October festivities

In preschool, Bradley is able to take something that begins with the letter of the week.  This particular week was the letter "F" so we chose "Fall leaves."  It was not an easy feat to find these leaves.  We went driving around for quite some time to gather anything we could find since Fall had not really happened yet.  Bradley loved his collection.

I wanted to take my kids to a pumpkin patch so they could pick out their own pumpkins.  I looked online and found one in Riverton.  It was a lot of fun.  Their were some cool tractors, a hay ride and corn maze to enjoy.  The hardest part was being charged for each pumpkin depending on the size.  I wanted to make sure we weren't charged too much so we were careful with what we picked.  Next time I will let them get a little larger ones since it didn't really come to very much money.  We all had a great time.  Unfortunately Byron wasn't around to enjoy it with us, but will hopefully be able to come next year.

 Camille, Carter, Johnathan, Bradley, Parker & Tanner

Bradley made a cute ghost at preschool.

Lisa McArthur is so awesome to put together a fun Halloween party.  This was Bradley's 3rd year going and he loved it.  Here are the 3 cute pirates all together - Peyton Ercanbrack, Bradley &  Porter McArthur.

Bradley won the guessing contest with how many pumpkins were in this container.  He was pretty excited about this.

Breaking the pinata.

The fun loot - he got so many fun things that the next few hours were spent playing and eating them.

Maceys has a tail gate party before the BYU Football games.  Since we now have a Macey's in Lehi, it was fun to go and see what it was all about.  So many fun treats were being passed out along with games and blowup slides.  We got there pretty close to when it started, so there weren't many people to fight with on the games.

Parker throwing the ball into the net.

All of my boys ended up getting a free shirt from making baskets.  They were pretty excited even though they are pretty gigantic on them - they will make great pajamas.

Carter going down the slide.

Byron Southeast Asia, New Zealand & Australia

Byron went to 7 countries in 7 business days - even Byron's boss who travels a lot has never done that.  This means arriving between 10-midnight at the airport, getting to your hotel really late, waking up early to do a training in the office, then heading to the airport between noon-3.  He was in many of these countries less than 24 hours with no time for sightseeing.  Most of these pictures are from the hotel room and airport.

Auckland, New Zealand - Byron had never been here and was really excited to have the opportunity - other than the extremely long airplane flight and also the lack of time:).

Check out these jerky's - Emu, Aussie, Crocodile & Kangaroo

Byron is standing on top of a volcano as he looks out at the city.  Very windy and luscious green all over the volcano - the other side has the crater which is a sacred spot.

From a restaurant they ate dinner at - just a very beautiful seaport - Auckland. 

Type of ice-cream at the same restaurant listed above and some dessert below.

Sydney, Australia - Byron was also very excited to see this country also.  Of course it was such a quick trip he really wasn't able to enjoy it very much.

Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera house.

Byron says it is the worst having to stay at a Marriott where he is used to such nicer hotels.  Notice the nice shower in the middle of the floor next to the toilet :).

Bangkok, Thailand - Byron has been here a few times, but always fun to go back again. 

This statue is located in the airport - pretty cool looking.

Check out the super corn ice-cream.  Cannot believe they actually have that flavor - wonder if anybody ever buys it:).

Singapore - Fort Canning Hotel - the bathtub was on top of lava rocks.  Byron plugged in his razor to the wrong plug and tripped the breaker.  It went pitch dark as Byron scrambled to get dressed and go tell the hotel.  Pretty stressful couple of minutes.  I couldn't imagine having to be careful what plug I plugged my things into.

Indonesia - This is a typical Indonesian restaurant where the 2 on the right hand side being Muslim ate the rice that was wrapped in banana leaves using their hands.  The Mormon and the Catholic on the left used forks.  It was pretty awesome for him to watch them eat.  They were actually cleaner than those who used forks.

Talk about "mystery meat."  Byron said he thinks one of the pieces was chicken on a stick, but he wasn't sure.  He just eats it all - a pretty crazy eater in my opinion:).

 Malaysia -

Tallest twin towers in the world - Petrona Towers.

The one Saturday he had on his trip was spent in Malaysia.  He went to Batu Cave.  There is a tall statue out front with many stairs to get up to the cave.  Vicious monkeys all along the way.  Byron was so nervous he was running from one side of the stairs to the other to avoid the monkeys.  I love monkeys and think I would have loved being here, but if they looked vicious, maybe that would have been scary. 

Philippines -  Because of a typhoon, the NuSkin office shut down.  The office was on backup power for 2 hours then the entire office shut down.  He called the Manila temple and surprisingly they were one of the only places open in all of Manila - they were even on a backup generator the whole time.  Amazing wind - tree branches everywhere - pretty scary!

In the Philippines airport - real frogs made into purses.  They feel like thin slimy leather.  You could get a full frog like these or half a frog from the stomach down.  I am so glad Byron didn't surprise us with one of these - pictures are all we need:).

Byron brought these cool things back from Indonesia.  This is a traditional relaxed dress for the women there.  He got Camille & I some fun dresses - very comfortable!  The skirts below are so fun with all of the different materials sewn together.  They both go to the feet, so I cut Camille's at the knees and it makes a very fun skirt for her.

Cloth and candy from New Zealand.

The kids all huddled around Byron enjoying all he was pulling out of his suitcase.

There is a Kiwis bird in New Zealand.  This magnet was one that Byron brought back since he tries to collect one from every place he visits.

Traditional shirts from Indonesia - my cute boys - Parker, Bradley & Carter

Some fun jewelry and turtles.

Johnathan was so excited to see what money Byron brought back for his money collection. 

The Sydney magnet

I am looking forward to travelling with Byron some day to all of these exotic places.