The Gathering Umphrey Family Home Site

A bunch of the kids showed up at Grandma Elda’s at the same time on Halloween night. And of course she was ready with her huge bowl of candy and homemade popcorn balls.

During the day, the kids that didn’t get to go to school for a Halloween party went to Gwen’s for games, candy, food, and to show off their costumes. Here are Paisley the ladybug, Maysa the witch and all the heroes: Spiderman Isaac, Jack the fireman, Spiderman Bryce, Ironman Zoran and Superman Lex. 

Most of the kids seemed to understand the point of musical chairs. Lex spent all his time trying to get ahold of the ipod to steal the music. Regardless, they liked dancing around to the music and it was probably better that they didn’t completely get it. Then they weren’t upset when they didn’t win. 

The kids figured out the stem trick when they were bobbing for apples. I think all of them figured out how to get one. Todd offered to hold Paisley upside down for a better angle, but she wasn’t interested in his help.

Jack and Isaac were very good at being mummified. And Zoran and Maysa were the super-fast mummy-wrappers. They finished at exactly the same time. Bryce was very interested in all the games-- until it was time to participate. No one could quite get him to join in.

Halloween was before the cold weather this year. The afternoon was still sunny and the kids wore their costumes without too many extra layers trick-or-treating in the evening. Lex prefered exploring all the Halloween decorations to playing the outside games. 

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Lex isn’t much pf a baby anymore..he turned one on October 24th. 

Cake was one of the best parts of the party for Lex; he is a big fan of most food. 

This drum and the train from Yaya were the favorite presents of the afternoon.  (Though I was pretty happy with all the clothes.)

This is Mom and me in front of our fancy castle that was home for the week. These casinos are all like giant mazes so we spent a lot of time walking around (and through) them all down the strip to get form one place to the other.
At the EMS conference I think the exhibit hall was almost as interesting as the sessions. We saw all sorts of cool equipment that would be pretty fun to have (if our ambulance had an unlimited budget). 

Friday night we made it to Lindsay in time for their weekly street fair. It was very cool and a lot larger than I was expecting. The park is right behind Becky and Doug’s house. They had people playing music and a whole collection of vendors selling everything from blankets to jewelry to toys to really delicious Mexican food. I think the food was my favorite and it was so cheap! This probably seemed even more the case since we were coming form Vegas where the soda machines are $3 and you use your credit card. Still, I think $1 for a delicious tamale is a deal anywhere. 

The next morning we also got a tour of McDermott. It’s pretty amazing already and they still have all sorts of pieces in the works.  Keilana also walked us down to her school so we got a little tour of part of the town also.

On Saturday morning we also went to an Apple Festival at one of the other towns nearby. 

Lettie’s three!

Maysa and Valerie enjoying the party. 

Air support at the Deep Draw Fire. 

First Day of School: Israel & Azia

Zoran, Azia & Valerie work on painting Christina’s fence at her birthday/ work party. 

Isaac is ready to play. 

Christa & Lex in front of the church at the center of Old Town. 

Lex was a pretty good traveler, but his favorite part of the trip may have been the chocolate. 

Of course she had a lot of help blowing out the candles. 

Maysa is very organized. After she opened all her presents, she examined everything, tried some things out, and then repacked it all into a couple of her large gift bags and took them into the house. 

Lex really liked the cake. People kept leaving their pieces unattended in close vicinity to him. He could move just well enough just to pull anything he saw into his mouth. I think he had 5-6 pieces. 

Azia and her cake

Everyone waiting for cake

Todd & Gwen

Isaac likes to help take care of Lex.  Here he was feeding him some cake and ice cream (while, of course, making sure he got some himself).

We had all sorts of pretty girls at the party...like Paisley & Lettie

Maybe we’ll have a larger TV viewing area by the time some of the fall birthdays come around and everyone wants to watch something at the same time again. This room is getting a little too cramped for our giant extended family.

The Canadian Tiger Swallowtails love the lilies. Most days there are several flitting and gliding around.

The double white clematis beside the trellis on the secret garden path is in its third year now, and is finally acting like clematis should.

The red bee balm is sort of cross between a flower and a weed--it’s so prolific and trouble free and it spreads wildly. I like it so much I planted a pink version on the pasture fence. It’s just a single plant this year, but next year it should be a whole stand.

The girls went out for a calm and civilized tour of the evening lake.

Valerie, Maysa, Paisley and Gwen glide through the sunset light.

The boys wanted something a little edgier. Jumping off the bridge to the water tower fit the bill. 

Israel does an aerial ballet. He said the water was warm. 

Daij went for distance.

Azia said she wasn’t afraid if she had a life jacket, but she didn’t have a life jacket. So she just sat of the shore and practiced being beautiful.