Will-YUMS

It's time for 4-H cooking!  This time we only had an intermediate team.  We couldn't get a senior team because we only had Talmage and Ella and we have to have 3 people for a team.  I was pretty sad about that since this is the year that Talmage could go to State.  It was nice to only have to coordinate one team though.  We also only ended up with our own kids so it was the cooking cousins team.... until we found the perfect name "Will-YUMS."  Our team has Mhari as introduction, Owen on food safety, Bree on how it's made, Grant on MyPlate, and Sandra as nutrition.

Overall things went well for only having a couple of weeks to practice.  They took second at county and advanced to district.  We could have taken 1st, but we made some mistakes that we will need to work on for district.  

Here the kids are practicing: 

Ready for County! 

Judging Time 

Ella hanging out with Lorna during the competition ;)

2nd place ribbons! 

SeaQuest!

This year we got passes to the new SeaQuest Aquarium!  We went to the pre-opening for members.  Everything wasn't set up, but we still had a good time checking it out!  Here are some of the fun things we enjoyed.

A canoe that fits all of the cousins!

The manta rays

Baby tortoises 

Sandra getting eaten by a shark 

The parakeets!

Mamas and Papas

We are still playing adult volleyball.  This season was at Crossroads Church.  We played with Ben and Julie, Megan Flynn, Nathan, Jeff and Me.  Nathan only came to a few games, but it was helpful to have him.  We won the championship and had a great season.  I don't know if Ben and Julie will ever be able to play with us again, but it sure was fun to have them on our team!  They are seriously awesome!

Forest of Fear FUN!

We got together with Nathan, Tiffany and Kids to drive around the Forest of Fear at Joe Pool Lake.  We have done this several times and it is always fun!  Life keeps getting busy, but it was nice that we were able to sneak this in again!  We brought our own trailer and everyone fit nicely in the back while Jeff and Nathan rode in Gus.  We got their early enough that we missed the long lines too!

We drank hot chocolate and hung out before we drove around so I got some fun pictures of that.  

Grant, Clark, Owen and Talmage

Sandra and Ella

Bree, Lorna, and Mhari

Hot chocolate time

Yummy!  Hunny photo bombing :)

Such a fun night!

Harvest time

Talmage finally harvested his carrots. He really hadn't done anything to take care of them so maybe that makes them the perfect vegetable :).  It is going to get cold soon so it was a good thing he got them out.  If he had thinned them out while they were small he probably would have gotten fatter more equal looking carrots.  

The carrots sure were tasty!

Growing

Talmage has been taller than me for a little bit, but I figured it was time to document the accomplishment.  I'm really not ready for the kids to pass me up, but I guess no one asked me.  Talmage has been growing and growing.  It's crazy that he hit 6 ft by the time he turned 15!  This is the first of many to pass me I'm sure.  

Halloween Fun!

For Halloween our ward combined with the other wards in the building to do a chili cook off and trunk or treat.  It was nice to eat and get some candy.  There were a lot of people there!  This year Sandra was Belle, Lorna was a bat, Clark was Batman, Grant was a rooster, and Mhari was a raccoon.  Talmage didn't dress up.  I was the queen of hearts :).  Our oldest 3 helped pass out candy while Jeff and I walked with the littlest 3 to trick or treat.  It was a nice night!

Trunk or treat time