Galveston

In the first part of October, Jared loaded us all up on Saturday and took us on a trip to the beach.  Galveston is not the best beach, but it is pretty close and we had lots of fun.  We went to Galveston Island State park which has the still side and the wave side just on opposite sides of the road.  We didn't know that at first and started on the still side.  This turned out to be super nice because it was great for wading and there was a lot of empty beach.  

Even the dogs did some wading.  Phoenix liked the water, but Griffin hated it.

We tossed Cheetos to the seagulls and tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to dig in the sand.  But we had a great time.  

Then we drove to the other side and saw the waves.  The boys had SOOOOO much fun jumping in the waves.  I sat on the beach with the dogs and watched my boys play around.  It was perfect!  The only thing that would have made it better was if I had taken pictures :)

Best Friends

A Frozen Halloween

I know pretty much every little girl under the age of 10 wanted to be Anna or Elsa for Halloween.  I was a bit surprised when my boys announced they also wanted to be characters from the movie Frozen.  Micah was Hans the bad guy.  Mima (my mom) made his outfit as it was impossible to find a store-bought costume.  I'm glad he has a grandmother with sewing talent.  His outfit turned out adorable.  He tried it on at Michael's house and made Libby Rae put on her Elsa dress.

He built a sword out of legos and spent the afternoon pretending to attack Elsa over and over again.  Luckily Mima or I took turns being Elsa, so Libby was safe.  She actually built her own sword and did some pretty good attacking herself.

On Sunday before Halloween we carved our pumpkin.

This is at the ward Halloween party.  They posed with friends who went as (surprise!) Elsa and Anna.

Playing ball at the party

This is from Micah's Halloween parade at school.  

He was the ONLY Hans.

On Halloween night we had dinner at Michael and Cara's with some friends.  Then we all went trick-or-treating together.

Grandma Debbi joined us for trick or treating.  So fun!

Libby Rae refused to let anyone carry her bucket until the VERY end of the night.  It finally became too heavy for her to handle any more, but she was a trooper til the end.

Violin

I think Luke first saw a violin in church.  Someone played during sacrament meeting.  He was fascinated, and he asked a lot of questions about the violin.  Then we visited Megan (my sister) and Luke learned that his cousins, Taylie and Brenna, played the violin.  He got to see one up close.  And then he started asking to play the violin.  He was about 4 years old.  We originally told him that he could start violin lessons when he started Kindergarten.  But then Kinder was such an adjustment that we waited until this year.  Luke is in first grade.  

It was a little bit tricky to find a teacher.  I couldn't find anyone through church here in Katy.  I asked Mom if she knew anyone who taught lessons, and she told me that Sister Reyes from Bear Creek Ward (my ward growing up) played.  If she didn't teach lessons herself, she'd know someone who did.  So I called, and she teaches.  Luke started the first week of school.  Luke LOVES his lessons, and he practices on his own --without reminders from me!-- almost every day.  When he first started he just did plucking while he learned fingering.  He started using the bow a few weeks ago.  

The videos are out of order.  The bottom one should be first.  It was before he learned the bow.