Happy Halloween!

Love, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.
I thought it would be kind of fun to make their costumes this year...lesson learned! (They look kinda ghetto and didn't really cost any less - so it goes). The important part is that they LOVED them. So mission accomplished I guess.
We had a lot of fun tonight. There are few things in life more fun than taking your 2 & 4 year old trick-or-treating.

A word about fair food

I can't very well blog about the Fair without at least mentioning the food. It was like nothing we've ever seen, or even heard of, before. They had all the usuals - corn dogs, cotton candy, popcorn etc. And then there's always the roasted turkey legs (just usual for Texas, I think) But what we didn't know is that you can get just about any deep fried thing you could possibly imagine (and a few I can't even wrap my head around - like deep fried latte??? or deep fried coke) at the Texas State Fair. We saw deep fried cookie dough, deep fried cheesecake,Texas fried jelly belly beans, deep fried PBJ&B (peanut butter, jelly and banana) deep fried moon pies and let's don't forget Crispy fried cantelope pie. But if deep fried isn't your style you can always try a pickle pop (like an otter pop made with pickle juice)or some pork on a stick. To see a more detailed list of (just some of) the food choices take a look here.

We had to try at least a couple...we went for the Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Waffle Balls (strawberries covered in chocolate, dipped in waffle batter and deep-fried. Then dusted with powdered sugar and served on a stick.)

















And the Deep Fried S’mores – Marshmallow cream and chocolate chips are sandwiched between two graham crackers, dipped in batter, fried and dusted with powdered sugar.

And lastly, we had to stick around for the Light Parade before calling it a day...actually Porter had already called it a day at that point...poor little guy!

State Fair of Texas

Since we were already in the Dallas area we decided to go and check out the "State Fair of Texas". It's HUGE! (Not really surprising since this IS Texas after all, right?) We spent pretty much the whole day there and still didn't see all there was to see.

Mark and Cooper with "Big Tex" he talks and moves giving you all sorts of useful info about "what's goin' on at at the fair that you outta check out".

















They had a pretty cool train museum there. Mark and Cooper spent about an hour checking out all the cars and engines.

We thought it would be fun to take the whole family on the Texas Star - the big (biggest in North America to be more precise) ferris wheel, but Cooper decided that the fire engine ride that let you squirt water was more his speed.

Making a Wish

While Cooper and I were waiting by the fountain for Mark he asked if he could get in and get some of the money in there. I told him no, that the money in there was people's wishes. I explained to him about making a wish and throwing a penny over your shoulder. He asked if I had any money he could make a wish with. I dug around in my wallet and came up with a penny and gave it to him and listened to what he would wish for (I was curious to see what he would wish for so I didn't tell him the part about wishes being secret). I was fully expecting him to throw his penny with some sort of Star Wars toy request but to my surprise (and delight) I instead heard "I wish I could be Heavenly Father's helper." Some moments are treasures.

BYU Game

Thursday night BYU played TCU. We headed up to Fort Worth hoping to see the undefeated Cougars battle it out with the Horned Frogs (no, I'm not kidding - that's really their mascot). Sadly, there didn't seem to be a lot of battling on the Cougars part and we lost the game 32-7.
Oh, well - we had a good time anyway.

Here are the boys at the BYU tailgate BBQ showing off their new shirts.



At the game with Dad.













By about the third quarter these guys were tired and 'punchy'!


Finally calling it quits and heading to the hotel.
I love this picture of P. on his dad's shoulders.

QT

Quick Trip is a soda drinkers heaven! Sadly, they are not to be found in Austin. But there was one on the way to Fort Worth.
Oh Happy Day!!

Pumpkin Painting

When Mom & Dad were here visiting we decided to paint pumpkins for family night. (Because we're still in the 80's - 90's in October here in Texas, pumpkins go moldy inside of a week - so painting it is!) Here we all our with our 'creations'.

These boys LOVE their grandma & grandpa!

Cooper's pretty excited about whatever Mark's doing.

The Austin Bats

We took Grandma & Grandpa to see the bats this week. It's not the best time of year to see them, but at least they came out this time (we tried to take them last time they were here and the bats decided to stay in for the night).

Waiting for the bats to come out

















Grandma trying to get some pictures
















Here they come!












Headin' home.

"block party"

Porter decided to show off some of his mad block building and jumping skills for G & G Johannesen.














I love how Porter "jumps over" the blocks.


















Not to be outdone - Cooper had to get in on the "show off" action.

Cutie pie!

How cute is this? Cooper got to make his own little apple pie at preschool the other day. He was so proud of it. We were headed to pick up Grandma and Grandpa at the airport right after preschool, but he insisted that we needed to drop the pie off at home so nothing would happen to it. I was also given strict instructions to make sure all the doors were locked so no one could get in and take his pie while we were gone.