Fall Break

Last week was Fall Break for Nathan and Benjamin, as well as their cousins in Arizona. So we decided to go visit for a few days! We had a lot of fun playing with cousins, playing with toys at both grandparents Partridge and Anders house, seeing a few movies, taking family pictures, going swimming, and just being with those we love!

This is Grandma-ma (Ryan's grandma) holding Elizabeth for the first time.Grandpa Anders with Elizabeth. He was out of town for a lot of our visit, so we were glad we got to see him.

I had to take a picture of Elizabeth sleeping. She had both hands up above her head, but then she moved her right arm as I was taking the picture.
Grandma Anders loved helping her grandsons play hand-held games. Benjamin is playing Yahtzee -- it is one of his mom's and grandma's favorites, and I'm glad he loves it too!
Joshua and Benjamin waiting with cousin Bryson for family pictures to begin. Everyone looked great. It's too bad Nathan didn't smile in almost ANY of over 150 pictures!
This is on our flight home. Benjamin was like this for most of the flight. Turns out he was getting sick and we had to keep him home from school the next day. Then the rest of us (except Elizabeth) have also gotten it.
Joshua would say as we were taking off and landing, "My ears are plugged!" I am not a gum person, so I always forget to bring it on the plane until we are actually on it and it is too late. So I told him to pretend to yawn.
Elizabeth was great for both flights. She slept most of the time. The ironic thing with our seats was that as we flew to Arizona, we were on a plane that sat 2 seats then 3 seats on the other side of the aisle. But Ryan did not come out at the same time we did, so we only needed 4 total seats. Nathan did not want to be the one to sit next to a stranger, so I told Benjamin before we even got on the plane that he would get the middle seat. He was okay with that. But then Nathan was upset that he couldn't have the window (the "stranger" got it on one side, and I wanted Joshua to sit with me and Elizabeth on the other). We talked about it a lot before we got on the plane and I told him he's a big boy and will just have to live with getting the aisle seat this time. Once we were on the plane finding our seats, Nathan threw the biggest 2-year-old-type tantrum! At least the 5 year-old and 3 year-old know how to behave!! The "stranger" was really nice and offered to let Nathan have his window seat, but Nathan insisted on sitting by me. Since all the passengers behind us were staring, I caved in and Joshua moved across the aisle by Benjamin and Nathan got the window seat by me. Then on the way home when we needed 5 seats because Ryan was with us, the plane was a 2 and 2 seater. The only way we could work it out was for Ryan to get to sit by himself in the emergency exit row, and I got to sit by all the kids in the row ahead. But because Ryan was in the exit row, I couldn't even hand him Elizabeth. Lucky Ryan! But the kids were well-behaved, so it wasn't a big deal.

Cuteness

These pictures were all taken back in September. I'm holding Elizabeth as I am posting this, and it is amazing how much she has grown since they were taken! I will have to get more recent ones up soon.

Dad and Elizabeth get ready for the first game of the season.

Looking so cute in her blessing dress

Big brother Nathan loves to hold his favorite sister

American Saturday Night

So when I got some birthday money a few months ago, I knew exactly how I wanted to spend it. I got online right away and got tickets to the Brad Paisley concert. The concert took place Saturday, September 19 and was SO much fun! It was an adventure getting there, however. It was at the Usana ampitheater, which we had never been to before. We got directions on google maps, had our babysitter here an hour and a half before the concert was to start, and we were on our way. For some reason, the directions took us to the east side of the valley and not the west. We got to where it was taking us and all we saw was a residential area. Luckily, Ryan has a smart phone that we used to figure out the real directions. Once we were going the right way, we got stuck in all the slow traffic that was also going to the concert. Our 45-minute drive to the concert turned into a 2-hour drive! We got there just after 8:00. I guess that's why they have other artists that perform before the main one comes on -- for those of us who come late! Luckily, Brad had 2 artists go before him, and we got there in time to see most of the songs the 2nd guy performed.
Our seats were amazing! When I picked them out on the seating chart, they looked decent -- in the middle section back, fairly close to the center. But I hadn't realized that there were 3 sections of seats, and then just as much if not more seating in the grass behind all the regular seats! When we got there we didn't realize there were 2 entrances, and so we came in the one that was for all the grass seats. It took us a while to wind through all the crowd and find where we could go to get to our own seats. But coming in the very back made me appreciate how fantastic of a view we had! Ryan summed up how close we were by saying, "There is nowhere on the stage he could have gone that I couldn't have thrown a ball and hit him."
It was an outdoor concert. We got a little rained on, but overall were very lucky. I thought the clouds were totally going to dump on us, and we could see lightning off in the distance. We got a little wet, but for the most part the rain stayed away from our little venue. Maybe it liked listening to the concert as much as we did and didn't want to ruin it :)

One of the reasons I am a big Brad Paisley fan is because I think so many of his songs are relevant and clever. It turns out that his concerts are the same! This picture is during his song "Celebrity", which is about how so many people act out of control when they become famous. Throughout the song, the screens looked like a big version of Guitar Hero. He even had some country stars, like Taylor Swift, "playing the game".
I've never been a huge fan of the guitar. Probably because I was so focused on playing the piano, I thought that the guitar was a lame competitor to the piano. I have changed my opinion, largely in part to Brad Paisley. He is absolutely amazing at the guitar! He put on quite the show! And I think he changed guitars with just about every song (he performed for 2 hours, so that's a lot of guitars)!

Party!

On Friday, September 18, we went up to South Fork park in Provo Canyon for a company party with Ryan's work. They went all out -- catered food (yummy!), bounce houses, face painter, balloons, and games. The kids had a blast!
Here is Nathan getting into character for the camera!Joshua had a lot of fun playing a game that is kind of like horseshoes. Except you use a string that had golf balls attached to either end and throw it at a stand made out of pvc pipes. There are 3 levels of bars on the stand, and you get points based on which level your string attaches itself to.
For most of the evening, Benjamin did not want to get his face painted. Of course he changed his mind just as the face painter was leaving her station to go start a game with the kids. Luckily she came back to it later.

It was great to see Nathan get all into the jousting area. He's so small that he had a hard time with it, though :)