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I recall, Pocatello in Fall...

Fall has been so nice here in Pokey! I thought I was going to be freezing by now, but we made it thru soccer season w/o jackets and are now loving the crisp mornings, beautiful leaves and warm afternoons.  

Here is a rundown of the last month or two happenings...

Zanna and James both played soccer again this fall and did awesome-- James has a great natural aggressiveness and scored a couple of goals each game...

Zanna improved SO much this year and is a great ball-handler.  She had a stellar coach that taught her so much about the game and gave her a great new confidence.  She scored quite a few goals and really worked hard...

I love this picture of her looking like a true soccer chick!

Dave was so happy to purchase his own lawn mower- finally!  He taught everyone the rules and they all mowed in safety goggles :)

DELETA!

James did great for his first time on rollerblades

There is a classic skating rink in town called Deleta that has been here for years and every month the school has "skating" day where the kids can take the bus to the roller-skating rink and parents can meet them there and skate with their kids for free.  We had a blast teaching the kids to skate and Dave even took Mia out in the stroller (they have strollers there that you can borrow for free-- love small towns!)

Zanna tried the classic skate and stayed close to the wall most of the time :)

no caption needed.

In Sept. we had a great visit from Mindy and Bryce and the kiddos, but I don't really have any pictures besides these two.  The kids played so well together and they even got to attend our Primary Program so that was fun.  We love finally being close enough to family to have fun little weekend trips and look forward to many more!

This is Mindy and Bryce's little guy formerly known as Matthew Brent Mildon.  At 10 months old they legally changed his name to Kaiser and call him Kai. People thought they were a little crazy, but I love the name and am happy they are happy and finally content with his name :)

Daddy's helper

Like most kids, Mia is obsessed with water and with our cars so this was the PERFECT activity for her

Zanna and James are on the same Jr. Jazz basketball team and they were both so excited after their first practice so we stopped and got them their own bballs to practice at home.  I wanted to get Mia a playground ball and luckily they had one that looks like a basketball because wanted to be just like Z and J.  She is now obsessed with balls too...love it!

A couple weekends ago Matt, Court and Isaiah came to visit and we had a great three days with them

Mia loved the Jello and we had brownie cake with peppermint ice cream layered dessert-- an old family favorite :)

Courtnee did some face painting and nail painting and the kids loved their new looks

James smeared his a little and added to it, but it was a really cool batman 

Last Sunday we carved our pumpkins and like usual James was hesitant to get his hand in the goup!

Mia thought it was awesome!

another obsession...the vacuum.

On Wednesday we went apple picking on some people's property in our ward--it was a beautiful, beautiful day!

Mia wanted to take bites out of all the apples...

James aka "Johnny Appleseed" was our best climber

 and Dave was our best picker...they were a little higher than our little step-stool could reach

I tried to be as helpful as I could, and did pretty well with this big belly of mine (32.5 weeks)!

Funny story...

We were just picking and enjoying the orchard to ourselves when all of a sudden these 10 cows and bulls came trotting down the hill and straight towards us.  At first I thought it was fun to show Mia the cows so close up, but when I realized they were coming right at us, I got a little nervous.  We quickly circled behind them and sadly, our best bag of golden apples was left on the ground and the cows went right for it and started eating our hard-earned apples!

Normally we wouldn't be nervous around cows, but it was these bulls and their stare-down looks that got us running to the car!

Their best apple-faces...

We bought an apple-peeler and made yummy apple crisp for dessert!

On our last cabin trip (Oct. 6-7) we were lucky enough to enjoy the first snow of the season!

Mia loved it and ate a nice lunch of crackers and snowballs.

We actually lost power in the cabin for about 4 hours and had fun in our pajamas playing yahtzee, ping pong, eating candy, shooting dart guns and we took a walk to see the snowy views.

Dave won for best outfit.

a Mammoth adventure...

Well, actually it wasn't really too mammoth- just a great weekend up to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone for the Elk rut and beautiful fresh air! 

We were lucky enough to meet up with Grpa and Grma Francis at the cabin on Thursday night and the kids loved an early morning 4-wheeler ride with grma--aren't they cute, I just love this picture of the three of them :)

Dave had an "I've arrived" moment on this trip and I had to take this cheesy picture of it.  It's been his dream for so long to own something other than a minivan and a couple of weekends ago we bought this suburban and he LOVES it!  As we were driving up to the cabin in the suburban with the kids happily sleeping in the back, on the way to Yellowstone (one of our favorite places) we just realized that we were finally doing what we had been talking about for so long and it just felt really good to be here after 8 long, great and tiring years!

the new Francis Fam cabin...isn't she a beaut! (more pics from our reunion this summer to come)

We headed into the park on a rainy, Friday morning and our eyes were peeled for wildlife.

This guys was our first sighting and I think I was more excited than the kids :)

later on in the day, we shared the road with this guy

We wanted to be part of the 3million people that come and visit Old Faithful every year!

and there she blows

The purpose for our trip was to see this guy...and he was proud of it!

Every year the Elk come to Mammoth Hot Springs in mid Sept. to October for the rut and it had been years since we had been and wanted the kids to see these guys up close...and they did.

Bad pic, but this bull is gathering his harem to head up the hill for the night. He stood up, bugled and the group followed--it was an awesome scene to watch.

Mia loved sitting on this bear statue at the post office

We woke up to this lady right outside our cabin doors and it was so neat to see her up close and have a little breakfast with her :)

After morning elk-viewing, we headed up to the hot springs and they are amazing and unlike any other formations I've seen

We drove through the park for more sight-seeing and had to get a picture of this old touring bus...cool.

and of course, because I am the mother of this family, we had to get ice cream.  Check out this double decker bunny tracks cone-- this picture doesn't even do it justice!  

This was at Canyon Village Deli if anyone is going up there anytime soon :)

We stopped at the falls  and saw this beautiful double rainbow

mia and dad

We also walked the Norris Geyser Basin loop, which I can't believe Dave and I had never done before.  It is the hottest geological site in the park and filled with a huge variety of hot pots, mud pots, geysers just a steamy, awesome sight to see

We ended the trip by seeing this bull elk relaxing in the grass with the ladies nearby.

During the trip we saw buffalo, deer, bald eagle, lots of elk, brown eagle, coyote and even a very far off wolf (a first for us).  What a great first trip for the kids (first since they can remember) and I know we will be back here many times over the years if anyone wants to join us!