Natural History Museum

The only picture I managed to take before my camera died.

Crazy hair day

Hannah and I

Matthew

Mark

View from the trail

Mark and Hannah

Hannah, Mark and Matthew

Walking with Daddy

Ready for a snack

Mark and Hannah

What a cutie

Loving fall

More snacks, please

A rarity: a good photo of the four of us

We saw a deer

Hannah spent the whole trip down 

leaning back looking at the sky.

Perfect Saturday

How do you create a perfect Saturday? Well, start with a trip in the jogging stroller and a bounce house. Toss in a hayride and a pumpkin patch. Top it off with a Grandpa Robison, and I think you have the perfect Saturday. Or at least our awesome Saturday. Our stake did a day of service and afterwards had a lunch at the park, with a bounce house included. I actually didn't go to the lunch. While Mark took the kids, I went clothes shopping and found tons of cute things. When I got back, the kids were both taking naps (a rarity here). Once the woke up, we headed to J&J Nursery for a free hayride out to their pumpkin patch. The kids had so much fun picking out pumpkins. We ended up getting three, which was the most we could carry. On our way home, we stopped at a wedding reception for my old roommate Abby Dement. Last, but not least, Grandpa Robison took us out to dinner at Cafe Zupas and then came back to the house to help put the kids to bed. It really was a wonderful day.

Hannah Boo

Walking with Daddy

On the hayride

Look, we found some pumpkins

You can either have Matthew looking ...

Or Hannah looking, but not both.

Hannah and Matthew

Being cute with Grandpa Robison

Tickle bugs

Grandpa Robison, Matthew and Daddy

My first pedicure

My neighbor is moving and getting rid of tons of stuff. She gave me a whole box of nail polish and pedicure/manicure supplies. I basically never do my nails, but I decided to give myself a pedicure. Of course, the kids wanted in on the action. After I painted a clear base coat on my toes, Hannah started pointing to her toes. So, I painted her toenails, and immediately, Matthew wanted his toes painted. So I painted his toes as well. Mark just shook his head at me.

My first pedicure

Pink toes

Red Butte Gardens

Last Monday, I took the kids to Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake since they were having a free admission day. Last year when they had their free day, Melissa and I took the kids after a trip to the zoo. We really only saw the section up by the children's garden. This time, I had more time to explore and I now realize how big the place really is. We got to go see the Rose Garden area, which was just gorgeous. They even had a section around a pond with stepping stones and lots of fish. Melissa was running late and then had forgotten her phone. Luckily, she managed to spot us while we ate our picnic lunch. We spent a little bit of time together, but by then the kids were getting fussy and it was time to head home.

Katherine

Melissa and Katherine

Ayden

Robison Family Cookout

We usually have a dinner with Mark's siblings once a month, but I never seem to take any pictures of these family get togethers. So last month I made sure to bring my camera and take some pictures for posterity's sake. After a lively game of croquet where most of the mallets ended up broken, we had a lovely dinner. In attendance were Mark's siblings, Anna, Michael and John; Mark's cousin, Matt Dunstan, with wife, Kate, and daughter, Olivia; and John's friend, DJ. I have to say, I absolutely adore that picture of Hannah with Aunt Anna.

Hannah

Mark

Matthew and Hannah

Mark

John

View from Anna's house

John and DJ

Olivia

Michael, Mark and John

Michael and Hannah

Michael

Matt

Anna and Hannah