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When you pick up leaves, it’s officially fall!

I love to see that smile.

I am so grateful Eli came to our family!  I’m so blessed to hold the coveted, exhausting, glorious position of being a mother.

We didn’t know if Eli was going to dress up or go trick or treating due to  his surgery yesterday.  We gave him some Tylenol and he was ready to go.

Mormor came to his school dressed as a witch.  Everyone loved her glasses.  They had skulls on them that moved.  They were pretty fun.

Eli didn’t go to school today, we only came for the Halloween parade.  Which we missed.

Wait, what?  Another batman?

Mormor and morfar 🙂

Eli wanted me to be a butterfly and Paul a lion.  I found fairly wings at the dollar store for me and a pirate hat for Paul.  Sorry, no lion outfits for $1.00.

For some reason we don’t have any pictures of Eli Trick or Treating.  The only picture we have of the night is going to Paul’s parents house.  I document EVERYTHING and take hundred pictures.  I guess this night is an exception.

Paul and I enjoyed every minute of Eli’s first trick or treating.  Going to each was so much fun!   We took the wagon so he could ride to the door step and not have to walk very far.  After a couple of houses doing this, he didn’t want anything to do with the wagon.  He started running to houses with groups of other kids.  After 2.5 hours we had to call it a night.

Eli went into surgery today to fix his hernia.  Primary Children’s hospital is seriously the best hospital.

All the doctors and nurses were the best!

Waiting for him to go in the was worst.  Just the waiting and anticipation.  We were also SO hungry.  To keep Eli occupied they had oodles of toys to play with and cars to ride in.

His surgery was pushed back.  So we kept  walking to keep him busy.

And walking!

And then his surgery was pushed back again.  He was supposed to go in at 10:30 am.  It’s now 1:30pm.  Eli took the waiting very well, even without food!

Walking and walking!  Good thing I wore the most comfortable shoes!

Then it was time.  They picked him up in a wagon and off they went.

His surgery was an easy fix and we weren’t expecting any complications.  That was the only thing keeping us calm.

45 minutes later we were able to see him.

His surgery went well without any issues like we hoping and expecting.

They asked him if he wanted a Popsicle.  And of Course he wanted the red one.  This boy was starving!  He ate 4 Popsicles.

This was his ride out of the hospital.

Onto the couch.  He was only down for about a half hour and he was up running around.  Literally running around.  I would love to have that kind of resilience after my surgeries!

 

We had a fun Saturday watching the Bison Roundup at Antelope Island.

Volunteers ( that pay to round up the bison 🙂 ) Come with their horses.  They ride throughout the island and round up the bison.

They round up all bison except for the bulls.  They are too strong and they break the holding pens.

They round up the bison to a large pen.  They let a few come down at a time.

Waiting for the bison to come down.

They used a large front loader to push the bison down.

The veterinarian tags the bison.

They were so loud in the shoot.

holding the bison so the veterinarian can check him out.  Then they release the bison and off they go back to to roam the island.

It was a long fun day.  Eli was getting tired.

 

But not tired enough to play in the sand.  Lots of sand.

 

We ended the day at the Burger Bar.  Paul likes their burgers because they have specialty meats like Elk burger, buffalo burger, ostrich burger, alligator burger, and wild boar burger.  The burger of the day was alligator.  Paul didn’t see it until after we ordered.  Too bad, I would have tried a bite of that.

Elk hunting this year was freezing!!!

Lunch!

Eli and I stayed back while Paul hunted.  We went on walks every day, played in the snow, the mud, and turned over every rock in camp.

See the little toes relaxing on the chair?

When Paul came back from hunting, the three of us went out again.

Cute little tracks.

We didn’t see any elk, but we saw plenty of moose!  Everyday on our walks we either saw a bull moose, cow moose, or baby moose.  Sometimes all three together!

During the hunt they didn’t see any Elk either.  Only Elk tracks and moose.

I Love Monte’s hat.  I have never seen him in a warm hat.  He must have ears of steel.

The mountains sure are beautiful.

Back at camp looking for Elk.  Well, not really looking for Elk, we were looking for rock and sticks.  🙂

This moose wandered into camp.

Hunting was fun as always.  We have been hunting the same mountain the last three years.  Maybe next year we can go somewhere new??

One of our neighbors is a fireman.  Eli thinks the world of him.  He told us we can drop by and he would give us a tour of the fire station.  We quickly took up on his offer and went to the station.

He let Eli sit in the front seat of the fire truck.

He showed Eli everything about a fire truck.

The then opened the back and let Paul sit in the back seat.

We jumped in the front seat.

He jumped into the driver seat.

And off we went!  Sirens and all.

Eli loved it!….okay we loved it too!

My little boy turns 4 today!

We decided to do a balloon party. Nothing too big this year. Just 248 balloons! Eli also requested a birthday cake with sprinkles.

I started last night baking a birthday cake. It didn’t turn out so I made another one. I should have taken pictures of the mess, but just threw the cakes away. I ended up making cupcakes.

I iced the cupcakes this morning and they looked pretty good to me. I asked Eli and he said they looked good, but with tears in his eyes he said he really wanted a birthday cake with sprinkles.

I couldn’t disappoint the birthday boy, so I made another one this time correcting my mistakes I made last night.

Another cake that was a disaster. But with only a few hours until the party started, I had to do something.

The only thing I could think of was to piece together the cake with icing.

I’m clearly not a baker. My 9 inch double layer cake turned into a 1 and 1/2 layer and 6 inch cake 🙂

I had to fill in a LOT of holes with icing. Then I needed to hide the icing. So stars everywhere it was.

This cake was 15lbs! It was nothing but icing. The birthday boy didn’t care. He got his birthday cake and was thrilled!

Eli was so excited for his party to start. He kept asking every 10 minutes when his guests were going to arrive.

Everyone is so good to Eli. He loved all his gifts!

Balloons everywhere!

Even down the hall.

Eli had a fantastic time and loved his birthday!

Eli has a great memory. When we go shopping he likes to go to the display with the toy cars. Today I was in a hurry and didn’t have time for him to play with toy cars. So I kept walking through other isles avoiding the isle with the cars so I could get my shopping done and out of the store.

Eli wouldn’t take no for an answer. He wanted to play with the cars and was going to find them himself. He took the cart and off he went.

He kept looking and looking. Up and down every isle.

When Eli wants something, he really goes for it and doesn’t stop until he gets it. I hope he continues with this when he get older and goes after everything he wants in life!

We found a dessert restaurant in Provo called taste. It was a very tasty 🙂 dessert cafe.

They make their own chocolate next door and make their chocolate desserts with their delicious chocolate.

Sitting at the bar.

It was very bright as you can see in the pictures. Decorated cute.

You think he is acting like he is reading the menu, but he is reading it!

Even their bathroom was cute. Look at their facet! When we build our next house, these are going in! 🙂

Mom and Aaron got the scones with jam and marscapone cheese.

Eli and I tried the brownie and ice cream. Out of the two, the brownie was the best. The house made chocolate is what made the brownie REALLY good.

We will definitely be back!