2010 Halloween

We've gotten a little behind on keeping up on posts lately, mostly due to being busy as a family.

This year we started out the Halloween events by going to our ward Halloween party. This year we dressed the kids up as Winnie the Pooh characters. Adahleigh went as Pooh (Ashley actually made her costume by cutting up an old coat and a onesie) Charles was dressed as Tigger, and Keisha went as Piglet (the same outfit that Adahleigh wore when she was one). None of them were that willing to get their picture taken, but we got some decent ones.

Were always surprised at the faces Charles has on for pictures.

Keisha had just started crawling and standing against things, but wasn't quite stable enough to stand-up on her own for pictures.

The ward had a chili cook-off, desert and costume contest before the Trunker-Treat. Needless to say, the activities prior to collecting candy went on way too long, so we spent most of that time chasing kids around the church, to get them to slow down enough so we could talk to them we ended up sitting them on the coat racks. We were able to keep them from joining the gang of kids, that were also restless and running around the church.

The kids really did enjoy the Trunker-Treat, while Ashley passed treats out from the back of the van.

Keisha have fun giving out candy too.

We also got the chance to carve pumpkins with the kids. Adahleigh thought she was big enough to do it by herself and even wanted to use the knife without any help, we thought otherwise though.

Charles demanded to help use the knife too.

He was the one most willing to get help. Its funny when both of them were younger they were more than willing to play with the pumpkin guts and get them out, but apparent once you get close to turning two you don't want to touch the guts anymore.

Here are their final results. The one of the left is Adahleigh's and Charles is the other one.

The kids wanted a picture in their costumes with their pumpkins before going out to collect candy (truth of the matter is that Mom and Dad wanted the picture, that's why everyone is cooperating so well).

We just ended up going around the apartment complex, which ended up being a great plan. The kids made out like bandits because not a lot of people were Trick-or-Treating in the complex, so everyone was just trying to unload all their candy. Part of that could've have been because no one was really sure what day was really being celebrated for Halloween, because the in the past Halloween is moved up a day and Nevada Days are celebrated on the 31st (The day Nevada received statehood.

The kids didn't last nearly as long as we thought they would, so we ended up carrying them between doors.

Here's the stash that the ended up with, they knew all the walking (what little they did) was worth the results.

First Flight

   At the end of October I had to go back to Pocatello for a job fair. They make all the fourth year students go back because they guarantee the companies that come that they will be able to interview with a certain number of students about to graduate. The school reimburses the cost for going back for the students and when we started looking at getting a plane ticket for me Southwest was offering a really good deal, so we decided to take the whole family. Part of the reason for taking everyone was also because Ashley didn't want to be by herself for 4 days.

   Ever since moving to Reno the kids have loved watching and pointing out all the airplanes that pass overhead. We figured that they would be ecstatic to get to go on a plane. When we told them, Adahleigh made sure to tell everyone that she was going to ride on a plane, especially when one flew over she'd point to it and tell complete strangers that she was going to fly on a plane just like that. We were a little worried about trying to fly with three little ones, but they did great. The worst part for them was the hour and a half wait to get on the plane at Reno.

   They did enjoy watching the planes come in at first. Even Keisha enjoyed hanging out and being one of the big kids. She didn't last long though and ended up taking an hour nap before getting on the plane.

    Adahleigh and Charles started playing games about 30 min into the wait. One of the first games they came up with was running along the chairs and jumping the gap between the sets.

    Charles even managed to make the giant leap.

   Then they started swing on the poles where everyone line up to get on the planes.

   This then progressed on to ring around the rosie.  I'm sure they were great entertainment for all the other passengers waiting to get on their planes.

   A few minutes before our plane came in a couple other planes came to one of the other nearby gates, so the kids spent the last little bit before we loaded on the plane watching another plane get prepared for flight.

  Keisha even woke up to get another look.

   Adahleigh got a Minnie Mouse backpack from her aunt Peter for her birthday, and we figured that she'd enjoy dragging it around at the airport and on the plane so we let her take it. It also worked out for her to carry her activities and a few extras. 

    The way seating ended up working out is Ashley, Adahleigh and I all had tickets, but if there was enough room Charles could ride in his own seat. The plane wasn't full enough to require him to ride on a lap, but there weren't enough seat together that we could sit on two rows close together (since kids in car seats have to ride next to the window) . I ended up riding by Adahleigh and Ashley rode by Charles with Keisha on her lap. They kids really enjoyed the ride, but the people in front of them probably didn't because they kept kicking the seats in front of them. We did get some complements about how well behaved they were.

   It's not hard to tell by the smile on her face how happy she was to be on a plane.

    Adahleigh had to get Minnie out so she could see out the window too.

    We even flew over our place and were able to look down and see it from the plane.

  Needless to say Charles wasn't able to stay awake the whole flight, he did stay awake on the flight home though. He was so out of it when we landed in Salt Lake City that it was just easier to carry him (car seat and all) through the airport than wake him up and try and make him walk. Adahleigh had no problem staying awake and loved every minute of the flight.

   The flight back was a little better as far as seating arrangements go. We were able to sit in two consecutive rows, allowing us to pass things back and forth. Ashley wanted to switch seating arrangement, so I took Charles and Keisha while she sat next to Adahleigh.

   Charles liked to play with the window shade the whole flight. He wasn't interested in opening it to see out he just liked to open and close it. Here he is giving one of his famous scowls.

   

   Not to be outdone Keisha had to scowl at the camera too.

   Then she gave a nice goofy face.

  He loves his little sister and was more than happy to get hold Keisha, which he doesn't get to do much since she is as big as he is almost. He's a little more willing to attempt to smile when he's getting to do something he love.

   All in all the kids listened really well (a lot better than expected), and we were able to get on and off the plane fairly quickly without holding up too many people. We also found out that none of the kids inherited any of Ashley's fear of flying. The only whining done on the plane was from wanting to get out of their seats and not out of fear.    

Camping

   This September we got to go on our first family camping trip. I got lucky and was given the last week of a rotation off, giving us the ability to go camping. Our ward had a schedule campout Friday and Saturday of that week, but the campground was reserved for the whole week. We didn't want to overdo it and find out that camping wasn't the greatest idea, so we just went up one day earlier than the ward campout.  We were expecting a couple other families to come up the same day, but things didn't work out for them, so we got the whole campgrounds to ourselves for almost 24hrs.

   The campground were located at Buck's Lake in northern California. The nice thing about the whole deal was the campground is a girl's camp, so it had some amenities that we wouldn't usually have available if we were to just go out camping; such as a kitchen with refrigerator and gas stoves, hot water (including showers), canoes, already cut firewood, running toilets (since Ashley doesn't use outhouses), and all sorts of camping tools. We probably wouldn't have gone with three little kids if we didn't have all the extras available. The whole week before Ashley was constantly looking up if there were bears in the area and what to do to keep them away. She worried herself to the point of almost not going, but I forced her along anyway. She did find out that the county the lake was in is one of the best bear hunting areas in the west.

   We got there shortly after noon. First thing we did once we had explored all the building and got lunch, was to get a fire going. I got to put my long unused scouting skills back to work. This was probably the easiest fire I've ever started though, everything lit right up because the wood was so dry I think it would have been harder to try and not make anything catch fire.

   Of course, the kids were more than excited to be outside and wanted to help out with everything.  It was all we could do to keep them from putting wood on the fire, which was a big disappointment to them that they couldn't put anything in the fire.

   Adahleigh even wanted to help chop the wood, but that was out of the question.

   After the fire blazed up, we had the kids entertained for a while. Its amazing how a fire can capture the attention of all ages.

   They were both glad to have their own camping chairs to sit in to enjoy the fire.

   After getting the fire going we set the tent up. This was one of the roadblocks that we had to get by to even go camping. The only tent we have is a little two-man, and we knew all of us wouldn't fit in it. We ended up borrowing one from our Bishop who had an extra five-man. We all were able to get in it fairly comfortably, and I'm sure all the kids enjoyed it since it was just like getting to share a bed with Ashley and I all night long. The tent went together extremely quickly and gave us enough time to explore more the rest of the day.

   Here are the kids getting up after their first nights sleep in a tent. Its amazing how late they slept in. We thought for sure they'd be up at the crack of dawn with all the light coming in the tent.

   Since no one joined us the first day we just kept our food and supplies up in the kitchen. When we got up the next morning Ashley went to get breakfast started and saw this little guy playing around in one of our tupperware containers that didn't quite get closed the whole way, so she trapped it in. She came and got me. It tried to jump out of the container and got stopped with a frying pan to the face. I hadn't planned on doing it in that way, but it got hit hard enough to put an end to it's life.

  Since it was fresh we decided to roast it on the fire and have roasted mouse for breakfast. Adahleigh thought it tasted just like pig, that's what she refers to for any pork product. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough meat to give anyone their fill, so we still had to make breakfast.

   Later that morning, I took the kids out for a canoe ride. They loved paddling around the lake, once they got use to the rocking of the canoe. We ended up going out several times that day. One time Ashley even tried to joined us. We didn't get 10 feet from the shore and she couldn't handle the rocking so she made us turn the canoe around so she could get out (and no I wasn't rocking it to scare her, we hadn't made it out far enough to make that any fun yet).

   While we were out the kids would rock the canoe and ask me to rock it for them too.

   Charles got comfortable enough that he would move around inside of the canoe from front to back.

   He even went to the extent of leaning over the edge of the canoe to get a good look in the water.

   We thought we might be freezing the whole time we were camping, since it was a higher elevation and a week into September. Ashley was surprised that the ward had actually scheduled a campout so late in the year, but it ended up being perfect weather (mid to high 70s in the day and high 40s at night, in fact we are still enjoying those temperatures in Reno in November). The saddest part of the campout was when everyone else arrived. We thought that would be the funnest time with the kids having someone else to play with and getting to know other people in the ward, but it just took the peace and tranquility out of the area. We also couldn't just go and do what ever we wanted without worrying about bothering other people.

   It was amazing how beautiful it was where we were at, and how little you really have to travel to get from a desert to a forest.

  Just for those that thought we actually ate the mouse, we didn't, we just unceremoniously burned it.