And so life continues on (Warning, it's a long one!)

We have had some fun adventures lately. We spent one of the later warm Saturdays on a hike up Big Springs. Benjamin is unfortunately too big for the Baby Bjorn and we don't have a backpack yet so he walked, slowing things way down. He found big dandelions to blow and enjoyed that.

During conference Joseph and Benjamin worked on Hot Wheel race tracks. Joseph would build them and Benjamin would break them. Joseph didn't like that process too much.

We went to BYU's homecoming parade with my mom, brother, and sister. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. Benjamin was not a fan of them throwing candy or the crowds cheering. He is really getting sensitive to noise and freaks out frequently. We gots lots of candy and the parade is still my favorite.

When I came home from the parade Joseph and I picked the last of our garden because of the frost. Dang frost! It killed all of my pumpkins! I got all my tomatoes even though they were green. They hopefully will ripen nicely insided. We picked tons, these pictures don't already include the 8 pints I already bottled.

This weekend we went to CA for Joseph's 10 yr high school reunion. We drove out Thursday night. Benjamin stayed up crying until 3:30am. Where oh where was the Benadryl?!?After Benjamin took a long long nap at the hotel, we went to Joseph's little brother, James's football game Friday night. James did well, he is a big kid. He is a few inches taller than Joseph and quite a bit heavier too. It was sad that they lost by two points when the other team kicked a field goal in the last few seconds of the game. Benjamin did not like it when the band played and freaked out.
Saturday morning we went to a rocky river bed with a few of Joseph's family. Mostly everyone tried to skip rocks or have competitions of who can hit what. Benjamin would sit close to the edge of the water and throw rocks in. He made big holes where he sat from grabbing the rocks nearby.

Benjamin's dad and grandpa helped him.
Joseph's youngest sibling Austin (11) climbed this very high block (I am not sure what it is).

I forgot to bring my camera to the reunion, dumb of me. It was really small, only about 40 people from a class of more than 500. As most of you are aware Joseph is not particularly a social guy. I was really suprised to see him be sociable with everyone. It was funny to see how the same groups or 'clicks' acted the same way as in high school. Everyone told me what a great guy Joseph was and that he was the 'good' guy and how they liked him for it. Even the most drunk, after asking if I drank apparently the whole I am from Utah thing didn't click with him, made a point to tell me what a good example Joseph had been and cut off his swearing in front of us. It was great to hear them ask Joseph if he had served a mission. Well after that late night we started home Sunday morning. There was one stop where we seriously debated on leaving Benjamin at the rest stop... ok not seriously but we definitely needed to stop and give him space. After coming home way late we found our 4th and 5th black widow in the garage. Ahhh! I hate spiders, especially deadly ones! And so life continues on...