Halloween 2011

Another Halloween come and gone in the Beasley household. We came, we saw, we conquered! We took a bit of a unique approach to Halloween this year. We dressed the whole family, Maria included, as ghosts. I had this idea last year and knew I would need all year to talk the family into the idea.

I bought two XL sets of twin sheets for $15 a piece, some white face paint, and white hair spray. Put the sheets on the kids, cut a hole for the head and two holes for the arms and BAM! A GHOST!

We tried out the costumes first at the Gardner Ward trunk or treat. This is a big hit for our ward every year. We have a chili cook off, cake walk, games, spook alley, and we all line up the mini-vans and let the kids make the rounds around the cars until all the candy is gone. Then we finish up the night with an intense ride home. Two tired baby girls, who are....well tired...and three older kids who are arguing over who got the best candy, and two parents yelling, "Stop Eating Your Candy!" Then we have the night of Halloween. For years we have gathered at our good friends the Taylors. We have pizza, donuts and apple cider. Then as a large group we start out on our march to hit as many houses as we can. Quickly are large group speads into three or four, of course the oldest kids head out fast and the younger kids lag behind trying to grasp what in the world is going on! After about 20 houses Morgan tells me her feet are getting tired and she wanted to go back to Taylors house with Mommy and Claire. I push her a little, "Morgan this is Halloween we have to get more candy." She pushes back, "Daddy I'm just a little girl."
After she melted her daddy into a puddle I scooped her up and put her on my shoulders and headed back to the Taylors.

About 20 minutes later all the kids were back and because it was a school night we called it quits and started the process of cleaning up the kids and getting them ready for bed.

We didn't have time to sort their candy that night so we did it the next night. I think Maycee herself got more candy in one night than I did in all my tricker treating days. I believe there is an underlying problem with all the candy a kid can gather in one night, but I haven't figured it out yet. Now we don't know what to do with it.

4th of July 2011

Chillin in UTAH

The Neighborhood Gang

Summer swim lessons

Carter and T-ball

Great Iowa Flood of 2011

You may have heard earlier in the year about the Army Corp of Engineers trying to fight the Missouri River and hold it back from flooding. You may not have heard that they didn't do a very good job. No fault of their own, sometimes you just can't build levees big enough to hold back the great Missouri.

It hasn't been a very bad rainy season so where did all of this water come from. I guess Canada and Montana, yes the Missouri River goes through Montana, had a record snow fall this past winter. Well this snow has melted and continues to melt away downstream and has found a nice spot to rest in this little valley in Iowa.

Maria and I went up to the LDS Winter Quarter Temple this last week. Here are a couple of shots we took with Maria's phone. This is not suppose to be a lake, this is suppose to be some incredible looking Iowa corn field. Normally you can't see any water.

There were many barns, sheds and houses that were sitting in the flood waiting for it to recede. I thought about where these people were, what they were doing and what a disaster this has to be for them. I won't get all mushy, but I feel for them.

We ended up having to take a one hour detour, which we weren't expecting, because the flood has covered up parts of I-29. If you know me I'm not a patient driver to begin with, so driving on a one lane highway against traffic, behind someone that has to be right at the 60 MPH does nothing for my patience, no seriously NOTHING!

It isn't until I pass them doing well....more than 60 MPH, while dodging on coming traffic that I feel better. Unfortunately at this point we're stuck behind another yahoo going 60 MPH and now Maria's stress level is through the roof.

We made the most of it though and saw some incredible Missouri back country that I will guarantee I will never see again.