Voting and Playing in the Leaves

The past couple of days have been very busy!

Monday I worked on cleaning up the house and getting some laundry done. Then I went to work in the evening. Then on Tuesday I watched Sara in the morning while Melinda taught ballet lessons. Sara did great at our house! After an hour or so Melinda came and picked her up. Less than a half hour after that I dropped Jacob off at her house so that I could go to lunch with Brenda.

For my birthday Brenda thought it would be nice for the two of us to go to lunch together... without our kids! I ended up bringing Ephraim with me, but he was no trouble at all. Besides, he's mostly quiet anyway... unlike certain toddlers we both have at our houses.

We went to lunch at PF Chang's and it was SO yummy! We had a great time talking about all the things that were going on in our lives. It seems that we had both been so busy with our kids that we hadn't had much time to talk or spend time together. So we had fun at lunch together. (Thanks again Brenda!)

Then that evening we spent some time together as a family. We had FHE (because I work on Monday) and we told Jacob the story of Samuel the Lamanite. He is such a smartie that by the end of the evening he was telling ME the story. We haven't been that consistent with FHE, but we are making an effort to do better.

Today was another fun and busy day. Melinda and I got together and went to UVU to vote. I remember how long the lines were for the last Presidential election, and that was when I didn't have two kids to drag around with me!

Joe had checked at the University for us and said that the lines weren't too long. So we all piled in Melinda's van (I need one!) and went to the school. Jacob loves riding around in the van with Melinda's girls. Today he decided to sport some very lovely sunglasses.

The voting is THIS way!

We got to the University just as they opened, and the line wasn't too bad at all. The kids found some interesting things to look at and play with while we were waiting:

Only cool kids can sit here!

We got in and out of there within a half hour, which is incredible! I am definitely glad that we went and voted today as opposed to waiting until next week. I don't mind waiting by myself, but with kids it's a different story. The kids did SO great though! They were well behaved, and they even got to have an "I Voted" sticker. What a bunch of cuties!

After we finished we went to Krispy Kremes to get donuts. The kids deserved them, and well, so did we! (And the Hot Donuts sign was on... how can you resist?!) The kids had a great time seeing how donuts are made.

And pretty much just goofing off!


Then this evening before dinner we went to the Provo Riverwoods and took some family photos for the Smiths. I have been trying out the camera that my dad let me borrow (Thanks Dad!) in preparation for getting the camera that I REALLY want.

We had a good time taking photos. The leaves on the trees and on the ground were very pretty that evening. Todd and Brenda are very lucky that Alyssa will at least sit still for photos, even if it is a bit tough to get her to smile. Jacob was running around in the leaves like crazy. He loved the way they crunched underfoot.

The kids were having a pretty good time. Check out this photo:

So what do you think, Jacob? Do you think we should sit here for our engagement photos?

What a busy week we are having!