Ending the Month...

Poof, just like that the month is closing and November will be here in a few days! Here's the rest of what we've been up to since Fall Break...

Lucky Nate got to go to yet another farm, Macdonald Farm, this time a date with daddy and daddy's family. 

He loves spending time with his cousin!

Giddiup!

We played more games...

Eeewy gooey Halloween slime (with spiders!)

Bean bag toss

Silly monkey

Halloween bingo using candy for markers

This time, Aaron got a chance to go to a Halloween party on his own at Great Play. Always a good time!

Nana, what did I get in my Trick or Treat bag?

After party lunch

Lastly, last night Nate got to go to our church's Trunk or Treat (poor Aaron is currently sick with his first flu type bug! Boo...literally!)

Little pirate...no, not what he's going to be for Halloween ;)

Yes, I'm sad little Aaron got his first dose of a stomach bug. We're going into a full 48 hrs later and he still has a fever, poor little man. At this point I just hope he's better by Halloween and that Nate can stay well throughout the week ! Nate's school still isn't having a party/costume parade/festival, but I still bought the stuff this year to make his class 'treat' bags (ugh, I'm "one of those" moms who is giving out crackers,erasers,etc instead of candy!) Here's hoping for a good week! Happy Halloween!!

Backyard Morning

I'm sure I'm going to sound like a broken record... (I probably have already said it this month and say the same thing this time of year!) but we're just loving the cooler temperatures in the mornings a bit and evenings. We're still hitting around 90 during the day but we'll take the break!

This morning was a great time to spend it outside.

We made some improvements to the playhouse- tore apart the slide and put hard plastic? down instead of wood (poor kids were starting to get scratched from wood falling apart), I re-painted our wooden flowers and we made ourselves a sign :)

Dance with the bubbles!

Car wash time

Using a small easel for now. He was a happy boy, painting outside!

Waiting for the weather to cool off so we can do more lunches in the playhouse!

Yay, no more boo-boos!

Ok, it was also a lovely morning for mommy to do some outside yard work too. But I had an eager little helper :)

Fall Break, Week 2 : Cousin Time and Disney!

Last weekend as soon as we got to California, we visited some of Josh's relatives, his cousins. We were excited since we have kids the same age. We got to see their home, lets the kids play, and Josh's cousins cooked us a wonderful dinner and got some dessert to have. So much fun!

The boy sitting next to Nate is Anthony, who is Nate's age, and the little boy under the baby is Adrian, who is Aaron's age. Their youngin' is 9 months. They had a ball playing together! 

We left their house and drove another hour to our hotel in Anaheim. We were only in the area of Anaheim because Josh volunteered for a work opportunity (to allow us to have free hotel and take the kids to Disneyland). So, the following day while Josh worked, I took the kids to Disney on my own. I rented a stroller so I didn't have to lug one on the shuttle by myself.

Some pictures captured on my phone - I didn't take my other camera, well, because I'm sure you can guess why!

The boys overall behaved well and we had a fun day, but by dinnertime Nate was exhausted and wanted to go back to the hotel. I was glad I managed both on my own and had them both as we exited. Whew! Not that I would like to repeat the experience, though, on my own anytime too soon :) There definately was some juggling.

Poor Josh didn't return to the hotel until 9:30 that night. Neither one of us had dinner, so he brought some take-out back and we ate dinner in the bathroom -- yes, the bathroom --as to not disturb the sleeping children in the room (since we had a standard room). Real romantic, huh?

California "Beach" Dreams...

Even despite some chilly weather off/on, we definately took advantage of the beach! The day wouldn't go by without the boys mentioning going there so we went almost each day, at least for a bit.

First, on our way down to Ocean Beach (where we were staying in San Diego) from Anaheim we stopped at Hotel Del Coronado. What a fantastic beach and beautiful resort!

Aaron the explorer

Yay vacation!

Way cool- this guy made pumpkins out of sand

Oohhhh, we like!

The kids didn't care much about playing on the sand, per se, as they did about simply just running in/out of the water. The giggles didn't stop, even if they slipped and got all wet. They loved the sand between their toes, and laughed when a big wave came up their knees...pretty easy entertainment!

Now, for some pictures of our Ocean Beach condo/views --

Nate and I (since it's our favorite color) loved the blue and beachy touches throughout the condo

Bunk bed! We learned, however, that the boys don't sleep too well together :)

Up on our deck

Daddy chill-axing

Kids liked the chalkboard in the "backyard"

Ice cream chalk!

Sunset

We really liked the condo itself (had all the conveniences of home, a block from the beach, short distance to the theme parks, a shower that could be reached from the outside to get cleaned from being at the beach, beach toys/supplies,etc...) the only negative was the airport traffic overhead - unless it was between 10pm and 6:30am, there were airplanes going over every other minute. I'm glad the kids didn't have trouble falling asleep at night, but it was our alarm in the morning!! For sleep reasons we're glad to be back at home...

Sea World!

We went to the San Diego Zoo, but I don't have any pictures...:( We had a wonderful day there, weather was perfect, we spent five hours browsing...it'll be sort of a shock when I take the boys to ours next week. SO many animals in San Diego, along with a skyride and a bus tour if you want...we love it there.

But, I was able to sneak pictures at Sea World, which we all really enjoyed! Nate (more than any other year) was very interested in playing on the Sesame St playground and doing rides there, so we even left the park without seeing some animals...a first! The day went by so fast, we didn't even get to make it to all the shows, either. Not that it was a bad day, it was great!

Sesame St playground. We were here for at least an hour!

Spinning starfish...one of four brave Nate did this day!

We had "lunch with Shamu" --our table was right up to their tank. Boys loved it!

Little collage - dolphin show, Shamu pretzel, and Shamu on a platform right by our table

Children's Discovery Museum

On a chilly, rainy day in San Diego, we took advantage of kids play free at museums and took them to this one called the Children's Discovery Museum - I was hoping it would compare to our children's museum here, but it was more of a one room play place.But...since the kids enjoyed it for two hours and it was close to a brewery that Josh and I wanted to check out for lunch, it served its purpose ;) Probably wouldn't go back though since it's geared towards five year olds and younger.

They loved putting these light scarves through an air tunnel

Put a specimen under the microscope and you can see it on the big screen. Nate was fascinated!

It was all over when Aaron discovered the large bubble wands outside

The ever delicious, home brewed root beer float at the brewery. Yum!!

Fall Break : Week 1

Week One of Fall Break is coming to a close...we've stayed fairly busy (that of course being the goal, since we leave for Anaheim/Ocean Beach on Saturday for six days, woohoo!)

On Monday, we visited Vertuccio Farms--

We also spent some of Monday/Tuesday doing crafts/games --

Candy corn matching number game

Splat goes the spider!

On Tuesday morning, we went with Nana (my mom) to our local airport for plane watching and breakfast. One of our favorite activities when the weather is nice!

Clearly, Aaron was more interested in planes around us

Yesterday the kids spent the day with Nana and this morning they will be spending time with their Grandmother (Josh's mom). Great for them to get that quality time since we'll be away, and nice for mama to be able to get some things done!

Tomorrow will be just a stay at home, pack, clean, all that good stuff day. We're glad this week has gone by fast, we're ready for some California fun!

Hair Photo Shoot Video and Picture

Remember the hair photo shoot I participated in four months ago? Well, I finally found out the results of our shoot! We are featured in this month's Beauty Launchpad magazine (basically, a hair salon type magazine). We have a five page spread. I was so anxious to see it...the girls featured were great, but I was bummed that I didn't get to see any professional shots of myself. There was also a link supposedly to see extra picture shots, but they were all the same pictures. A bit bummed again. So, my nice husband grabbed and lightened a still of me from a video montage shared (thank goodness for that!)

I'm going to guess I wasn't featured because my hair color  is more "summer" than "fall"

And now, the video link --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5uqBEm_UDw&feature=youtu.be

I'm really glad the video was shared from our shoot. I wouldn't have been as disappointed as I am had I not been "buttered up" these last few months, having thought we would all appear in something together. I wrote the salon owner asking if there was any way I could see a professional picture (I never got to see any taken the day of the shoot,either).


Fun to sort of get an idea of how I looked, anyway!