November

Gotta get caught up! Here's what we did in November....

The boys finished up their soccer season. Jack's team had a fun party at Peter Piper.

Tate's team had so much fun together. He had a great coach and loved being on a team with so many good friends.

Joslyn loves getting her tutu on for tumbling (which she affectionately calls "dance class"). She has a blast doing all her tricks. She loves the trampoline and rope swing most.





The kids and I went to an event at the Air Museum. They thought it was pretty cool crawling through the F16 bomber.


We went to the dunes for Thanksgiving. I really wanted to organize a yummy homemade dinner, but somehow we wound up at Golden Corral for the buffet. The kids loved having cotton candy for dinner. Marie was not so thrilled about it.



Tate lost another tooth before we went to the dunes. He wanted to wait to put it under his pillow until we went to the dunes. I think he was hoping the tooth fairy there would be more generous. Unfortunately he wasn't asleep when the tooth fairy attempted to deliver the money. The whole next day he told everyone about dad's mess up.
Getting dressed while at the dunes is optional. Everything gets sandy anyways!
These two creative boys sure do have a good time together!

And these little girlies are best buddies!

We loves smores in the sand!

October Part 2

Tate got to go to his first Cub Scout Day Camp. He loved it! I must say I really do enjoy my calling as a cub scout den mom. I know some moms are not to hip on this calling, but I like it. I get to work with Tate. After a year of this calling I'm starting to understand the cub scout program. The boys are at a great age where no matter what you plan for the activity they think it's awesome. Like last week we learned about keeping the earth clean and we picked up trash around the church - they loved it! Anyways, scouts is awesome and I'm glad Tate thinks so too!


I got real lazy about Halloween costumes this year. I waited until week of to attempt to figure it out. Fortunately for me, Old Navy marks down their costumes BEFORE Halloween, so Joslyn scored a cute butterfly costume for CHEAP! (Did you know SALE and CLEARANCE are my favorite words?)
Tate was insistent that he wanted to be the Luke Skywalker that trains in the swamp because he wanted to wear his Yoda backpack that he got at Disneyland this summer. We came up with what I thought was probably the lamest and most embarrassing costume which consisted of ace bandages, pants 3 sizes too small, and a cut up and spray-painted undershirt. He thought it was great, and asked me repeatedly if I thought he'd win the prize for best costume at the ward party. I'd respond "We'll have to see", but truthfully I was thinking, "Heck no! This is the worst costume ever!" I could not believe it when he actually did win one of the prizes for best costume. He was thrilled! I was shocked, but glad that his silly (expensive) Disneyland souvenir paid off!
We had a fun spooky dinner on Halloween night.
Dad pulls out all the stops for Halloween. Blow-up scary thing. Fog machine. Black lights. Fog bubble machine. Skeletons. Bones. Etc.

So glad grandma Jeanene had a firefighter costume Jack could borrow! He loved that it glowed every time I took a picture.


We had a fun Halloween!

October Part 1

John and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary with a cruise up the east coast. We started off with a red-eye flight to New York and tried our best to see the entire city in one day. We did pretty good and saw most of the major touristy stuff, including gigantic rats in the subway!

We attempted to figure out the train/subway system. We did pretty good until we decided to try to use it to get back to our hotel at 1AM. We finally bailed and wound up paying a very shady taxi driver who dropped us off in the middle of the road across the street from our hotel? At least we made it back!
We saw Lady Liberty by riding the Staten Island Ferry out and back. Kinda fun, and free!
We saw all the protesters. What a mess!
This was all we got to see of the 911 memorial. We didn't know we needed tickets for everything else.
We took a pedicab thru central park at dusk. It was so pretty. I'd love to go back during the day.

We walked thru Grand Central Station. AMAZING! And also bought some of the most delicious chocolate cheesecake while we were there.
Of course we saw times square. CRAZINESS!!!
We did Empire State Building at night. The lights were spectacular and I am absolutely positive the building was swaying!!!
Leaving New York heading for New Port Rhode Island.

There were several tall ships in the harbor at New Port. They were so cool.

We visited two of the Vanderbilt mansions in New Port. They were incredible. You could fit our entire house in just the entryway. The design, wood, stone, gold and marble work were absolutely breathtaking! I wouldn't mind living in a house like that!


Our second stop was in Boston. We spent alot of time walking thru faneuil hall. We did a duck tour of the city which showed us cool places by land and by water. Our favorite part of that was the duck whistle they gave us at the end. (cheap thrills, and cheap souvenirs for the kids!) We ate at the Union Oyster House, one of the oldest restaurants in the US and then went at got a cannoli at Modern's pastry.

Our next stop was Bar Harbor Maine. John was especially excited as this area was part of his mission and he hadn't been there since his mission. We rented bikes and rode thru Acadia National Park. It was so beautiful. The leaves were starting to change and all the colors were amazing. It was really fun to bike too. I'd love to do that again!




Then we went for seafood at a restaurant that was right on the water. John opted for a whole lobster and ate just about all of it including an eyeball! I played it safe and had the lobster roll. All very delicious!



Our next two days we stopped in Canada. There wasn't much to do. It was pretty chilly, and it was in the middle of the week, so things were pretty dead. We wandered around some museums and shops and checked out some old ships, and then just went and hung out on our cruise ship.



We had a wonderful trip and have decided we definitely won't be waiting another 8 years to take our next cruise!!