Halloween 2013

We had a lot of fun this Halloween.  We pulled out our costume box at the beginning of October so the boys were able to dress up a lot.  I took the boys to my Mom's work to trick-or-treat and they came out with a haul!  Everyone at my Mom's work dresses up and decorates the whole office so the boys really loved it.  Next we headed to Todd's mom's work to show her the boys costumes.  Later that night we went out with Todd around our neighborhood before he had to head off to school.  Our next stop was my parent's house to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood with his cousin Skyler.  

Here are my parents with Skyler, Kayson and Everett.  

Kayson the awesome red ninja!  (He took being a ninja seriously).

My ninja and cute little lion.  

Raaaaawwrrrr!!  Everett trying to scare us with his big lion rawr!

Everett really wanted to be a ninja like Kayson, so I let him be the ninja during the day then changed to the lion for trick-or-treating.

Visiting Grandma Larson (aka the NERDS) at work.

After trick or treating at my parents house we headed to my sister, Summer's house to trick or treat with most of the cousins.  Nicole, Skyler, Haven, Kayson, Everett and Camryn.  The boys had a blast going out with their cousins, but were super tired by the time we were done.

THE LOOT!

Joseph Milton Beckstrand

Joseph Milton Beckstrand

April 1924 - October 2013

Tuesday October 22nd my Grandpa passed away.  He was in an ATV accident while hunting with family in Meadow.  He was life flighted to Provo Hospital where he was placed on life support.  We were able to get to the hospital around 9:00 pm to go and see him.  All of my Grandpa's kids were able to be there along with most of the grandkids.  I was able to spend 6 hours with my Grandpa in the ICU before he passed away at 3:30 am.  

My Grandpa was an amazing man.  Everyone he met just loved and respected him.  I remember going to his house and picking lots of yummy food from his garden, and running around playing in the backyard with my cousins.  My Grandpa was always there for anyone who needed him, and was the sweetest man.  He always made me feel so special.  I will miss him so much!

Grandpa's funeral was such an incredible experience.  My Grandpa served in the military during WWII and was taken prisoner in Germany during the Battle of the Bulge.  He was so neat to see the American Flag draped over his casket.  Here is a picture of my family with Grandpa's casket.

My mom with the grandkids (minus Ashton).

All the kids love Uncle Ty!!

My family (minus Crystal).  I sure do love these guys!

We got a picture of all my Grandpa's grandkids and great grandkids.  

Here are the original grandkids.  I have such great cousins and am grateful for the chance to be with them and catch up during all of this.

By this point Kayson and Everett were tired, hungry and thirsty, but they did so great!

Kayson and Everett got to pick a flower from the grandkid bouquet of flowers to place on his casket.

My Dad's siblings.  Craig, Neil (my Dad), Janice, Sandra, Mark, Ron.

This was a really emotional part.  The Military was there to pay tribute to my Grandpa as well.  These three men were standing at attention right by the hurse when we pulled up the the cemetery.  There were also four other Veterans standing in a line waiting.  They did their salute by firing 3 shots into the air and playing the horn.  After this these men folded the flag and presented it to our family.  

The pallbearers.  Ty, Logan, Adam, Keaton, Chris, Greg, Brant and Jason.

Here is a picture of my Grandpa's uniform.  It was so cool seeing this and made me even more proud of my amazing Grandpa!  We love you and miss you Grandpa!!

Our Journey to Zion

On Friday morning we packed up the car and headed down to Zion's National Park.  I had never been there before so I was really excited!  We left home around 8:30 am and got to Zion's about 1:30.  The kids did great on the drive down and we only needed to stop once for lunch.  Once we got there we met Todd's family in the park and took a mini hike up to Weeping Rock.  

Here is Everett hiking the trail (excited to be out of the car!)  

Kayson lookin studly in his Utes shirt.  He loves being outdoors so this hike was perfect for him!  Not too long and a really cool ending point.  

Man these boys are handsome!!  They found a really cool looking spider, orange body with black legs.

After we got back down from that hike we went and let the grandkids play by the river for a bit.  The sand there was just like the beach so some of the smaller boys thought they would build sandcastles.  

The next morning Todd and I set off to hike The Narrows.  We got permits to be able to hike from the top down (which is a much longer hike) so we had to leave at 4:00 am.  We drove up the mountain for 2 hours to get to the top.  (A HUGE thanks to Kent and Deniece for driving us!) We got to the top to start our hike around 6:30, and boy was is COLD and dark!!  We got all bundled up in our jackets, hats, head lamps, and awesome dry pants and socks.  The first part of the hike was on dry land weaving down to the river bed.  The rest of the 16 mile hike was in the river or on the rocks right out of the river bed.  It took us 11.5 hours to hike The Narrows, which is pretty good time.  Here are some of our awesome pictures from this amazing adventure!!

Jacob, Keli, Jeff, David, Brit

Todd was our picture taker, I'm so glad he took as many pictures as he did so we could remember just how beautiful and amazing it was.

Todd found a cool cut out in the rock and climbed up for a photo op.

Most of the hike we were surrounded by huge towering cliffs.

Don't you just love our awesome pants/shoes?  They really did keep our legs dry and the wet suit socks and shoes kept our toes from freezing in the just above freezing water.

I'm so glad we went this time of year.  The fall leaves made it even more beautiful.

Being awesome with our walking sticks.

It was so cool to see all the different cut outs and the ways the rocks were shaped by the wind/water.

The crew (minus Todd, he's taking the picture)  Jeff, Brittany, David, Robby, Wendy, Jacob, Keli.

Todd and his Dad.

At one point in our hike our path was blocked by fallen trees on top of a waterfall.  We had to find another way around it and found this awesome path between the rocks.

Todd and his Dad in front of the waterfall road block.  

My handsome man conquering the Narrows.

A lot of the hike was crossing back and forth across the river.  Some parts were only up to our ankles and some parts were belly deep through rushing water.  The deep parts were hard because the water was moving so fast we had to shuffle across without getting knocked into the freezing cold water.

We were so excited to make it to this waterfall!!  It ment only 5 more miles to go....though those five miles still take a few more hours.

Here is a picture of one of the deeper parts of our hike.

Following the line across the river.

Here is a picture of Jacob and Kaden and David and Ben on our way back down from Weeping Rock.

This trip was truely amazing.  It was so gorgeous, fun, hard, exhausting, painful, rewarding, beautiful.  We had so much fun doing this with Todd's family, and so grateful to Todd's mom and sister and also Jacob's parents for watching our kids so we could do this.  We were so sore and tired by the end, Todd's feet were bruised and purple and I my legs were so sore I could barely lift them up.  On top of all the hard and pain it was so worth it to accomplish this.