Our October- Puppies, Garden, Asian Dinner, CornMaze, Lagoon, Antelope Island, Blog Challenge, and Halloween!

FaceTiming with Tommy gets more and more fun as he starts to interact with us!

 Yes, as the title suggests, we had a LOADED October with tons of fun filling our days.  I don't have time to write individual posts for everything, so, I'm just gonna give it to you like this- one deliriously fun mess.

We continued helping my friend with feeding her cute puppies while she was at work.  The mama dog died from infections a few days after giving birth.  There were 4 puppies to care for and bottle feed.  It's no easy task, especially when the puppies are so tired they wouldn't eat.  It would take us about an hour to bottle feed them, and that's with 2 puppies feeding at a time.  They got better over time, though.

Our garden started giving us tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers to add to the cucumbers we had been harvesting.

We had some really big tomatillos this year.

Our marigolds got huge for some reason.  Like 3 and a half feet tall.  I had to tie them to the spout so they wouldn't block off the entire walkway.

The puppies loved the girls as much as the girls loved the puppies.

I found this cute worksheet Amara did a couple years ago.  

This is the picture that gets me laughing my heart out.  Look how unhappy that child is to eat her dinner.  That is reality folks.

Our homeschool group went on a field trip to the corn maze/ pumpkin patch.  My kids are getting huge.

They got their sweet sized pumpkins on our little tractor ride to the pumpkin patch.  Our friend Paige Rich is in the background.  She goes to church with us and started homeschooling this year.

Also in October...

I decided to take a quick trip down to help my dad and Debby with the Asian-inspired 10-course dinner that they were doing for Debby's campaign fundraiser (P.S. It worked!  She is now voted into Orem City Council.)  It was heaven for me to get to work in the kitchen with my dad again.

Dad is pouring the lime cilantro sauce on his famous Southwest Sushi!

This salad was so yummy and colorful.  It was a chinese chicken salad with the works.  Not pictured are the fried wonton chips that get mixed in.

Blurry picture of Southwest sushi.  Dad was featured on TV for this creation of his.  It's so yum!

We also made chili-lime shrimp sushi with wasabi-ginger mayo.

And a grilled teriyaki salmon nigiri

Some of our prep for the salad

Did I mention that my sister was there helping, too?  It was the time of my life!  Not pictured was my mom that came and helped out in the kitchen doing dishes non stop, etc..

April licking the wasabi-ginger mayo spoon.

Dad tasting the tom ka gai soup.  One of my absolute favorites.

When you're cooking so many courses, sometimes you have to set up your campchef stove on the deck so you have room to cook everything.

That night was busy and yummy.  We cooked, served, and cleaned for 6 hours straight.  When we were done, my body was exhausted and I definitely earned my sleep that night!

Back to the grind of everyday life in Ballard...

We continued to help my friend with her puppies during our lunch hour.  We went from bottle feeding them, to giving them puppy food softened in water.  They became more and more playful!

Then our family got back on the road again for FALL BREAK!

We started our adventure up American Fork canyon, joining Steve's sister (Bev) and her family for a campfire dinner and marshmallow roast.  It was a crazy busy weekend up there, apparently everyone was getting in their last camping trip before the cold.  I love being in the outdoors with family and good food.  It's my favorite thing on this earth!

Beauty of a waterfall Steve captured.  It was near where Bev was camping.

James, dog "Ninja", and Bev by the warming fire

My family trying to stay warm.  Steve and Lily look like they are on a slope because they leaned in at such an angle :)

Tamsin, Hannah, Daphne, Steve's mom, and Tron around the coals waiting for foil dinners.  Steve photobombing.

Don't you love nature?

We had a lot of fun up the canyon, but our fall break didn't end there!  We had won tickets to Lagoon last year from entering into our chamber of commerce's contest of 101 things to see and do in the Uinta Basin.  This was the very last opportunity we would have to go, so we went and spent a full, fun day up there!  We got there at opening and didn't stop until we were beat, around 10pm.

We went during the middle of "Frightmares," so the place was decorated to the hilt for Halloween.

After Lagoon we stayed in a hotel and went to Antelope Island the next day.

It was cool to see the bison!

Sometimes I find strange pictures...

At the hospital we saw some funny pumpkin decorating in the cafeteria!

My favorite!

An Oregon Cottage was doing a fun handmade gift challenge. We were glad to participate in it. Lily made a pillow with a candy bag, and I made a 'mailbox'.

                                                  Here are some Halloween pictures!

Amara is a fairy and Lily is a snow princess.