Pumking Season

Once again it has been far too long since I have posted anything, but I will try to get caught up on the happenings of the last few weeks. It has been crazy busy, but a lot of great things have happened. First I must mention that I LOVE this time of year--especially because it is pumpkin season, or as we now shall call it: pumking season! There is this funny pumpkin patch that I pass every day on my way to the bus stop, but instead of "Pumpkin Patch," all of their signs say "Pumking Patch." At first we thought maybe they did this on purpose, which would be clever if there was a pumpkin king on their signs or something, but there is just a witch on the sign. We really think that they think pumpkins are pumkings :)

Pumking season means that there are numerous delicious pumpkin treats--my favorite of which is the Arctic Circle pumpkin pie shake! Mom and I have been having a great time enjoying all of our favorite pumpkin treats: pumpkin pie shake, pumpkin smash Jamba Juice, pumpkin empanadas (something we just discovered this year), pumpkin spice Hershey's Kisses, pumpkin spice marshmallows, pumpkin pie Pop Tarts, and pumpkin pretzels--yummmmmmm!!

I have been LOVING my job at the museum. I get to do so many fun things, and I have had some great training opportunities. One of the things I have gotten to do is participate in the National Association of Interpretation certification workshop with some of my co-workers. In mid-October we traveled to a farm in Centerville for the weekend and learned about interpreting history for the public. Apparently I am a sheep whisperer, because when we were walking around the farm, we passed the sheep, and I bent down to say hi to one of them. And then the whole flock came running over! (They must have thougtht I had food.) They were adorable. There was also a baby buffalo at the farm. The man who owns the farm said that he gave the baby buffalo to his wife for Mother's Day--so if you are ever in need of a Mother's Day gift idea, there is always the baby buffalo option. I get to go back to the farm this weekend to complete the training certification and I am really excited. 

The girlies and I have been continuing to enjoy practicing for Halloween by checking out the dress up box inventory. They are so funny!

On October 15, as the last hurrah for their fall break, the Barretts came to visit the museum. Now these are some cute kiddos!

The museum has this funny/random kids' area with "barking" chickens and a lot of different activities. The most fun thing the kids did was learn to do some Mexican dancing. It was SO cute--while the girls were swishing their big skirts around, Ben was trying to follow their lead--except that he didn't have a skirt on, so he had to try to use his shorts. :) He is such a funny guy!

On October 16, there was a beautiful rainbow in Salt Lake. I am especially mindful of rainbows ever since Grandma passed away. The coolest thing is that at the same time as the rainbow in Salt Lake, there was another rainbow down in American Fork! Mom sent me a picture on her phone.

And then later that same evening, there was ANOTHER rainbow in American Fork!

October 18 was Greg's and my #4 anniversary! Since we hadn't seen each other for a couple of months, we decided that it would be fun to rendezvous in St. Louis. So on Friday, October 19, after work, I flew to St. Louie. It was great to see Greg!

We stayed in St. Louis Friday night, and we had been planning to stay there for the whole weekend, since it was going to be such a short trip, but then we found out that our favorite little Emma Atkins was having her birthday party in Springfield on Saturday. She had been hoping that Greg could come to her party (he was one of only two adults she wanted to invite to her party--the rest were babies and dogs). So we decided that it would be too sad to be so close and not attend the birthday festivities. So we drove to Springfield and spent the afternoon with the Atkins. It was great to see them, and I wish that we could have seen more of our Springfield friends, but we went back to St. Louis that evening (since my flight left early on Sunday morning). I was also able to see Lily and the Spikes while we were in Springfield, and they were all so cute and happy to see me! I think the poor animal children are confused about where I have been. It was such a quick trip, but it was great to see Greg, the Atkins, and the animals!

On October 22, I bought a new house! This is Greg's and my cute new town home located in Lehi, UT. We had originally planned to just rent for a while, but we realized that it was going to cost more to rent a place than it would to just buy. So I found a great home in a perfect location--it is right by the Frontrunner train station, so it will be easy for me to take the train to work, and it won't be too long of a drive for Greg to get to work either. We are really excited!

To celebrate the new house purchase, Mom, Dad, and I met up with the Barretts at Gardner Village to check out the Halloween witches on display. There were a lot of nice pumpkins around too!

Poor Ben got a little scared when Camden was hiding behind her cape :)

Here we are by one of our favorite witches--Pirate Witch! And of course the kiddos also loved seeing Witchy Poo :) We had such a fun day! It got pretty cold here last week, but luckily it has warmed up a bit and should be quite nice for Halloween tomorrow. Happy Halloween Eve!