10 years ago...

Oh yeah - while I was in St. George with the kids and Drew was home working, we celebrated our 10th anniversary!  Romantic, I know...  Here we are (along with many of you), back in the day:

This was the coolest "Just Married" car decorating job ever!

Off to St. George!

Our new charter school was supposed to start on August 22nd, but construction delays pushed the start date out to Sept. 6th.  So 2 bonus weeks of summer for us!  We decided to take advantage of the extra time and go visit Grandma and Grandpa in St. George.  And as an extra treat, Uncle Dallin and Aunt Holly were there too!  My kids were so spoiled...  Grandma and Aunt Holly took them to just about every water park/pool in St. George and the surrounding cities.  Why do other places have such cool water parks?  Our favorite was this GIGANTIC, completely covered pool with multiple slides, play structures, fountains, etc.  We could have gone everyday, all day.

Once again, I was reminded how blessed I am to be a part of this wonderful family...  Thanks so much, 2717 Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Holly for such a fun week!

Visit from 2717 Grandma and Grandpa

Ok - my blogging vacation is over. Time for me to catch up a bit!  Let's go back to June...

Last year for Christmas, we gave Drew's parents a couple of flights to come visit us in the summer...  Selfish, I know.  So once school was out, it was time to play with 2717 Grandma and Grandpa!  They were able to see Scott's last baseball game of the season and enjoy our favorite place, the beach house on Monterey Bay.  As much fun (and chaos) as it is to have the ENTIRE Syphi gang all together, it usually doesn't allow for much one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa.  So Scott, Charlotte and Trevor were totally spoiled with all the attention!  And Drew and I were also spoiled and absolutely loved the quiet moments where we could just sit and visit and appreciate being with them.  Here are the highlights from the week!

Feeding the ducks is ALWAYS a huge highlight at the beach house!

Scott getting worked by the waves

Charlotte was surprisingly brave and enjoyed playing in the freezing water!   But this was about as far as she went...

17-Mile Drive

The graduation pilgrimage

For spring break we made the trek across lovely Nevada to go to Utah for the BYU graduation. Drew's 2 youngest siblings, Holly and Eric, were both graduating! A very exciting day... Drew has made it a personal mission to attend all of his siblings' graduations, which includes BYU Provo, BYU Hawaii, BYU Idaho, Weber St., USC, and someplace in Georgia for Army Officer Candidate School. What a good big brother.

We had a fantastic time with the Syphi gang since 8 of the 10 kids and their families were together. We missed you Allison and Shannon! Even with the broken bone, it still was a great trip. We are the lone Syphi still in CA, so we don't get to see the rest of the crew as often as we would like. I'm so fortunate to have in-laws that I truly love being with.

October Rundown

It was a busy October... Here is the rundown of all the fun activities!

The Annual Halloween House, along with new Halloween jammies:




The most amazing Halloween party at Steph's house! Fantastic food, amazing decorations, and awesome costumes. Yes, my costume was a real homecoming dress from 1990. My favorite costumes were Axl and Slash... They also set up an incredible spook alley on their property! Even Charlotte wanted to do it over and over. I have to say the masked evil man with the Fisher-Price chainsaw gave me nightmares.







Then of course we had our ward Trunk or Treat, and then followed up with the 7th ward's Trunk or Treat the next day. We clearly did NOT get enough candy after the first outing. Charlotte and Heidi had to be together as the Belle twins, so we couldn't miss their party! And by the way, the CHiPs guys are our missionaries, who of course have no idea who Ponch and John really are since they are 20...







And finally, pumpkin carving! Charlotte and Scott did a great job helping with our masterpiece:



And for those of you keeping score, Charlotte chose 4 different "official" costumes, including Tinkerbell for the party at Steph's, a ballerina for preschool, a flapper for Trunk or Treat #1, and Belle for Trunk or Treat #2. And there were several other costume changes in between... Here is a little fashion show for you: