More fun with Uncle Matt and the week before Halloween!

And here's the aforementioned professional pics in all their glory of our family costumes!

 A huge thanks to Captured Passions Photography for the photos!  After our quick costume change we decided to head down to West Yellowstone for some snowmobiling!

 Okay, so maybe not, but the kids had fun checking out this snowmobile in the lobby.  We actually headed down for another frosty reason . . . Beer Fest in West!  They had some great deals that allowed us to enjoy the beer fest, stay the night and then hit Yellowstone the next day.  It's always nice to spread out some of the driving and the kids love a night in a hotel.  While Uncle Matt and James made good use of the generous beer tickets we received, the kids and I found this old restored train in the hotel!

 Pretend tea party in the dining room:

 The kids were pretty good sports about the beer fest and we snuck out to the bar for some root beer for a beer cheers with Uncle Matt's new 'das horn' for beer:

 And James couldn't resist getting his own horn!

 After a great dinner (where we oddly had to fight a 5 year old for the pheasant sausage appetizer) and a quick swim at the hotel we all comically settled in for the night.  The next morning we hit up the hangover breakfast/bloody mary bar and then it was on our way through the park.  There was rock climbing as usual:

 And then there was the fog.  Lots and lots of fog.  And silliness:

 It made our first stop a little hard to sight see:

 But the skies cleared as we hit the upper geyser basin:

 Matthew took a shot at filming the Lion group geysers (and his own fingers) as it erupted:

 It was pretty impressive:

 But of course we were waiting for Old Faithful:

 And as always it didn't disappoint:

 It was not a great day for animals until we got to Mammoth, then we saw lots of these guys hanging out:

 And some sheep:

 The next day it was time to make some care packages for a local senior center.  It was an event I put on for our Moms Club.  Admittedly, sometimes my kiddos get the short end of the stick when I host events so it's nice to have Uncle Matt as an extra set of hands to help my own kids while I helped others.  Matthew's spider sucker:

 Catherine's pumpkin bag:

 Some of the finished products!  Can you pick out Catherine's other bag?  She definitely has a distinct style!

 Back at home it was time for some of my favorite Halloween traditions.  We made caramel apples:

 And carved pumpkins:

 Catherine did an awesome job helping cut out her very distinct pumpkin face:

 Matthew was very proud of his giant pumpkin and the angry mouth:

 Catherine picked a spider for the 3rd design and James designed the silly pumpkin on the far right:

 The kids enjoyed their apples:

 As did Uncle Matt and I, just like when we were little :-)  As Uncle Matt put it "I'm not lame and don't recreate photos" as which point James kindly reminded him "his sister was lame enough" and he humored me for this photo!

 We very sadly had to say goodbye to Uncle Matt, but the Halloween fun continued with our Moms Club Halloween party.

 Where Catherine made this monster:

 Then it was time for a party at a good friend's house:

 It's been very weird not to have Matthew join us for these events, but he's enjoying school so much he hardly even notices.  However, on the weekend we hit up some Halloween events so he could join us in costume.  First up we hit the Museum:

 Where we made spider/bats:

 And pumpkins:

 And Matthew got a fake wound:

 They read some Halloween stories with daddy:

 Then we dissected an owl pellet!  The theme of the "event" is grossology, so there were lots of fun activities spread throughout the museum.  We really are very fortunate to have this resource in town!

 For the most part we spent the weekend working around the house and hanging out as the weather was starting to turn yucky.  On Sunday we headed to the University where their chemistry club was putting on a Frankenscience event.  There were lots of cool chemistry demonstrations, and of course, liquid nitrogen ice cream!  Darth Vader ready for labwork:

 And what's a science day without oobleck!

 We topped off the weekend with a much needed Costco trip to finish up some freezer meals, where the kiddos took this selfie.  Love these monkeys!