Trunk N' Treat!

John's mom took the boys for us to go to our ward Trunk or Treat (really it's Trunk & Treat, or even Treat in the trunk, right?). I had fabulous aspirations of making us into a family of skeletons this year, with glow in the dark paint and me with a cute baby girl bones on my belly and John with a belly of hamburger, fries, and a soda, but alas, I was working on a fabulous Christmas present for my boys and did not have the time (literally -- even with no sleep!) to complete our costumes. The boys seemed happy enough though to wear their outfits from last year. I was amazed that we were able to squeeze Lincoln into his!

 Jane took them to our church building where she was able to throw our Mickey leash onto Lincoln to make sure he kept nice and close!

 I was excited she was willing to take the two boys AND the camera -- and even get some cute shots of the boys.

 Both of the boys enjoyed the donut on the string challenge.

 Although, I think Lincoln missed the part in the rules where it says, "no using your hands"

 They also had a bean bag toss,

 And a favorite -- the fishing game.

 They even had cute pages to color while they ate their pizza!

 Thank you so much, Jane, for taking the boys! They did a little too well in the treat department, but don't you worry, John and I are taking care of that for them.

Pumpkin Farm with Papa and LeeAnn

Today (I know, can you believe it? I'm posting REAL TIME) we got to go to the Pumpkin Farm. My Dad and his wife got to come for a quick trip to come and visit. What better place to go than the pumpkin farm? Of course, immediately upon arriving we headed to the line for the train.

 Ethan was so excited. Lincoln was a little unsure. And no matter how hard we tried, he wouldn't perform his little "toot, toot." (He even does the little arm motion -- so cute!)

 Lincoln still looks a little unsure about the train business. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it, it was the sun business that he wasn't a fan of! It was 86 degrees today for crying out loud! Ethan wanted to wear costumes to the pumpkin farm and he was sweating like crazy by the time we were leaving. Lincoln had a little turtle outfit to wear, but it was just way too hot to put him in it!

  I seem to have the problem that I'm always dressing the boys way too warm because I get their outfits out of their drawers when I go upstairs to get Lincoln when he wakes up (usually at 6:30 or 6:45am -- sometimes earlier) and at that point, it looks like it's going to be cold. Then 8:30 comes around and the boys are already hot. Someday I'll figure it out though, right? Here we are headed to school!

 They have a bunch of Alpacas that you can feed while you're there too.

 They had a whole little family, even with a nursing baby! Or, whatever they call baby alpacas.

 This year they had a new contraption, called the "speeder feeder." You would put the feed into a little tin can, then ride the bike to rotate the wheel to move the can way up high on the wire then it would dump into a tube at the top that directed the food into a little feed bucket inside the pen. It was super cute. And Ethan said after we left that this was his favorite part of the trip!

 The babies were a little rough on the feeding, and kept trying to eat my thumb knuckles. Maybe that's why they had the new speeder feeder.

 Lincoln was absolutely enthralled with the feeding process. He kept signing "more" and "food."

 They also had this cute little pot-bellied pigs there, along with the goats!

 Lincoln was trying to snort at the pigs. He didn't tell me what he was saying to them.

 They had a cute little hay maze set up. It had holes poked through the top of the bales of hay, so when you went inside, the light would filter through the holes and Ethan commented that it looked like spider webs. After I told him it was the light, we had a hard time keeping him out of there. Maybe I shouldn't educate him all the time like that. "Yes, there are spider webs, you should stay next to me."

 We also learned all about chickens while we were there. This particular variety makes green and blue eggs!

 Then, if you remember from last year or the year before, or the year before, you will recall that I really enjoy all the cut-outs. It hasn't changed.

 How do we measure up this year?

 Ethan is telling Lincoln that he's that tall.

 Love this! McQueen can fly! Maybe in Cars 3, right?

 This was too cute! LeeAnn, I love what you've done with your hair! 

 I told Ethan to make a scared face. He might have thought I said, "scary."

 These boys were so good and excited even to pose with the pumpkins this year.

 Lincoln also spent a considerable time observing these corn stalks. 

Thank you Papa Rex and LeeAnn for such a fabulous (but quick) trip! We always love our visitors! And thank you ever so much for the ghost (white) pumpkin! I decided maybe we can just say that we got a pumpkin for baby girl as well. I'll let you know if the inside is white or not.

Happy Birthday to John!

Actually, it's a little early, but this was one of his birthday presents. He has a tendency to buy himself things right in the beginning of October. Year after year, he would go clothes shopping for himself (which would ONLY happen once a year) or decide to buy something that he's been thinking about for awhile. The only problem with this is that I would usually be planning on buying that very thing for his birthday, which happens on the 25th of this month. It used to drive me crazy. Now, I just call them birthday presents and save any other ideas I have for Christmas! 

Well, this year is a little different. He couldn't save this one for the end of the month. He found a guide to take him Salmon fishing. And Salmon fishing only happens for a little while, so this one was just fine for him to "open" a little early.

So John found a guide, named Mark, who took him on the Upper Feather River, I think in Gridley, CA. But he met the guide in Yuba City, which means he got up and left our house at 3:30 am. You never have to question how much he likes fishing. If you're willing to give up sleep for it, that's a pretty good test.

 It was kind of fun, because I would just get random pictures of fish throughout the day on my phone.

 John said they had caught their limit by 7:30am. They got on the water at 6am!

 After that, they were just fishing for bigger and better ones.

 This baby was huge!

 So the limit they can each catch, was two.

 These were John's babies. And they were HEAVY!

 Oh, maybe I should warn you that these aren't for the squeamish.

 Then the guide, Mark, even filleted the fish for us!

 John said the guide's boat was super nice and he said the River was awesome.

 I'm so glad I thought of giving him such a fabulous birthday present! 

 It was SUCH a fantastic present, that John was telling his employees about it the following day, and came up with the idea to pay for his employees to go the next weekend. We usually do a nice dinner for everyone and their wives/girlfriends, but John wanted to mix it up this year.

 So he had two of his employees take him up on the offer.

 And they fished right below a set of little rapids.

 John hooked the first fish, then Matt caught one (above), so when John hooked another fish, he handed his pole to Victor to reel it in. He thought, if this is for them, then I want them to enjoy the trip, and it's no fun if you're not catching anything.

 Victor fought the fish for quite a while. Then as soon as he got it into the boat, John said he wished he had been more selfish. He said it was the nicest fish of the day!

 That thing ended up being over 18 pounds!

 But the guys were happy, so I guess that is more important in the end.

 John was glad that the guys were both happy to be at work the next day, in spite of hanging out all together for 14 hours the previous day.

 When they filleted the 18 pounder, they discovered the reason behind all that weight! Just look at all those Salmon eggs! And that was only half, the other side had just as many.