Up to and Including Today...

You didn't think I was going to post today did you?  I admit, it is a bit late.  But the day just got away from me... I think I'll stick to the highlights this week.
Ethan had his first field trip for school on Friday.  My mom watched Emery so that I could focus on Ethan and the day.  My friend/neighbor Brittany had her baby on Friday (Congratulations Brittany!) so we took Kaylee (who is in another class at the same preschool) with us.  That actually made the trip a little bit more fun for Ethan I think- having a friend with him.  Anyway, the field trip was to the Dinosaur Museum in Ogden. We were there at the beginning of the summer when they offered a free park day.  The park is cool in that there is a museum with some fossils inside, animotronic dinosaurs upstairs, and outside there a bunch of dinosaur statues (and a playground) that visitors can wander around and view.  The entire preschool (three classes) all went together so there was a good amount of little kids and their parents all grouped together.  It was a windy & cold morning, even though it was sunny and was going to warm up nicely.  We started out by wandering around the park and playing at the playground before heading inside for the kids' craft.  After that we were free to wander the museum and head home.

Cold & Windy Morning

What kid can resist digging in the sand? 

Ethan loved this slide (it looked like a gigantic tree)

This guy was working on a fossil and let Kaylee & Ethan touch it!

Pretty much instantly after we got back from the field trip I had to head south to West Jordan for a fundraiser for my work (Volunteers of America, Utah).  This was our annual evening event- "Silver Spurs."  This was my first time helping with it- and I was actually looking forward to it (aside from the long day).  The fundraiser was a country western theme taking place at Gardner Village's Gathering Place.  I was helping with the registration and check out portion of the event.  Silver Spurs consisted of 2 games, a silent auction, and a live auction, and I needed to make sure that the totals for each bidder was correct by the time they left for the evening (no pressure).  It was fun to see the event come together- I was there as they started decorating for the evening to when they took everything down.  There was a wonderful speaker from our Center for Women & Children and we had pictures of our Young Men's Transition Home that was recently involved in a fire.  I had won 2 tickets (no way I could afford to buy them), which I gave to my parents to attend.  It was like having an inside man- they were able to walk around and meet a bunch of the other attendees.  And I felt good because it was a pretty fun event and I was happy that they could be there.  Before I continue, let me brag about how awesome Volunteers of America is.  I love my job.  I love love love my job.  I love the people I work with and I love what the organization does.  Volunteers of America, Utah has multiple programs- we have detox centers for men & women, we provide outreach to the homeless population, and we have a wonderful continuum of care for the homeless youth of Salt Lake- there's a drop in center where the youth can take a shower, eat a meal, and find references for assistance. And we have a transition home for young women to provide housing & case management for a few homeless girls.  We are in the process of creating a similar home for young men, but have suffered a setback.  We also provide counseling through our Cornerstone Counseling Center.  The people I work with are amazing because they really believe in what they do and they put their heart into it.  I love it.  

Anyway, Silver Spurs was awesome even though I didn't get home until 11 PM.  I'm looking forward to next year's already.

The prized for this game looked AMAZING! I should have played... 

Everyone was a winner with this game... 

The Silent Auction- I should have bid on a few of these items (even though I have no money, but whatever).  There was a conference weekend package that looked awesome and a week long vacation in Midway that would have been okay.

Registration

Our CEO/President Kathy Bray (cowboy hat) and the wonderful Emily.  

The Tables and their beautiful centerpieces.  

Saturday didn't let up.  I've been planning on getting my carpets cleaned at the end of summer pretty much since I discovered how dirty the boys' sandbox is.  I'm cheap.  I don't mind admitting that.  I rented a carpet cleaning machine and cleaned my own carpets.  And it was actually pretty fun.  And it was really needed.  But it was definitely time consuming and by the time I was done I was stiff.  The nice thing though was that my mom & sister also did their carpets, so it only cost me $20 to clean my whole house.  Yeah, it was worth it.  As a bonus we did the White Trash car cleaning.  Just for fun, we ran the carpet cleaner over our car mats.  Do you guys remember the Tarnex commercials from back in the day? Where they wipe the solution over the tarnished silver and there's a line of clean silver and tarnish? Yeah, that was our car mats.  It was hilarious.  But now our car is nice and pretty and so are our carpets.  Even if there are still spots in my carpet, at least I am comfortable knowing that they are clean- especially when I'll have another little baby crawling around on them soon enough.  

Today the boys & I went out and cleaned up our garden a little bit.  I've been promising Ethan that we would start decorating for Halloween, so we went out and picked our pumpkins (we'll carve them later).  We also picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes and some more zucchini (freezing that for zucchini bread this winter).  Ethan helped me get the Halloween decorations put up- he just loved that part.  I'll have to take pictures and include those later.
For fun this afternoon, we all went on a short hike and picked some of the colored leaves from the changing trees.  Ethan & Dave made a collage out of the leaves.  It was fun to spend the afternoon together in the nice weather and the beautiful trees. Sorry this entry is somewhat lacking, but it's time for bed and I felt rushed.  So take it or leave it.  I still managed to post this on a Sunday. :)

Em found this stick and walked all around with it.  Boys. 

One of the last pictures you'll see of me until I lose all this baby weight. 

Super Daddy! Emery loved this.  

And so did Ethan... 

And while I was out mowing the lawn, Ethan dug into (literally) the peanut butter & Nutella.  Is that a donut next to the jars you ask?  Why yes it is.  Instead of eating the readily accessible donut, Ethan went for the PB.