here’s some of the “little things” (stuff besides the twins’ birthday, our trip to jackson and halloween!) that happened in between peak mountain autumn and our thanksgiving trip to hawaii.

there were some shopping trips to trader joe’s with august and eve, a gabriel-daddy date to zupa’s, lots of princess play with evie’s sweet neighbourhood friends margot and ruthie … and school pictures came back!

october ninth marked our tenth wedding anniversary! we kept the celebrations simple even though a decade is a big milestone! while all the kids were in school ian took me up to millcreek inn, where we had our wedding dinner on our wedding day and it was so lovely to walk around and reminisce. then, in the evening we had a “family birthday party” with a pizza dinner, playing in the backyard (the weather was perfect!), ice cream and a fire, and watching our wedding video all together on the projector downstairs. it was pretty sweet and pretty perfect. so grateful for the life ian and i have built together and get to share.

for the kids’ fall break we decided to go up to bear lake and just chill there for a few days. i seriously loved it so much – i had never really been up there in the fall and it was just perfect! we had our dear friends the van uitert family join us for a couple days and that was so great! we played games, threw rocks in the water, watched movies, played some tennis, and had a bonfire every night. we also got to hang out a little with my brother and his family who just bought a cabin down the road – it was fun to be with them and to check out their new place. august got to do a daddy date with ian to the other side of the lake. a few of us did some “polar bear plunges”! one afternoon the lake was so still and just stunning in how it reflected the sunlight (sparkles on the rocks!) and the mountain surroundings. i had a sacred moment of solitude out on the raft shivering as i took it all in. i love this place so much!!

back at home we enjoyed a sweet card from moses, our neighbour’s incredible technicolor tree, a preschool performance and open house for the twins, a play date with our beloved murphy (my nephew’s daughter), and some canyon runs (i decided to run a half marathon next june and it has felt good to get back into running!).

we had a fun celebration gathering in my brother’s back yard with all the provo eyres to celebrate grandfather’s birthday (80th!) with traditional leaf jumping! everyone had such a blast and it was such a pretty day! i love that my dad is totally an 80 year old kid when there’s a big pile of autumn leaves to get buried in and play in.

we hosted co-op and got a record number of kids on the swing in our back yard; i appreciated the perfect little “window” to the foliage-y mountainside made by our treehouse tree and how much eve adores the umbrella grandma gave her for her birthday; the mountains got some snow and our neighbourhood looked so pretty with the fall colours + the dusting of white; we went to the bean museum and moses hosted a movie night for all the boys his age in the neighbourhood; we went swimming at the rec center, mixed ingredients for several future batches of our favourite spice cookies; august rocked the epic snowsuit so beloved by gabriel in previous years; the cousins came over one day and put on an elaborate scavenger hunt that resulted in prizes that included gymnastic classes!

some snaps from a gorgeous hike in rock canyon, where i couldn’t stop collecting leaves for our thankful tree!:

i got to take august to a jazz game (it was our turn to use my parents’ season tickets) and that was an incredibly joyful experience. he was at first totally mesmerized, and then totally excited, and then really invested – cheering big at every basket made and moaning in frustration at every basket missed. we had so much fun and even got a big mint oreo milkshake to share!

one day the boys requested that we go find snow! eve was on a dad trip with ian (i need to get photos of that! they went to hot springs national park in arkansas). we drove up the canyon until we hit snow and everyone was sooooo excited! it was beautiful and fun and made us really look forward to winter.

august and eve learned about voting at preschool and helped me create this year’s thankful tree. eve went with me to vote on election day and man that was an intense day (and i was very disappointed by the results). i couldn’t help snapping a photo of the golden mountain one evening, and i got to go to a special book fair event before school with the boys one morning. the kids wanted to take photos of things to save up for to buy at the grocery store one afternoon, and eve continued to rock her ladybug umbrella – rain or shine (and enjoyed some eclectic outfit choices).

i got to go to my dear friend catherine’s birthday party at this super cool pressed flower art studio! i couldn’t get over how gorgeous all the trays of different flowers were and i got to create something to bring home and it was so fun! love this group of girls and especially cath who has been such a good friend to me for 25 years.

gabriel, the twins and i spent a lovely warm afternoon in rock canyon, and another day i went back for a hike and there was snow! we filled up our thankful tree and it was so awesome! august got worn out at preschool and gabriel loooooved his rock climbing class. we had some fun mornings with cousins simon and dean while their mom was working (we do a babysitting swap and it’s the best!).

i got to go away for a few days to have a little break and to try to dig myself out of my list of sooo many things to do that i never have time for with constant interruptions from the children! i spent one night at the cliff lodge at snowbird and another at my parents’ house in park city. it was all just delicious and perfect and i worked my butt off but also took some time to relax, which was sooo nice. i’d been wanting to go to cliff lodge for a long time and the rooftop heated pool and hot tub did not disappoint! it was snowy and lovely (and clearly i got some pictures in every light, haha). also so great to have some quiet time at my parents’ beautiful home.

we completed our thankful tree before we left for our thankgiving trip to hawaii! we had so many beautiful leaves this year and we sure have so many things to be thankful for! i love creating this every year with my kids.

we went to hawaii and then came back to christmastime!