Smith Family Christmas Tree 2015

We went and got our tree last weekend. It is the earliest we have ever cut our tree, but since our plan is to be in Utah for Christmas we wanted to maximize our time enjoying it. We traveled to the Snowy Range and found more snow than in years past. It was the good kind of snow. Perfect for making snow balls

 

 or a cute snow creature {courtesy of Bay}.

 

 Emmrey found it to be just the right backdrop to practice her splits

 

 After a bit of searching we spotted this beautiful Subalpine Fir.

Bailee jumped right in to help cut it down

Trekking through deep snow and hauling the tree out of the forest, we had worked up an appetite. Mark made us grilled cheese and hot chocolate for lunch.

 

and there is always sledding involved in our outing

It was a nice day spent in the mountains.

Now we've got this beautiful tree waiting in the garage until we find the right time to bring it in and decorate:)

Zoo Outing

A zoo outing is typically a summer activity for us, but living within an hour of the Denver Zoo we decided to buy a season pass. A few Saturdays back we spent what we thought might be one of the last "nice days before winter really starts to kick in" at the zoo. 

This is usually how we roll in the car .. ...

 To our surprise the place was pretty full of visitors although nothing like the summer months. We actually saw more active animals and were treated to this Lion King scene.

 The Elephants were out and about

 It was a beautiful day for exploring the zoo

 Emmrey took lots of pictures

 Bay and Kars took to the drums

I found Mark's twin;)

 It was so much more relaxing not having to navigate through the hordes of people

 even Gorden came along this time

It was a great family outing!!

{SCARE-y Halloween}

Halloween was SCARE-y and amazing! 

  We were so lucky to have another beautiful day for Trick or Treating. We took Emmrey downtown in the afternoon. Not sure if it was that more families have moved to Wellington, or just more decided to participate this year, but there seemed to be more people than last year which added to the festive feeling. 

 When it got dark, we took the girls to check out a "Haunted House" that a local family puts on for the kids as part of trick or treating. It was a little on the hokey side, but it was also free so who's complaining?  After that, Mark took the girls around our neighborhood for a while. I stayed back in case we got any visitors this year. We got about a 15 kids, which beats last year(0).  Emmrey was anxious to dig through her bucket to see what she could share with her momma;) The craziest thing given out this year was a bag of potato chips!

It was a Happy Halloween for our crew!!

Carving Pumpkins from the garden

On Halloween morn' we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. The coolest part about it was that this year they were our very own pumpkins .. .. from our very own garden. I missed visiting the Pumpkin Patch but didn't miss having to buy them;) We ended up with about a dozen. They weren't all that large, but they were all shaped really nice. Emmrey made us this little sign for an extra nice touch!

 Then the carving was on ...

 Love the looks on their faces:)

 The finished products from the girls .. ..

 .. .. and a silly one for good measure!

And here they are all a glow later in the evening

(L to R) Kim+Mark~Bay~Kars~Emm

Halloween Parade

Friday was the Costume Parade and Class Party at Eyestone. 

Mark took the day off so he could stop by.

 All the students parade through the school for the family/friends to watch. It is so fun to see all the kids costumes! I always wished we did this in Cody. It brings back happy memories of my days at Rolling Meadows.

Izabella, Emm and Trinity

I helped with the Pretzel dipping and decorating station. 

Kids love them some sprinkles!!

 After the parade there was about a 1/2 hour until the end of school. Just enough time to fill plates with goodies. Without fail, the treat table always includes those darn cupcakes with more frosting than cake:(

Emm with Sophie

 BUSTED!! :)