Pumpkin Carving contest

The long awaited Haupt Family Halloween party and "Pumpkin Carving contest" was held last night and the pressure was intensense. There were nine entries this year for the prestigous panel of non-bias judges to view and award prizes. The top three winners for the Haupt Family in the West Division were- Most creative-Theater Faces-Courtney Leavitt carver, Scarest-Casey Leavitt carver and Best Over-Goblin-Autumn Vaterlaus-Arnett- carver. We had a fabulous time ate great food and then sang "Happy Birthday" to Steve who will celebrate his birthday on Tuesday. Hope you all have as much fun as we did carving your Halloween Pumpkins. Happy Halloween!

Can you see the tension in the air........the pumpkin carvers are hard at work.

The pumpkins are in place for the judges to inspect.

Click the play button below and see a quick video of the entries this year.

Been There...Done That!

Yes, we have been on the road again. We spent the last 5 days taking Thomas around to see the sights of Southern Utah. We started by taking him to Bryce Canyon on Thursday. He took 300 pictures total on Thursday.

Thomas looking through an Arch at Bryce Canyon

Cameron is great at taking pictures of all of us with his long arm shot!

Resting for a minute on our hike to the Emerald Pools at Zions

We did it. We hiked to the top of the Emerald Pools. Thomas really enjoyed Zion's, he said if he would have gone to Zion's then Bryce's he would have been a bit disappointed since there was so much more to see and do at Zion's. The lower picture here is a long horn sheep that we saw in Zion's, a rare sight. He took over 300 pictures at Zion's too. Thomas LOVED 4-wheeling in St. George. We took a family ride to our favorite spot, then changed to our Christmas sweaters, and took our family picture for our Christmas card this year. You will have to wait to see the results, but we about roasted, in 86 degrees and a sweater...what were we thinking????

Courtney took us on "Her Hike" in St. George. We hiked to the top of the red rocks, and sat and over looked the city from "Courtney's Spot". It was a great little hike. It was just relaxing to just sit and enjoy the scenery.
Steve and Cameron at the "Dudley Leavitt" and family memorial in Santa Clara, Ut. It was great to read about the Leavitt Family and see how much Steve and Cameron resemble their ancestors. Steve told alot of stories of his childhood, since he lived in Santa Clara for a while. We all got a few laughs over his stories.
Cameron and Thomas model our Christmas sweaters the night before our pictures, aren't they cute???? I see a sequal to "ELF" in the making!!!
We had such a fabulous time. Thomas had to take the picutes in Las Vegas, my battery died, so I will grab his pictures of touring Las Vegas next week. This Saturday is our family Halloween party and the rival "Pumpkin Carving" contest...stay tuned!

Another week at the Leavitts

Sunday we were able to go for our fall leaves drive. It was a bit chilly, since it did snow in the mountains Saturday night. This picture was taken at the Sundance ski resort. The leaves were beautiful with the snow on the mountain.

Fall leaves at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon

Friday Thomas ran his first and last cross country race. He ran a 5K in 20 minutes, if only I was 16 again. I about froze just watching, and I had all my clothes on! He did a great job and represented the Beetdiggers well! Too bad we didn't have his paper work done sooner.
Saturday morning my friends Jill, Nicole and I participated in the "Strides against Breast Cancer" we went 4.2 miles. I ran, because I am trying to work up to running 6.5 miles. After the race, I froze, because the sweat on my back was soo cold. I had to come home and sit in the HOT Jacuzzi to warm my bones up. Another fun week and next week we are heading down south to check out Zions, Bryces Canyon and go 4-wheeling. Here's to good times, good friends and a great life!

Conference, candy and cookies

So today we were hoping for a beautiful fall day and had planned to take Thomas up to Timpanogos Cave, then drive the Alpine loop and see the fall leaves.

Well, we woke up to a cold rainy day, so we went with Plan two. Plan two is watch conference, make cookies and decorate them with candy. So that is what we are doing today. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, Right! I think Thomas had a great time decorating the cookies, and hopefully we can go next weekend to see the leaves and hike to the cave.

Cameron and Courtney excited about all the cookies!

This cookie is the German Flag! Hummm, wonder who did this one???

Thomas is proud of his decorated cookies.

Crazy Cameron and his "Nose" cookie. Wish you were here to enjoy the cookies with us!

Aloha! We loved Hawaii

We returned from our 12-day trip to Hawaii yesterday afternoon. What a great way to spend your 25th Anniversary, Thanks Steve for the great trip. Steve was checking out land, he would love to live there. Who know's, we may end up there in a few years, I wouldn't complain. Here are a few pictures from our trip. Enjoy!

This picture is our first day in Oahu at the Polynesian Cultural Center, I loved the show, Steve fell alsleep,(the 4-hour time difference was hard)

This is at the Temple in Hawaii, what a beautiful temple and the view at the top looking down at the ocean is amazing.

Sunset on September 16,2008, our 25th Anniversary

This picture was taken at sunset on the beach, it was hard to see a sunset in Kauai, so we drove an hour to the other side of the island to watch the sunset, it was gorgeous and worth the drive

Spouting Horn, a neat lava blow hole that the surf comes in and makes a huge spout, like "Old Faithful". This is at "Queens Bath" a kinda sea spa, the tide comes in and keeps the water refreshed. We liked this so much we came back a few days later to snorkel and play in the water.

Steve enjoying a "Shaved Ice" at JoJo's. A yummy hawaiian treat that we both enjoyed!

This is us at Waimea Canyon, which is the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii. Pretty amazing view.

This was my favorite adventure on the trip. We took "Capt Andy's" 6-hour rafting trip around the Na Pali coast. This is the part of the island that has no roads because the ridged mountains. We went in several sea caves, saw dolphins, sea turtles and snorkeled. My arms and bottom were a little sore the next day from the rough ride, but I would totally go again. Well, what can I say, we had a blast and if anyone is going, let us know, we are ready to go again! ALOHA!

5K and Community Service Project

Monday my cousin Sandy and I ran our 8th, 5K so far this year. We ran the "Onion Days" 5K in Payson, Ut. It was a rainy overcast day, but stopped raining long enough for our race. I even improved my time by 60 seconds over last months race, probably becasue it was cooler. I came in 3rd place for my age division (29ish), wow, if I can do it, anyone can do it! Saturday, Casey, Kandace, Thomas and I volunteered for a community service project. ( Okay, I signed them up and told them they were going) This was a JetBlue service project. We helped in the construction of a playgound area for a school in a rough neighborhood. There were over 300 volunteers with our partners from AMEX. Thomas and I painted the outside wall on the playgroud, Casey and Kandace painted the Lunch room with neat quotes. We had a great time, but had to leave before everything was finished. We will have to go back and see it now that everything is done. Steve and I will head to Hawaii in a week, so the next pictures will be fun. Have a great week everyone.

Today Steve and I got to take my nephew Jacob to the MTC in Provo. Elder Haupt is going to the California, Carlsbad Mission. We were able to be with him last night as his Stake President set him apart as a "Full Time Missionary". What an unforgetable few days we have had with Elder Haupt. YOU ROCK Jake!! Thanks for sharing this experience with us.