Little Cohen arrived Monday night.
Cohen is the first cousin who lives right here in Charlotte, and we were so excited to get to visit him in the hospital.
We all took several turns holding him...
I have a feeling my kids will give this little guy whatever he wants.
This picture copyrighted by Jordan Mattingley Photography
Our little author Courtney read one of her short stories - The Adventures of Bill the Amazing Flying Gorilla.
Jordan on his guitar playing "21 Guns" by Green Day. 
Jason (on the far right) with the rest of the Bishopric performing their very impressive sychronized swimming routine. Talk about hidden talents...And Alyssa and I had fun in the audience taking pictures and video. =)
a sailor girl...
and Alice in Wonderland...
...and a teenager who's too old to trick or treat.
We were happy the neighborhood was home to the Carlsons (a family in our ward famous for their Halloween and Christmas displays). Trust me, this picture doesn't do it justice. It's spectactular. We parked at their house and walked around from there.
Alyssa and Courtney with their trick-or-treating buddies. They weren't expecting to get to trick-or-treat this year, so this adventure was definitely an added Halloween bonus.
Happy Halloween!
Here's Uncle Craig adding one of the ingredients to the bowl.
Aunt Melanie taking her turn (and then another turn for soon-to-arrive baby Cohen)
Once the ingredients have been stirred, the witches are squished into balls and rolled in powdered ghosts.
The witches are not around very long.
Joanna and Craig's masterpiece
Alyssa with her creation
Courtney and Ben's pumpkin
Jordan is definitely creative
Then we finished things off with Melanie's awesome monster cakes.
Thanks Melanie and Ben!
Courtney on a rather depressed-looking pig
Posing in the pumpkin patch
(Jason was still on vacation, so he got to join us for the first time this year.)
Courtney was really excited about this tiny pumpkin
Court and Jason checking out the combine
Jason possibly rethinking his career path?
The highlight is definitely the cool slides at the playground area
Everyone (including Dad) heading up the ramp
Jason's first trip down was a little more painful than expected
Love this daddy-daughter shot
At first, the kids went down by themselves. That was only fun for so long, though, and then it turned crazy as they started going down together...
...and chasing each other down the slides.
We take this picture every year, and every year, it gets harder to cram them in.
And it's even harder for two adults...
I call this one "quiet repose." Actually, you might be able to see the corner of a DSi sticking out of his hand. This is really "teenager was ready to go before everyone else."
Had to throw this one in (especially since I was teased for taking this picture). But really, when do you ever see a goat like this? Officially, it was called the "goat walk." The goats could go up a ramp from the pasture, cross the bridge, then descend the winding stairs on the other side where people could feed them.
Until next year...
Alyssa and Dad sporting our flag. Each group that enters the maze has to carry a flag. If you get lost or need a clue, you can wave your flag in the air as a distress signal, and one of the spotters comes to your rescue. (They also have a no-running rule in the maze, so apparently, the flags also let them know if groups are ignoring that rule when they suddenly see a flag moving a little too fast. And then comes the public scolding over the PA system.)
As you collect more pieces, you fill in the map of the maze. The more pieces you collect, the better you can navigate your way thru the maze.
It was completely confusing. Especially in the very beginning (with no pieces of the map), we just blindly followed pathways and hit lots of dead ends. (And considering the maze covered seven acres, there were a lot of dead ends...) Jordan (with his knack for puzzles and all things spatial) quickly emerged as the one who could make sense of the confusion. His mom, on the other hand, pretty much remained disoriented the whole time and mainly just followed along taking pictures.The color of the ribbon along the path changed colors depending on what part of the maze you were in. That helped a little, but we often found ourselves suddenly in a new color when we didn't want to be or trying to get to a different color but unable to find the right path to get us there.
Courtney's favorite part quickly became the water stations. Her enthusiasm for the maze waned early on, and she was more excited about finding water than she was the mailboxes.
We finished in 1 hour, 57 minutes. (They time stamp you at the beginning and end.) Looking at the completed map, it's surprising we found our way out at all. Even then, we hadn't actually found the last three map pieces; we just happened to take the right turn that led us to the exit!
Here we are exiting the maze on "Victory Bridge." Not the best picture with everyone squinting in the sun, but it was a happy moment nonetheless.
Courtney the 3rd grader
