Benjamin's First Halloween

 A couple of days ago, Catherine carved this pumpkin in preparation for a photo shoot of Benjamin. I think she did a terrific job. 

The plan was to get the cutest 1st Halloween Picture of Benjamin sitting inside the pumpkin. Things don't always go as planned. 

Catherine patiently set the stage with leaves and other decorations from the house in order to give it a nice Fall look. She has an eye for decorating.

Now it was time to place Benjamin inside the pumpkin. He only had a diaper on, so I think he got a little cold outside prior to the shoot. 

Pic of Catherine placing Benjamin inside the pumpkin.

Benjamin was content for a short period of time...

...but they forgot to put his little beanie on his head. Once they did that, it was all downhill from there.

Benjamin ended up throwing his head back in frustration which caused him to tip over backwards. No harm done, but he was definitely finished with the photoshoot after that.

Here are some other cute pics I've taken of Benjamin over the past 10 days. He liked sitting in this walker even though he's not ready to learn to walk yet. He can sit up by himself now.

Benjamin is 7 months old. We don't get to see him very often, so it's been fun having him around in order to get to know him a little better. Sure wish we lived closer to each other so I could see him a little more often.

Kennecott Copper Mine

 While Jared and Catherine are here visiting us in Utah, we decided to go visit Kennecott Copper Mine yesterday. It is only about 20 minutes from our home. It is in Bingham Canyon and is the world's largest open-pit copper mine. It produces about 1% of the world's copper and provides about 8% of the U.S. annual copper consumption. 

The open pit reminds me of the grand canyon. So huge!

The big dump trucks that haul all of the rocks for smelting and refining are huge! Look how big the tires are on the truck!

I heard someone say that each tire costs $100,000 and there are 6 tires on each truck! Crazy big and crazy expensive! I can't imagine driving one of those trucks around each day for work.

This picture shows how big the engine of one of the trucks is (in red). I read that it has 18 cylinders. Compare that to our cars that have 4 or 6. Catherine and Benjamin are standing in front of one of the plows (or whatever the yellow thing is called) So big!

We actually had tickets to see the mine last Wednesday, but when we arrived there, we discovered that it was closed due to very high winds. It turns out that they refunded us the money we had spent and then gave us free tickets for yesterday (Friday). I guess the delay paid off financially, but we did have to drive out there twice.

Some people might not find the mine a very interesting tourist attraction, but the four of us enjoyed learning more about the in's and out's of mining. Each bus taking people up to the mine was full, so many others were interested in seeing this big, famous mine also.

Fantastic Fall Foliage

 Jared and Catherine are here visiting because Jared is on Fall Break and has two weeks off from his teaching job. This is Benjamin's first trip to Utah and we're very happy to have him here.

 It's been a lot of fun having Jared's family around for the past 5 days. Ryan, Eric, and Olivia met Benjamin for the first time shortly after they arrived here. 

Three generations of Stott boys pictured here.

A couple of days ago we went up American Fork Canyon with Cheryl, Wesley, and Lainey to see the fall colors. We were a little bit late for viewing the colors in their prime, but it was still beautiful and we had a great time. After passing Tibble Fork Reservoir, we headed up to Silver Lake, just above the reservoir. This was a shot I took on the way up a windy road.

We had to travel for three miles up this road and it was a horrible, rocky, bumpy, narrow road. Wesley got pretty scared and didn't want to return on the same road, but we had no choice. It was worth the trouble because the scene from the top was amazing!

We had a great time taking photos of each other and making great memories together. 

Wesley doesn't always want to cooperate with picture taking, but when she's in the mood, she's very photogenic.

Cute pose from Lainey.

Even Benjamin smiled for the camera.

Nice mother/son moment on the mountain.

Alan & I with our three youngest grandchildren

We wish we could have had more family members with us that day, but with work and school, it wasn't possible. Maybe next time we can include more individuals.

We love the Utah mountains, especially this time of year. Splendid colors and great weather makes for a very nice outing.

Injured Fingers & Forgiveness

Last Tuesday morning, Alan and I watched Cheryl's girls, Wesley & Lainey, while Cheryl went to the temple. We had some fun things planned. First, we were going to take the girls to the park down the street and afterwards they would be able to swim in the hot tub. The girls arrived already dressed in their swim suits. They were anxious to swim first and then go to the park, but we wanted to stick to the plan, so we went to the entryway in our house where the girls warm clothes and shoes were. In the entryway, we have a little blue bench and Wesley was playing around with the padded seat that lifts up.

Not knowing that Lainey's fingers were in the way, Wesley tried to close the lid and it wouldn't close so she kept pushing down. Lainey's middle finger was caught between the bench lid and the side arm. Lainey started screaming. She couldn't free her finger, so I assisted her. Fortunately, there was no permanent damage, but Lainey must have been in a lot of pain because she kept crying hard. I tried to calm her down as much as I could and I tried to kiss the ouchie to make it feel better, but she wouldn't calm down. She kept crying for her mommy. "I want mommy" she kept saying. I tried to explain to her that her mom was in the temple and couldn't be here right now, but she kept crying for her mom. I thought it was so sweet that she kept asking for her mom to take away her pain. Every little kid knows that only mother's can take away the pain. (Grin) Nothing can replace the love of a child for her mother or the love of a mother for her child. That became very clear to me yesterday.

Wesley felt horrible seeing Lainey crying in pain! Wesley kept apologizing to Lainey to let her know that she didn't mean to hurt her finger. Wesley's anguish over hurting Lainey actually cause her to break down in tears because she felt so bad. 

This was a tender moment for me and for the girls. I had Lainey tell Wesley that it was ok, which made Wesley feel much better and her tears stopped quickly. 

After showering both of them with lots of love, we were able to start getting shoes and warm clothing on. However, it's ironic that just before leaving, Wesley was jumping around and hurt her middle finger - the same one Lainey got caught, so she started crying again. Wesley was literally feeling Lainey's pain.

After playing at the park, we decided to cross the street to visit the home of a neighbor down the street. This neighbor always goes overboard on decorating his yard for Halloween.

The homeowner saw us looking at his yard, so he went inside his house and came back out with a remote control. He pushed the button and steam started coming out of the shark's mouth that's devouring a skeleton. The kids were impressed. He told me that he had just finished that feature the day before.

I asked the homeowner how long it takes him to decorate his yard. He told me that it takes about 6 weeks. Crazy! He said that he starts putting some of the items together in his back yard in July. The yard is very impressive. I guess it's a labor of love. 

The girls finally got to swim after we returned to our house. It was really a fun morning with these two little granddaughters.