Northpark Trains

Blake is even more into trains this year than last year, and I really didn't think that was possible.  He could watch trains FOREVER! He asks to watch train videos on YouTube constantly-big trains, little trains, it doesn't matter.  He just completely loves trains.  It was fun to see him watch the Northpark trains again this year.  Last year he liked it a lot, but this year he LOVED it.  On our first trip, we watched the trains for 2 hours and that still wasn't enough for him, so we went back another day and watched them for another 2 hours. He could have gone everyday and stayed there all day watching those little trains.  

This car was one of Blake's favorite part of the whole train display.  He thought it was really funny that the car crashed into the light pole.  He would watch the trains for a while and then ask to go back to the car crash.  His other obsession besides Trains is Matchbox cars so it was no surprise to us that he loved this part as well.

Decorating the Tree

Blake was really into decorating the Christmas tree this year.  He loved every minute of it and loved being able to put the ornaments wherever he wanted.  Most of the ornaments he put on the tree ended up in clusters, but we loved it and kept the ornaments just how he placed them.

We also took our traditional "Blake on the ladder" picture.  He loves climbing the ladder when it comes out for Christmas decorations and every year we snap a picture.  Each year he gets higher and higher.  Here is the first year picture and second year picture.

A Goofy Halloween

When I started asking Blake what he wanted to be for Halloween this year he told me "Super Goof".  There is an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where Goofy dresses up as a superhero and his name is Super Goof.  Since most people don't know who Super Goof is and I didn't think it would be very easy to put together a Super Goof costume, we convinced Blake that being Goofy was just as fun as Super Goof .Once he saw the costume he was all for it.

We started out our Halloween fun with going to our ward's Trunk or Treat.  Blake loved it!  Eating hot dogs for dinner and then getting to go to each car and get candy is his idea of a perfect night.

Halloween night, we went to my parent's house for trick or treating with Blake's cousins. 

Blake was a little unsure of trick or treating this time.  We don't know if it was because it was dark outside or if the Halloween noises outside scared him, but for about the first 10-15 minutes Blake wanted nothing to do with trick or treating.  He kept saying he wanted to "go home" and insisted that we hold him.  We continued walking around the neighborhood while Carter, Clara, Zachary and Chase went up to all of the doors.  After a while,Blake must have decided that everything was okay, because all of a sudden he decided that he wanted to go to the door with his cousins.  When he came back from the door, he said, "This is fun! Let's go to another house. Let's go get more candy!"  Crazy kid.  Once he got over his fear, he had a really fun time trick or treating around Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood.

Dallas Arboretum Pumpkins

It was the week before Halloween and I realized that I hadn't done anything "Halloween-ish" with Blake.  So, I called my friend in the ward who has a little boy that Blake loves to hang out with and we headed to the Dallas Arboretum to get in some pumpkin patch fun.  I love the Arboretum in the fall.  There are pumpkins everywhere!  It is definitely a yearly tradition type of place.  Blake had a lot of fun playing with the pumpkins and I got a lot of pumpkin pictures, so I felt a little better about Halloween sneaking up on me this year.

I love this picture because Blake completely posed for this picture all on his own.  He put his foot on the pumpkin, looked at me and started smiling. Easiest picture ever.

This is one of the many houses they have that is made out of pumpkins.  

 Blake really liked the bumpy pumpkins.  He thought they were pretty cool looking.

 Carrying pumpkins around is tough work.  You know he means business when the tongue is out. 

Blake and his good buddy Grant.

Texas State Fair

Where did October go?? I cannot believe that it is already gone and Thanksgiving is next week.  I am really behind on this blog, so I am trying hard to catch up with what we have been doing lately.  One of the things I really wanted to do again this year was go to the Texas State Fair.  I am not sure why, because I think I only went the state fair once the entire time I lived here growing up, but I think it is fun.  Blake actually liked  a lot more about the fair this year, except for Big Tex.  I tried to get a picture with Blake by Big Tex and Blake immediately started freaking out.  Then, Big Tex started talking and that just put Blake over the edge.  He wanted nothing to do with the fair after that and to this day if you ask him about the fair he will say, "Cowboy scary. Cowboy too loud." I am pretty sure if I was 2 1/2 years old and saw a 52 foot talking cowboy I would be scared too.

One of the things Blake liked last year at the fair that he really liked this year was the kids farm.  They give the kids little aprons to wear and you walk around a pretend farm and the kids get to do a bunch of farm activities like planting seeds, water the trees, milk the cows, feed the goats, etc.  Then at the end they give the kids money for all of their hard work on the farm and they get to go to their store and pick out a snack to use your money on.  It is really cute and Blake had a lot of fun with it.

We also checked out the petting zoo at the fair.  Blake was terrified of every single animal in there last year, so we weren't sure how he was going to do with it this year.  He was still scared of the large intimidating animals, like the camel and cows, but he really liked the rest.  I think his favorite part of the petting zoo was feeding the goats. He loved them!  He thought feeding them was super cool but he also kept trying to hug them through the gate.

Hugging the goats

After we scared Blake with Big Tex, he was completely done with the fair.  He just continued to say, "All done. I go home now." We made it up to him by taking him to the toy train display.  Once he saw the trains he immediately liked the fair again.  

 

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Utah Trip

We took a trip to Utah in September.  Eric and I had both wanted to visit Utah and Eric really wanted to go to a BYU football game so what better game to go to other than BYU vs. U of U?  Don't talk to Eric about the game though, it was a sad, sad night for him.  We met Eric's family in Utah and had a lot of fun catching up with  them and visiting some of our Utah friends. I had fun going to Quilted Bear and Robert's while Eric was at the football game. We also went to Bridal Veil Falls and Sundance while we were there and Blake discovered a new favorite activity..throwing rocks into the rivers. We let him throw a few off a bridge over the river and  we quickly created a new addiction. He could honestly do it for hours.  We loved our trip to Utah.  You forget how beautiful it is there until you go back.  

This is one of the bridges by Bridal Veil Falls that Blake was throwing rocks off of.  Lately, when we take Blake's picture, he says, "CHEESE!" really strenuously like it is this super hard thing to do or something.  So, sometimes we end up with facial expressions like this one in the picture.  We love him.

While we were at Bridal Veil, we tried to get a picture of all the Strong family cousins.  This is the best one I got.  It was incredibly hard getting this many kids to all sit, smile and look at the camera at the same time.

Throwing rocks at Bridal Veil.  We had to hold on to him because he was throwing the rocks with so much force that it was making him leap forward.  The worrier in me came out and I just imagined Blake unintentionally throwing himself into the icy cold waters of Bridal Veil Falls.

Throwing more rocks into the rivers at Sundance.

Happy Halloween