Grandpa's visit part 2

The Saturday of Grandpa's visit dawned COLD! We were up bright and early for the final football game of the season. Grandpa told Cedar to score a running touchdown and to catch the ball for a touchdown. He did it! He was so proud after the game, "Grandpa! I did it! I scored a running and a catching touchdown just like you said!"Next up on the list of fun things to do: The Panther Creek State Park Halloween party. The state park that is five minutes up the road from us is really a treasure. Sometimes it seems it's a hidden treasure. They put on some really great kids programs. They aren't very well advertised so there isn't a lot of people there, which is good and bad. Really it's too bad that more people don't come, but for us it the best.They had crafts.A fire for roasting marshmallows.A picture spot.A real pumpkin pinata. This was one of the coolest ideas I have seen. They took a real pumpkin, hollowed it out. drilled 4 holes to string a cord through and under to hang it up by then filled it to the brim with candy, stuck the top on and hung it from a tree.
Needless to say it was a huge hit.There was even a hay ride with lots of friends.As if that weren't enough for one day, we came home and got to celebrate Aspen's birthday. She wanted a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting and chocolate chips. I called it death by dark chocolate.As soon as the kids finished their cake, they were costumed and out the door to see if any of our neighbors were home. (They weren't.) But this didn't deter them. They had it on good authority which was the best neighborhood in town to trick or treat at. Luckily we have some friends who live in that neighborhood, so we didn't feel too intrusive as we parked at their house to start the night.

I didn't get any pictures of them trick or treating. Maybe I was pictured out. But my excuse is that they were too fast to get any good shots. As soon as we parked they were out the door on our neighbor's lawn waiting in line to get candy. By the time the rest of us got out of the car they were three houses down.

They were right about this being the best neighborhood. For Tennessee the yards were relatively flat and close together. They came how with quite the haul!

Olive's Testimony

Today at church Olive asked Jonathon if she could bear her testimony. He said she could and then the proceded to have a really funny whispered conversation over who was supposed to go first. Someone else beat them up so Olive whispered over to Aspen, "Aspen, will you help me with my testimony?" She said yes and Jonathon got ousted.

It was so cute to hear her little testimony. It's the first time she has ever gone up. We don't have a lot of kids in our ward so we only hear testimonies from kids a few times a year. Something amazing happened after she sat down. Kids started coming from everywhere to share their testimonies. Aspen even got up again to share hers. In some wards, I know it's not unusual for so many kids to get up, but in our ward it was. It was so beautiful to see all of these little kids, even kids you would never have guessed would get up did.

Cedar was the only member of my family who didn't get up. Aspen kept trying to get him to get up. It's not something you can force someone into though.

I don't get up often, but when my kids are leading the way, I will follow. Olive reminded my why we bear our testimonies. When I sat down she told me how much she liked my testimony and that she almost cried while I was talking. That's why I got up. An unplanned but memorable moment for me. The gospel means so much to me. I try to teach and communicate this to my children. Sometimes I think it goes in one ear and out the other, but maybe this time, for right now, they understood.