Trunk or Treat and Halloween 2010

This year we had an adorable little Dalmatian...

 ...and of course his trusty companion, the fireman!

 We got go to our wards annual Trunk Or Treat again this year. They have all the carnival type games inside the church, then everyone sets up and decorates their trunks in the parking lot and the kids get to run around grabbing candy as fast as they can from all the cars. This year they had a donut eating contest.

 Where can you go wrong with that? Everyone is a winner!

 The lollipop pull, again, winners all around.

 We saw the missionaries there too, and look who made a super sweet pumpkin head!

 Time to go fishing!

 This is Daddy's kind of dressing up!

 Afterwards, we had a little piano time before bed. See? Already I'm glad we got the piano.

 The next night, we went to the fire station for some perfect pictures. To say the least, the firemen all really liked our boys outfits!

 He just looks too cute!

 Lincoln fell asleep on the way there, but we couldn't have him miss out on the photo ops!

 Ethan loves his costume, and we got it so cheap!

 One last stop for the night at grandma's!

Pumpkin Farm 2010

I love this tradition of going to the Pumpkin Farm every year! 

 Ethan carefully weeds through the pumpkins.

 Taking a few pit stops and all the fun cut outs.

 Haven't a mentioned before how much I love cut outs? If there is one, you know I'm taking a picture in it!

 Ethan loves taking the train. It is THE shortest train ride in the history of train rides, but he totally loves it!

 We were so excited that Jane came with us this year!

 Lincoln stayed next to mama for the entire time, what a good listener!

 I love the beautiful gourds and white pumpkins they have here.

 And of course, we had to see how we measured up this year!

 Ethan takes his examination of pumpkins very seriously.

 Considering one of the smaller pumpkins.

 Maybe corn will be on the menu instead.

 Watch out, we found another cut out!

 Shouldn't he be in a gap commercial or something? Just check out those luscious lips!

Random October Moments 2010

Ethan has now learned the proper placement of a napkin at places of fine dining.

 Lincoln is getting to be such a smiley boy!

 Ethan had another fantastic visit to the dentist!

 They even did a little deep cleaning, and we got to hear what every parent wants to hear, no cavities!

 We went to a new favorite restaurant for John's birthday! It's a fantastic BBQ place that has $1 rib nights! Wahoo! Usually John and I will order the platter for four, just so we can have leftovers! They decorated the cake for us and presented it to John at the restaurant, it was awesome! We love you babe!

 Ethan has found what you're really supposed to use the lid on the tortilla holder for. Hmm, maybe we eat out a lot?

 The most amazing thing happened this month as well! I have been searching and searching for a piano for our family. Not that I'm a great pianist or anything. I certainly took lessons and I can read the notes, but I'm definitely not even functional. So of course when I told John that I wanted to get a piano, he simply rolled his eyes. Another one of my crazy wants, and told me he wasn't willing to gamble a thousand dollars (or more) on a whim that I thought I wanted to play again. So I searched craigslist for at least 6 months, taking us to all sorts of crazy people's and nice people's homes. All the pianos we seemed to find were either way to expensive or needed too much work. Oh yeah, and then we would have to move the piano still. Well one night we found a perfect, beautiful piano that had been restored, it just cost two thousand dollars! Well, weird, John said, nice dreaming, but I don't think so. That night I got on the computer and searched again, and low and behold someone had just listed a FREE piano, needed a pick up the following morning (Saturday) from a storage facility. I responded immediately that I wanted to come see it. I was so excited to see in my email that I was the first one to respond! Wahoo! I called the guy back and setup a time to see it that morning. I had to peer over boxes and couches and what not to the piano in the far back of the storage unit and told him we would take it. I would be back in an hour with guys to move it. They guy looked at me like I was completely crazy that there was no way it could happen. He told me to definitely call him back if I didn't want it because there were about 50 other people who were ready to take it. I called John so excited. We called our home teachers for some help. No joke, we had 6 strong guys on our doorstop within a half and hour. The guy was amazed when we showed up within the hour. Then we all were amazed at how well our friends moved this beauty!

 I am still just so amazed that John and I each got exactly what we wanted. He got to spend exactly zero dollars and I got a free piano! I cannot thank all of those guys enough for coming in our time of need!

Lincoln gets his first taste of food!

Lincoln is all set and ready to eat his first MANmade meal!

 And he gets it right away! I've never seen or even heard of a baby who likes rice cereal with the first taste.

This kid was even licking the bib after we were finished with what I had prepared in the bowl.

This little guy is such a champ!

Camping with the Parsons in OR

Talk about road trips on a whim! We literally decided to meet up with my sister's family in Oregon the night before we left! John, if you have ever read I thing on this blog, or if you've ever met him, really enjoys fishing. He read that the salmon were running on the Klamath river and talked me into a road trip.  Well I decided that the Klamath is just about exactly halfway between our house and my sister's house. When we mapped it, it was about 10 minutes difference in our drive times. So we talked the Parsons into meeting us there!

 We got there just early enough to see the sunset, so we had to set things up fast before we didn't have any light left.

 The kids were really good at staying close by

 Correct me if I'm wrong, but this might have been the first time that my sister's family got to meet Lincoln! That night, we saw a huge black bear come right into camp! That smart bear knew exactly where the fish cleaning station was and how to clean out the gut bucket. The kids were a little freaked out. The big boys were totally pumped. They saw how big those fish carcasses were!

 The following morning, Mark commented on how terribly they had slept because of seeing the bear. We asked him if the kids were still scared and he said that, no it was Jami! She had kept him awake all night with every noise thinking the bear was going to try and get into our tent. The kids seemed to have slept great! We made Ethan super happy with some Mickey Mouse pancakes.

 All the kids were happy. There's something about camping food that makes it so good. Maybe because you have to work so much harder to procure it.

 They had a super sweet playground right in the campground.

 And we spent most of our day hanging out there while John and Mark tried their luck at catching salmon.

 They had a little of everything for everyone.

 Including the sisters!

 That night, who showed up again but that same fat bear cleaning out the fish station. We talked to the ranger and I guess she comes every night to clean the station and then goes back into the woods. Huh, maybe, just maybe, do you think you should clean the cleaning station before it gets dark people? Or at the very least, warn people that yes, there is a giant wild bear that comes into the campground every night?!

 The next morning, the kids seemed to do just as well. I think all in all it was a great trip! We had to change our clothes about 4 times a day because we just couldn't seem to keep dry the entire trip! Ethan got a close-up view of a giant black bear. Unfortunately we missed the fish. Evidently the water was too low for the fish to get upstream and the mouth of the river was inaccessible. But we still had a great time and we always enjoy seeing the Parsons! Maybe we'll try again next year.

 On our way out how could we resist not stopping by the golden bears?

 Ethan was more than happy to climb all over these ones!

 Thanks Klamath, I'm sure we'll see you again!