Halloween

Halloween has become a fun new holiday as a Mother of two novice trick-or-treaters. Most importantly, for costumes this year Trenton wanted to be The Amazing Spiderman and Allison was a mischievous black cat.  As expected, they both played their parts well.

 

Trenton's preschool class had a Halloween parade and party which was fun for us to to participate in.  And of course we did Trunk-or-treat at the church with our ward.  

We also got together with some family friends and made our traditional carmel apples.  Later that night Deven and Mike went to a burrito shop dressed in silly costumes to get a burrito for $1.00.  Oh, the things they would do for a good deal and some food.

Oil Ranch

This year we went to the Oil Ranch with the Paltier family.  We are really glad that Trenton and their 2 sons have become good friends in preschool, and they have a little girl Allison’s age.  Unfortunately we chose a very cold and wet day to go, but we were still able to do everything we set out to do.  Of course the first thing we wanted to do was the PONY RIDE!

 Allison was cracking me up as she single handedly herd the goats from one fence to another.  She LOVES animals, and has a mature understanding of them.  She is not afraid of them, yet is cautious of their unpredictability.  

Trenton demonstrated his fearless side when he jumped off stacks of bailed hay in the barn.  Something about watching my kids play in a barn brings joy to my heart... Perhaps because I spent a lot of my childhood doing the same.  

This has become one of our favorite October traditions.  We'll see you next year Oil Ranch!

Chicago & Notre Dame Football Game

Deven has been wanting to go to a Notre Dame Football game for years!  In October, BYU was going to play Notre Dame at the ND Stadium and he couldn't miss his two alma maters in this showdown.  Our friends Jake and Sunnie, and Jeff and Stacey were going as well which made the whole trip even more worth it.  Now we just had to decide if we were going to bring the kids or not...  It took a couple of weeks to convince me that the kids would be okay without "mom"for a weekend.  Once we decided to fly Grandma Laura here to watch the kids, I felt much better about our decision.  

 My favorite part of the trip may have been eating delicious food at adorable little cafes... and I must admit it was nice to be able to eat a meal without kids climbing on me. But I missed my little munchkins!  Deven laughed that the only reading material I brought on the trip was a parenting book.

We spent most of our time exploring Chicago by foot even though it was cold and raining on and off.  We loved revisiting some of our favorite sites such as Navy Pier, Millennium Park, window shopping on Michigan Avenue, and eating Giordano's Famous Chicago Style Pizza.  We were able to do a lot of new things as well, such as the Sky Deck, the Field Museum of Natural History, try new forms of transportation; the transit, Double Decker Bus, and Trolly, and eat a Chicago style hot dog.   

 

That Saturday we spent the day enjoying the game day traditions that take place all over the Notre Dame campus;  Eating a stake sandwich in the quad, watching the drum line pump up the spectators, visiting the golden dome, buying our ND apparel at the crowded bookstore, and watching the marching band make their long entrance into the stadium.   

 For the record, I cheered for BYU the whole time!