October: More Cross Country, More Soccer, More Band, and Finally Some Progress on Our Bathroom, And Halloween of Course

The last month of cross country was a busy one daily practices and lots of meets. Lynnsey continued to be plagued by shin splints but still worked hard and wound up improving her time by a bit.

Spencer had some rough meets for a little while and had about decided he was through with cross country but then he had a great meet where he actually won a medal and that seemed to recharge his batteries a bit so that the last few meets, he ran really hard and wound up getting a PR for his final run which seemed to totally fire him up. So now he says he totally wants to run again next season.

Both Spencer and Kaya had a great soccer season as well. Spencer played on the U-14 team and wound up being a real asset to his team. Kaya played on U-10 with Kalen as her coach again. She had a really fun team and it was fun to see them work together so well.

One day after soccer, Vondy came to hang out with Kaya for a few hours because her parents were at the temple. They had so much fun being on the same soccer team. It's too bad for Marshall that they discontinued their soccer program but Kaya loved having one of her best friend's ever join her team. Anyway, the girls had a fun afternoon at Kid's N' Stuff.

In addition to all the fall sports, marching band was also super time consuming. We got to see a few football games and the half time show was always great. One of the games we went to was the senior show where the seniors are in charge of selecting the music and coming up with the formations and choreography. They did a great job. It is just so strange that Kendall is a senior! As his parents, Kalen and I were called onto the football field where each senior paid tribute to their parents and gave us a flower.

 One of the great things about my dad being retired now is that he comes to visit a little more often. And he has been blessing us with his amazing talents in home improvement. When we first bought our house, our upstairs bathroom was horrible. It had a mint green tub and an olive green toilet with a wacky counter top and a green sink and of course carpeting because that makes SO much sense to put carpet in the bathroom! Ick! We immediately replaced the toilet and flooring and then a few years later we took down the wallpaper, put in a new tub and tub liner, sink and counter top. It was so much better but we didn't finish it because in the installation of the new tub liner, we had to take out the drop ceiling tiles and several of them were so old and yucky that they crumbled. So we went years with an unfinished ceiling until now. My dad came and worked some magic and put in a brand new ceiling for us!

 I still need to post some "after" pictures, but we still have some painting to do first. It is SO much better! He took out the giant florescent light fixture and put in some recessed lighting that changes the whole look of the bathroom. We're getting so close to having it finally done!

Spencer and Kaya had a fun night at the library "lock in" activity playing games and making food and crafts.

 We also had our branch Harvest Festival which was really fun. The kids played all sorts of games and we were able to have Sister Fry do our family pictures again as she has done for the past couple of years. Spencer invited his friend Alex to join us and I think he had a lot of fun.

 Spencer got creative with a couple of little gourd pumpkins and turned his into a BB-8 robot!

 The high school and the elementary school had some Halloween festivities so Kendall, Lynnsey and Kaya were all able to wear costumes to school. (The middle school needs to get with the program!)

Lynnsey went as a girl from the 1950's.

 Kaya got some more use out of our Harry Potter robes and went as Hermione again.

 And Kendall donned the Jedi costume that he made all by himself.

 For actual Halloween, we let Kendall choose our family theme since it's his last year at home. He picked Lord of the Rings. It was a really fun theme--though a little more expensive than past years. I should be able to sell most of these costumes back on eBay though so it's good.

Kaya went as Galadriel. She was able to use her flower girl dress from Susannah's wedding so that was a bonus. We just had to come up with the long blonde wig.

 Lynnsey went as Eowyn and her costume was one of the biggest challenges because you can't buy and actual Eiowyn costume. I just had to look at pictures and then do my best to come up with something similar. It actually came out really well and I'm pretty proud of it.

 No Lord of the Rings Theme is complete without a hobbit! Spencer made a great Frodo Baggins.

 Kendall had a ball dressing up as Legolas the elf. He kept cracking us up all evening as he tried to walk so gracefully everywhere we went!

 I went as a (rather too old) Arwen.

 And Kalen made a great Gandalf the wizard!

 Kaya had fun putting together a fun diorama of a Native American village. She got pretty creative with her use of materials and did a great job.

 Meanwhile Taylor was having tons of fun at BYU. He got to meet Dalton from Studio C one day so he was pretty thrilled with that!

 He went to some fun Halloween parties and activities dressed as the 10th Doctor from Doctor Who.

 And he spent lots of time working at his dream job! He was able to score a job at the campus dinosaur museum even though they technically weren't hiring, so that was a huge blessing for him and something that he absolutely loves!