Apple Orchards and Pumpkin Patches

We've been having a ball with Autumn activities lately. For the grandparents, here are some shots from the month so far. Happy October! :)

Thanksgiving Break with Richeys

For Thanksgiving, we made the long, lonely drive to Salt Lake. The I-80 through Northern Nevada is a pretty desolate journey. The few towns that dot the highway have tag lines that fail to convince you of their importance. My personal favorite is "Battle Mountain: Halfway to Everywhere!" 

Despite the drive, we were happy to come and see our family members. Rachel convinced several of us to do a Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. When we woke up the day of the race, none of us were particularly excited about it, especially since it was freezing outside. 

As we huddled beneath the heat lamps, we were having major deja vu about our frigid Ragnar just weeks before. 

 The wind was whipped our faces the whole race, which was mercifully short -- just a 5K. We were glad to get back in the car and drive home, heat blasting, to our Thanksgiving dinner at grandma's house.

After dinner, we packed up some leftovers and drove over to Meredith's house. The two new babies were still on oxygen and heart rate monitors at the time, so she was basically housebound. Cal discovered Carson's tricycle, which he immediately started calling "my bike."

This one's my favorite:

Carson was happy to join the fun in his little car:

Somehow we managed a family picture, which is miraculous considering even the wee babes were in it!

We had a lot to be thankful for this year, but one incident in particular made this Thanksgiving even more of a reminder: the day before the holiday, my grandma had an incident with her heart. I'm still not sure if it was a minor heart attack, or if a part of the heart muscle was paralyzed, but she spent Thanksgiving Eve in a hospital bed in the ER. It was frightening for all of us, and we were so glad and grateful to have her back with us for our Thanksgiving dinner. 

Taking the cousins on the carousel during a shopping break

I love Thanksgiving. It is a wonderful time to remember how blessed we are. I'm grateful for my liberties in this country, for my religion, for my family, for our health and safety, and for the myriad of opportunities I have ever day. We are very, very blessed.

Cal's Halloween Costume

Back at the beginning of October, I took Cal to the Halloween costume store to let him look at all the costumes and try to decide what he wanted to be this year. I walked him down the aisle with all the superhero costumes, and asked him, "Do you want to be this?" as I pointed to Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Power Rangers, Batman, Spiderman, and a whole wall of others that would be sure to impress. And each time I asked, Cal answered with a bored, "Nooooooo...." -- until finally, he pointed and said, "Cal want that!"

Here's what he was pointing to:

I said, a little incredulously, "You want to be a pizza?" He assured me that he did, so I took a look at the costume. It was poorly made, little more than a pizza print on a flimsy poncho. I figured I could make a cuter one for cheap, and so Cal and I went to the fabric store. $6 for felt and glue, and here's what we came up with:

Cal was satisfied, and on Halloween night, I could tell he was proud of his costume. All the little kids could recognize what he was, and his little friends were very excited about his costume, so I think that added to his excitement and pride.

 And of course, getting a bucket full of candy never dampens his mood:

 We went over to a friend's house to trick-or-treat in a group. The moms stayed behind to get a fire going for s'mores (seriously), and the dads took the kids around the neighborhood. Reed said it was a scream. We all definitely had a Halloween hangover the next day from staying up too late, but it was such a fun night for our little pizza boy!

Simple Goings on: October edition

I know I've written about Cal's co-op preschool before, but I had to share some additional photos. He and I are both loving it so much!  I am so grateful for a wonderful, supportive group of friends in my ward. It's fantastic being a part of such an active and vibrant little community of sisters.

In addition, my friend Natalie and I have worked out a weekly, post-preschool swap that is working out fabulously. This week it was my turn to pick up these two and entertain them for a few extra hours while Nat had some free time.

Hard a work on muffin-making!

And thanks to cousin Brandon for the Halloween package, which included these muffin-toothpicks! Here they area after a day or two, after Cal had added an umbrella:

Other fun things we've been doing? Grow capsules in the bathtub, which turned into bats, pumpkins and spiders:

Perusing the Macy's Christmas decorations (already on display! It's not even Halloween yet, people!). The kids were transfixed by these singing/dancing stuffed christmas trees. I mean, who wouldn't be?

Making "monsters" out of healthy snacks (sugar-fast friendly!):

Playing with all the leaves we can find. Cal loves the way the crunch and fly everywhere -- I mean c'mon, it's pretty fun.

Pretending to be a puppy, a mouse, or a squirrel. I'm excited that Cal is getting more interested in imagining and pretending. He has always been very spacial--loves puzzles, blocks, lining things up, etc--but didn't really role play or pretend. Now, he's constantly crawling between my feet and squeaking, saying, "I baby mousie, mama! I want cheese!" 

Speaking of cheese, we've even gone so far as to take the block of parmesan from the fridge (in a ziplock, don't worry) and set it out as bait to catch our hiding mousie. He loves coming out of his hiding place, sneaking up to the cheese for a pretend nibble, and then getting caught by me and Reed, who are always extremely scandalized to see a mouse in our house!

These last three photos are from a cute Halloween lunch we went to with some friends. I loved that we all can up with non-candy items to share. How do you like those bananas? :)

That's it for this week. I know it's not a party-a-minute, but we're enjoying life, one day at a time. :)

Halloween Pen Pals

Cal came up with this idea himself! In our weekly perusal of the Target dollar aisle for fun goodies, Cal made a comment about sending presents to his cousins Carson and Brandon. He is really into sharing lately, and I want to encourage him in that characteristic, so I said, "Okay! Let's mail some Halloween goodies to your cousins." We bought a bunch of little knick knacks from the dollar aisle, including a Halloween memory game, stickers, and some rainbow-scratch paper ghost ornaments. Cal was delighted when we went to the post office to send the packages, and I admittedly had a hard time keeping the secret until my sis and sister-in-law called to tell me the boys had received their presents.

But the best surprise came about a week later, when Cal received not one, but two packages in the mail.   

 Brandon and Carson sent him toys, decorations, even socks. Here's Cal putting up his new Halloween gel-clings:

 Cal was excited about putting a felt sticky face on the pumpkin in his room.

 And he LOVED this green monster claw; he took is everywhere with him.

We'll have to keep the tradition going and send holiday packages year-round. Cal loved picking out the presents for his cousins. Hooray for pen pal cousins! It makes me happy that they'll know each other when we get together for the holidays.