Fall Festivities (catch-up time again)

What goes up....
Must come down.

The "BIG YELLOW SLIDE". The only ride at the Utah State Fair we let the kids ride each year (the rest are too much of a rip-off and much safer looking at an official amusement park).
This is it folks. The reason the Beckers couldn't wait to get to the fair this year. We packed up our own pigeons and brought them with us. In the parking lot before we entered the fair, we let them loose and hoped they would make it home. They have never been clear into Salt Lake City before. We wasted no time finding the Pigeon barn. Who knew there were sooooooo many different and crazy looking pigeons?
The kids want one of each. Lucky for us over 1/3 of the pigeons being shown this year were from a guy that lived not too far from us.
Still, I think we will have to wait until Pa builds us a bigger and better pigeon loft."What is that?" asks Karissa. Brooke's favorite animal....piggies. We still have not figured out her fetish with the fat, slightly hairy, stinky animals.....but she does love them.
Brooke not only had to look at each pig but actually pet them all. Kenzie and mom just say, "YUCK"! Fortunately they have germ killer in dispensers outside of each and every animal exhibit.

Still petting....or are they having a conversation???

What would the fair be without "fair food"?

We let each kid choose a snack of their choice to eat on the way home. Upon getting home, rest assured that all 9 pigeons were there to welcome us back.

Later that same evening Kenzie and I picked up Diann and Kaelee and headed off for a night of scrapbooking...or should we just say scrapbook buying. :) Next year we will make sure to leave ourselves more time!

What would fall be without leaves? For the first time we've actually stayed in a house long enough to have trees big enough to drop lots and lots of leaves. The kids had fun ranking them up and playing in them. For the first time ever, I got just a glimpse of what a mess our backyard will be each fall....perhaps we shouldn't have planted quite so many trees!
Blake has a newfound love of throwing and catching the football. He has a pretty good arm on him for an eight year old.
Seth raking up the leaves into a crazy trail so he can get onto the mower with dad and follow his path of leaves.

Now this is John's kind of raking!
Brooke helping dad with the last mow of the season.
On to the next season....

New lights mean a new pattern must be set. Red, red, white, red, red, white.....