Holiday Catch Up....

We LOVE Halloween! We start celebrating it in September by making Halloween goodies and crafts, and we go right up til Halloween Day! We had a lot of spooky fun this year! We carved pumpkins!
Hey- why don't I get to carve one?!


We bobbed for apples....baby style!


We made cookie spiders! These spiders mysteriously acquired more and more eyes as we went along!

We were so excited to dress up and go trick or treating!

We enjoyed some witches brew!
Derek got TONS of candy - including two full size snickers! What a great day!

Road Trip...Continued!

Continuing on with pictures from our fun, fun trip to California....We were able to spend a very fun day at Auntie Cook and Uncle Bobs house! We had such a good time! The day that we had to leave - Derek asked if we could go to Auntie Cook & Uncle Bob's house just one more time!

Enjoying an apple with dad!
Yummmm! That's good!
Snuggled up on the comfy couch!
The famous picture board! Barb had such a great idea to take a picture of this last summer when we were in California- so I decided to take a picture this time! I love to look at all of these pictures! It is so fun to see all of the family history in pictures!
Grandma and Grandpa - two of the cutest, sweetest people ever!! We sure love them!
Family pictures before we left!

We had such a great time - and we were really sad to leave! But soon we were back in the car. The Nevada scenery was interesting at some points....
...but it mostly looked like this:
I thought the California scenery was prettier & more interesting!

We stayed in a hotel again on our way home! Cooper had fun with the toilet paper, haha! We went swimming again and ordered room service! That was super fun! Derek asked if we could do it again the next morning!

We had such a great time in California! Looking through these pictures again made me feel so happy- we are so glad we were able to take such a great road trip to visit our amazing family!!

Road Trip! - part one

For fall break we took a road trip to Sacramento to visit Great Grandma & Grandpa Miyake & Auntie Cook & Uncle Bob! We seriously had a BLAST! The whole trip was amazing! It was so great to see family, and both of the kids did so great on the loooooooong drive! While we were there Derek kept asking how we could make the time go slower! We are so glad that we were able to go!
Before we left, Ryan made sure we had enough snacks for the long car ride!
Taking a lunch break in Elko, Nevada. We ate on the grass & brought our soccer ball & frisbees so we could all run around and play for a bit!
The first night we stayed in a hotel in Reno! It was a lot of fun to stay in a hotel - we went swimming and watched cartoons and just played - and it was also nice to break up the drive a little bit!
Cooper J. - happy to be able to move around!
Daddy and Scooter! ...yeah, they look pretty happy to be out of the car too!!
While we were in Reno we were able to go to Trader Joes - I've always wanted to go there! We bought some super yummy snacks there because, hey, we needed a few more snacks, haha! But seriously, it was fun to go there! I wish we had a Trader Joe's in Utah! Anywhoo... this picture is not of us at Trader Joes, but there is a Trader Joe's yogurt container on the table which made me think of it...
The next day we made it to Sacramento! And the following day we went to this cute amusement park! Derek loved riding all of the rides!
And Coop enjoyed watching! (I love how you can see his teeth in this picture!)
Cooper and Great Grandma!
Me and the boys!
Derek loved all of the rides - I think he could have just kept going on them all day!
And Cooper loved the carousel...until it started moving! Then he was trying to climb off that horse & he was hanging onto my shirt for dear life! haha!
Getting brave! Derek started waving his hands in the air!
We have so many fun pictures from our road trip - that I decided to post them in 2 parts! So.... part 2 is coming soon!!!

A Visit From Grandma and Grandpa!

In October we were so lucky to have Grandma & Grandpa come for a visit! We were so excited to have Grandma come with us on Derek's first field trip - to the fire station!
And we went to the Discovery Gateway! It was such a blast! Here Grandma & Derek are enjoying a "ride" in the car!
Derek filling up the car with gas!
Cooper J. checking out a boat!
Lets go shopping!!
Sitting in a life flight helicopter!
Building with magnetic blocks!
Derek is so kind, and he loves sharing with Cooper J! Here he is sharing some ice cream with him!
Cooper is always happy when Derek shares with him!
Cooper J. having some attitude! haha! I love this picture!
Daddy's trick!
We were so glad that Grandma & Grandpa were here during General Conference. It was fun to watch conference together! On Saturday we went down to my moms and had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone!
We got to meet Erica's new doggy, Harley, while we were down there!! What a cute & sweet dog!

Best Mom's ever!! We're so grateful for our Moms!! They are just the best!!!
Happy Boys!!

Sharing some peaches with Cooper! He loves peaches!!

Playing outside!! We played frisbee and soccer with Grandma & Grandpa, and Ryan pushed Derek up the hill in this car!
We had such a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa! Thank you so much for coming to visit! Please come back again soon!!