October 2016

Hooray for fall! Never mind the fact that most days in October were in the mid 80's and it feels nothing like fall...

We started the month off with General Conference.

Pumpkin Patch

During fall break, I took the kids to the local pumpkin patch. All 3 kids loved the "diamond dig"...

October 2014

Kimball after face-planting in a mud puddle on the way to the bus stop

Judy and Duke while cooking dinner

Tummy time x 3

All snuggled up for General Conference

Lily chilling in the bath

Boys in costume for a friend's Halloween party

Lily helping Dale prepare for seminary

Judy and Kimball at the school pumpkin patch field trip

We also go to go to the Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico, and celebrate Halloween of course!

Balloon Fiesta!

Since none of the boys had ever been to The Balloon Fiesta, we decided this was the year to do it! So on Wednesday October 8th, as soon as Kimball got home from school, we drove to New Mexico. This was my first time leaving our city since Mother's Day, and Lily's first road trip. We only had to stop once to feed Lily on the way there and we got there in the wee hours of the morning. It was raining and I started panicking that The Balloon Fiesta would be cancelled the whole time we were there!

On Thursday we rested and recuperated from the drive. On Friday morning, we woke up at 4:30 (?) and headed down to The Balloon Fiesta field. It started raining lightly and I panicked again, but the rain stopped and we got there in time for dawn patrol (the first balloons to go up to check wind, etc). I had forgotten how incredible it was to see hundreds and hundreds of balloons go up and Dale seemed to be in awe of the sight as well.

 

 The boys got bored and were tired until they saw Darth Vader and Yoda take off, then they got really into looking for special shape balloons.

Later that day we went to a pumpkin patch where they had tons of kid activities from sling-shots to pumpkin bowling, etc.

Dale told the boys they could each pick a pumpkin they were willing to carry. Kimball did really well with his until he got out the gate and dropped it. His pumpkin had a huge split and Dale taped it for the ride home, but sadly it did not survive until Halloween.

Saturday we just hung out and shopped. Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting then were on our way. At a random gas station in New Mexico, there was a free car museum. It was hilarious listening to the boys ooh and ah over the antique toy cars they had.

In Oklahoma we hit a massive storm where we could barely see the road through the rain, but we were blessed to see an incredible double rainbow and got to chase it down the freeway for a while...sadly no pot of gold.

We made it home safely and it was a quick trip, but so much fun!

Dallas!

My mom is from Australia, which is where all of my cousins on that side of the family live, so I don't get to see them very often. The last time we went was when I was in 6th grade and now all of the cousins are grown up and having kids!

When my cousin and his wife were flying through the US on their way back to Australia after living in England for a few years, they arranged to have a day-long layover in Dallas so we could go down and hang out with them. I'm so glad they did! It was so fun spending the day talking, reaquainting, and learning about all of the cultural differences between here, England & Australia.

We stopped by the Dallas temple...

Then we went to a park and later to the Dallas Arboretum which had more pumpkins than I've ever seen...houses made of pumpkins!

They also had Chihuly statues made of glass....

And hills to roll down...

Thanks so much Cousin!

Pumpkin Patch

Recently, Groupon had a great deal for a local pumpkin patch, so while my mom was here, we drove out with K & C. It was 85 some odd degrees and very sunny, plus the boys were totally off of their sleep schedule (aka cranky, sleepy, grumpy, etc, etc). BUT we still had a fun time!


 I was very impressed by this pumpkin patch. They had a huge slide structure with hay bales and C, being the smallest kid, kept climbing his way up there and pushing through all the kids there on field trips.

 

There was a hay ride with small portions of hay sprinkled over the bed of a trailer.

And of course a corn maze.

C keeps taking the pumpkins off our front porch and chucking them down the driveway, effectively driving me nuts, but hopefully we'll get them carved soon and he'll leave them alone :).

My mom has since gone and C still asks "err gama?" I'm so grateful that my kids have grandparents close by!