Seemingly Opposites: BYU fireside and Devil's Backbone

It's a week late, but we had a really wonderful weekend attending the BYU fireside, hiking Devil's Backbone, and attending the BYU vs. CSU football game. Halloween was fun, but it was really these events that created some lasting memories.
On Halloween night, the BYU football team held a fireside for all who wanted to attend. We decided to get there early to get seats. I was a bit over-zealous and we were the first ones to arrive. So I took the kids around the neighborhood, flying from house to house trick-or-treating. The supermen made off pretty good with 20 min of candy gathering. Debbie and Grace were saving seats for us in the front. Before long, the team showed up with Bronco Mendenhall, as well as President Samuelson. It was a very spiritual event with two football players giving talks, followed by a very humble and spiritual talk by Bronco. Finally, President Samuelson talked to us and bore a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The boys and Grace did pretty well through the whole thing. Afterward, Reese said he wanted to meet Max Hall, so I held both Cameron and Reese in search of our quarterback. We found him sitting in the back with his wife. While there were quite a few people around him, he made eye contact with our boys and made his way over to talk to them. As he was coming over, Reese asked, "is that Max Hall?" I said, "it sure is." Reese then turned bright red and was obviously embarrassed with a sheepish smile on his face as Max asked how they were doing and if they were coming to the game. Reese was so adorable! Max gave them high fives and we wished him luck before he was engulfed by other fans. We then made our way to Bronco Mendenhall who is such a wonderful man. Reese wanted him to sign something so Bronco wrote " Reese: Choose the right!" and signed his name. Finally, we talked to President Samuelson and introduced the kids to him. It was AWESOME! That was probably one of my favorite Halloweens and I'm sure Reese won't forget it either. I think Debbie was also really moved by the Spirit that was there. We both agreed that there was nothing better we could have done with our Hallows eve as it became a Hallowed one for us.

The next morning, we packed up the family and headed 15 miles south to Loveland. Between the town and the foothills is an area called the Devil's Backbone. Large spike like rock formations run in a straight line for miles over prairie hills. We had heard it was a kid appropriate hike and we were not dissappointed. The kids had a great time walking around, looking for rocks that they thought were surely dinosaur claws:) and just enjoying our time together. It was a beautiful area with easy paths to hike. Our hike ended at the Keyhole, a large hole in one of the spikes that resemble some of the arches at Arches National Park. While it doesn't hold a candle to those magnificent formations, it was nice to be reminded of some of our cool previous family outings and create new memories at the same time.