Latest from the Paul Family: October 2013

This will be a couple of months worth of family fun in one blog post. It's more efficient that way, right? Maybe now that the theater season is over at work, I can keep up with this a little better. Maybe.

We headed to SLC for Labor Day weekend. That seems like such a long time ago!

On our way to SLC, and Rina got a magical curly fry.

A closer look at that fry.

The many faces of Miss Marina, while visiting Lincoln Lake

We went to cousin Kyle's swimming party. It was so fun that we could make it while we were in the area.

Marina posing with her two favorite sleeping accessories. The seatbelt pet (thank you grandma Paul) and the blanket (thank you grandma Terry).

Celebrate the family birthdays!

Marina and I did a sewing project to make her an Elvis dress. Yes, that is the King in a ring around the skirt.

Ryan speaking about the three icons in front of his museum - the electric shovel, the caboose, and the hay derrick. They were dedicating all three of those at this ceremony.

Such a turnout to celebrate the dedication.

The families of some of the operators of the shovel were the first ones in.

Before our parent-teacher meeting, Marina had to show me her trick on the monkey bars.

Training wheels are a thing of the past.

School picture day was of course a very windy day. I took this photo when I dropped Marina off at school as proof that when she left my company, her hair looked good. I needn't have worried.

I worked a Shakespeare competition event, and here are the closing ceremonies. It was really a cool thing to see the whole room glowing. Much cooler than the pic shows it.

The newest addition to the Boy Scouts - Lincoln Paul

Lincoln's first band concert. There are a couple of short video clips. He is playing the trombone, grey shirt on the left.

Lincoln and Marina's school break coincided with their cousins' school break, so naturally a camping trip to Zion National Park was in order.

"I thought this was a rowing challenge!"

We conquered the top of the mountain. Literally.

What is the top of the mountain without an interpretive dance?

A grotto along the hike

Such a pretty day

The mountain sheep were so close to us! This kind of looks like a museum habitat, but those animals are real!

This is the mountain we were on top of. The fenced off area is just above the right side of the arch.

We had not had enough fun, so we hiked Kanarraville Falls slot canyon the next day. This time, Marina wore rubber boots to keep her toes dry. Lincoln, Marina, and Will made it all the way to the waterfall! They are troopers!

Will and Marina hanging out

Now for Halloween preparations. We have an Elvis pumpkin!

He even looks good in red.

Marina carved her pumpkin to be her. It's Marina's Spider Girl pumpkin!

We created some Halloween dinners - this is a snake calzone. It was fun to make, and even tasted good too.

Marina and Emma getting ready to bling out their cookies.

Another Halloween dinner - spaghetti and eyeballs!

Unfortunately, this is not a bit of fun for Halloween. Marina managed to slice her foot on some lava rock, and here are her 8 stitches.

Both kids turned out with great school photos this year! Sigh of relief!

Finally, Marina and I were looking for a project we could do together, so we decided to make an Elvis box for Ryan. Here are all 4 sides of the box and the top. We could leave no surface unpainted. Except for the bottom because it would take too long to let everything else dry.