Halloween Punkin's

Monday night for FHE was our annual (ok, we've only done it twice) Halloween Pumpkin carving night at the Forrests! I just love this family! We have such a great time with them and I get to hang out with their kids, Andrew (could not care less), Erin (loves me), Duncan (loves everything) and Claire (shy, but loves me too!). We ended up with some rather cool pumpkins - I wish I had gotten a shot of all the pumpkins we did - we had all shapes, sizes and colors.

Kenyon and Erin both did that creepy skeleton face from "Nightmare before Christmas" (I hate that movie). Andrew did a cool "Super Mario", Alex did a "jason mask" Ian / Claire did a cute tigger, Wendy did some cool artsy / lights pumpkin and I did a cute pirate chick pumpkin. Duncan did his own very weird and scary frankenstein pumpkin head!

Good times with our good friends! Love you guys!

Poor Alex is just wasting away!

LOL!! Cool photo, huh?

Alex finally.. (it only took him 3 months to get the courage to do it) asked Lu on an "official date" like... not a hanging out thing, but a real date. They went to Frightmares on a double date with Dustin and Mac on Saturday, then dinner, then went to Andy's "farewell open house" and finally, they went to a movie! Yep - it was like an 11 hour date or something crazy like that!

He said that had a great time and they took these photo's at Lagoon! My other favorite photo is the one of Alex and Lauren in the bottom left had corner of the frame. Clearly, there was no photographer, but they set the camera on the jeep, set the timer and this is what it snapped! It's by far my favorite picture of them, and he said that they laughed so hard at it! They tried again and did much better on the 2nd snapshot!

For those of you with inquiring minds.. He didn't even hold her hand! When I asked him about it - he said "no way, I'm way to scared". Haha..

Nice Chaps!

The people in the left photo and the people in the right photo ARE the same people.

Our friends Ian and Wendy went to a Halloween Party! In the left photo, they are dressed up as a couple in their ward. It's hard to believe that it's the same couple! I love this picture of Ian tho... way to let your hair down Ian! And Wendy, you are one sizzling brunette... but your true colors are my favorite.. blond hair and those sparking blue eyes!

Bye, Bye Jeep!

I'm sort of officially freaking out, which could be why it's 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 28th and I'm blogging!

We said good-bye to Alex's jeep on Friday. He sold it to a buddy of his from High School. This is sort of the first "official" mission step and... today - in about 10 hours, he has an appointment with the Bishop to turn in his papers.

We've had the jeep for 10 years - Kenyon bought it new when Alex was 8 and made him a promise, that when he got his drivers license - the jeep would be his. BTW - from a mom's perspective- NEVER.. make that promise unless you really intend to keep it! 4 years ago, Alex held Kenyon to that promise. The deal was that Alex would drive the jeep until he left for his mission, at which time, he would sell the jeep and use the money to pay for his mission!

I must say, what an awesome "Dad" Kenyon is to make that committment and then follow-through. I'm so lucky to be married to such a great guy and lucky to have a son that is pursuing his goal of a mission. Wish us luck! (sniff, sniff).

Official photo of the Mission Papers! (sorry Al)

Boo!

Alex's friend Chelsea is dancing with the Odessey Dance Theatre this year at the University of Utah. They are currently performing "Thriller"! Alex and I went on a double date with Chris and his mom Leela and we had a blast! Here is Chelsea in full thriller mode! Scary girl..

Don't worry - Al really isn't scared!

Do you wanna see what she really looks like? Ready? Get Set... Scroll!!!

Not so scary girl!

Nice Job Chels... we loved watching you perform! Keep it up!

Are "BF's" really "F"?

I guess Best Friends really are Forever!

About 6 months or so ago Kenyon got a call from Jay D. Jay and his brother Brooke had been friends with Kenyon when he lived in Houston his senior year in High School. Once the three of them met, they became great friends, and not only did they play together "mostly church ball" but they worked together too! Well - once Kenyon graduated and went on his mission, although they kept in touch for awhile - they ended up sort of losing touch with each other. Jay said that he's been looking for Kenyon for 20 years. Well - you guessed it - he found him! Jay found Kenyon a few months ago and they have kept in touch since then. Brooke came to Utah a few months ago for a celebration in his brothers family and so Kenyon and I hopped on the motorcycle and rode to Richfield to see him. It was so fun - I got to meet Brooke and his girlfriend Yvonne and her two boys.

Well - when we threw this trip to Arizona together at the last minute - Kenyon talked to Jay and we decided it would be great to finally get together, as they live just outside of Phx.

It was amazing to watch these guys see each other for the first time in 25 years was so fun! Jay, Pam, Meagan and Cole have a beautiful home and invited us over - they were so welcoming and hospitable, it honestly felt like they were just friends we hadn't seen for awhile. We got together for lunch with Brooke and his boys and Jay, Pam and Cole on Saturday. You won't believe this, but Brooke actually named his son after Kenyon. Isn't that cool? These boys were so fun to meet! They are remarkably talented musicians and they brought their guitars with them so they could share their talent. Brooke sang along while they played and we just had such an enjoyable time with them that afternoon!

We were lucky enough to get together for another brief visit on Sunday night before catching our plane - we already miss them and can't wait for another visit!

Thanks for everything you guys.. let's make sure it's not another 25 years before we get together again...

XOXO to our reacquainted BFF's!

Day 3 - Go Cardinals!

Ya know those days when you are getting ready for the game and then you accidentally leave the house without your shirt on? Well - I guess that's what happened to "OFF" AKA "Our Favorite Fan" at the Cardinals Game.. see photo below!

So anyway - the games continue with day 3. We are off to the Cardinals vs. Panthers game. (By the way - Alex learned the hard way that if you T-9 text "panthers" it's actually "panties" which seems like a totally different game). This game was weird for me because - first we had planned on buying tickets from scalpers when we got there - then we couldn't find any... so we went to the ticket office, but the only tickets were like in an air balloon flying over the stadium... ok not that high - but pretty high! Our only other option was to not sit together.. Now - I don't know why I should care about this... It's not like these guys talk to me while at the game anyway.. But - still - kinda weird. So we were all in individual seats in sort of the same section - so - we could see each other and smile and wave, but we couldn't really talk (which by the way - I have a sneaking suspicion that Kenyon loved). Anyway - I totally ended up really loving my section - They were all really drunk and foul mouthed and made the game just that much more enjoyable.

Again - my favorite part of this game is "fat naked guy". The weirdest thing about him (and I could not stop staring) was that he didn't feel weird about the rest of us having our shirts on. He was totally fine with it! Like - when he walked up 35 steps to get another beer - he didn't feel the need to cover himself or anything. I wonder when it was that he realized that he didn't have a shirt on.. like maybe he was almost to the stadium or something and had he gone back for his shirt - he would have missed kick-off... which I guess, is totally understandable.

Next Stop - Tempe! "Go Devils"

The 2nd day of our trip was on to a new sport! We were worried that the 3 teams we were rooting for would all lose, since we had clearly brought bad luck to the Diamondbacks! Day two was breakfast, pedi for mom, pool for boys, lunch with friends (don't worry, I'm getting to that part) and then off to the ASU Sun Devils vs. Washington Huskies football game. There is really no other game like college football! It's so fun to be with the crowd and this game was fun because although both teams scored a lot, Devils won!

My favorite part of this game was as follows... There was a guy that was about 75 years old that was in the seat next to Kenyon.. and for the entire game - 4 full quarters he yelled (ok yelled is overstating it - it was more like a stage whisper)
"Go Devils". So just think about it "Go Devils"... "Go Devils"... "Go Devils"... and so on... never was there a "go defense" or "drive the ball" or "get him"... nope! Just "Go Devils" the whole game. Kenyon estimates he said it approximately 4,000 times. Towards the end of the 4th quarter- Kenyon turned to Alex and I and told us about this guy.. so for the final 10 or so minutes of the 4th quarter.. Alex and I just laughed and Kenyon continued to "go insane".

Oh - you may ask... why the random photo of Popeye's! Well - let me just say - Kenyon loves Popeye and there was no other place in my blogging to fit it in!

"Go Devils!"

D-Backs in the Play-Offs!

For the past several months, we've been talking about where we should go on our family vacation before Alex goes on his mission... (still no call). Well - when the Arizona Diamondbacks (our family team) made it into the playoffs, Alex decided that his ideal vacation would be to go see a playoff game. Well - for anyone that knows me - his wish is my command. After doing a little checking, we found out that we could actually see 3 games in 3 days (you can do that in Arizona).

First Stop.. Phoenix Arizona, Diamondbacks vs. Rockies in game 2 of the series. The game was great!!!! We lost, but the D-backs actually made a run in the top of the 9th and tied the score, so the game went into extra innings. We had such a good time and were so happy to be there! There is nothing like being in a major league baseball stadium!