Grandpa's visit

Ever forget to do something really important? Like, forget to take a picture of your cute little kids all dressed up for their first day of school? And then take it a month later? Well...here is a picture from Eden and Fox's first day of school (wink-wink). This was the best I could get of Foxy people. Aren't they adorable? Yes, as a matter of fact, it was cold on September 4th...when this picture was taken...their first day of school...I swear it.

Grandpa Burton had a conference in DC this week, so he came for the weekend and we got him all to ourselves. The kids were really excited and the countdown for his arrival began way, way too early ("Yes, Eden, Grandpa will be here in 8 more days...No, I'm not counting today. Yes, 8 days from tomorrow...etc..") It was a beautiful sunny weekend as you'll see from the pictures. On Friday, we headed out to our favorite nature center (I can't believe we've never taken him there before!). We walked in the creek collecting rocks for stacking and along the path we found tons of acorn shells to be used for fairy soup bowls. Bela had a great time splashing around (and later stinkin up our car!).

Every year about this time Cox Farm holds their annual Fall Festival. We took my parents to it last year- has it really been a year since they've been here? Since we had so much fun then, we thought we'd head out for another adventure. It has slides, hayrides, a haunted corn maze, live music, animals (um, they let the kids run around in the pen with the goats....anyone else see any potentail problems with this?), and all the apples and fresh cider you can consume.  So, with tickets at $14 each (thanks again Grandpa!), we ate a LOT of delicious apples and drank a LOT of cider--the best, in my opinion. I made myself sick (but apparently not so sick I couldn't then help to polish off the largest bag of homemade kettle corn I've ever seen). The corn maze was supposed to be haunted but mostly it was just kinda gross. We took a hayride that was pretty awesome though. At one point a cowboy and cowgirl on horses tode alongside us. I *almost* teared up. Seriously, I don't know what it is with me crying when animals perfom. Dolphin shows are the worst though. I have to bring tissues. Isn't this a gorgeous picture of Eden? Yeah, I took it. One of the coolest things they had was a mining area. Grandpa bought a couple bags of fossils for the kids to sift through. They thought that was pretty exciting. They actually got a pretty good assortment of things- we were impressed. Some brachiopods, coral, ammonite, shark teeth, crinoids, petrified wood...They had fun sorting it all out with Grandpa later. Saturday we went downtown to the National Book Fair. It was a bit overcrowded, so we didn't stay long. Instead, the kids wanted to go to the Botanical Garden, one of their favorites, with quick stops in the Air and Space and American Indian museums on the way.  We had to say goodbye on Monday so Gary could get to his meeting but were able to meet up that evening for a temple visit and dinner. We thought it would be a good time to get a family picture. Here it is:

After several minutes of trying to corral Fox, we got this one:

Crap! Where did Eden's leg go? (Maybe Grandpa can photoshop it in) One more time:

It was pretty shady so this is as light as I can get it; but everyone is looking at the camera, which is a feat unto itself. So we'll take it! Here are a few more pictures from the temple. I love the ones with Gary and Andrew. Thanks for coming to be with us Grandpa! We loved having you and the kids are already asking when you're coming again.