Calling all Goblins, Ghosts and Other Miscellaneous Creatures

One spooky house, courtesy of the children that inhabit it.

Three sisters loving short sleeve weather in October.

Four kids hurriedly carving their pumpkins at the last minute.

One storm fairy who concocted this because she wanted to wear her dance costume one more time.

One supergirl who was set on being  PINK  even though we had to special order it and it didn't come in time for the school parade. It did, however, make it there for the trick-or-treating.

One scary green dinosaur who didn't care that his costume distorted his face.  He still had one mean growl.

One gray wolf who ended the night with Strep for the 3rd or 4th time in just as many months.

Sibling love

The whole t-o-ting crowd.

Top row: Abbey and friend Caitlyn

Middle row: friend Abbey or Allison, Claire holding cousin Henry, Abbey or Allison(I still can't tell them apart), Emma and Asher

Bottom row: cousins Anna and Maddie

I failed to mention in previous posts that my mom had both of her knees,yes BOTH, replaced while we were in the land of Disney and then ended up in the ICU for a week because she had blood clots. It's taken a toll on my dad. This is what the kids encountered while visiting grandma's house.

A Long Vacation

I took a vacation after our last vacation...from blogging. And like any good vacation, upon return there is an overwhelming feeling of "where do I begin?" In answer to that , I will begin right where I left off. October.  Changing leaves, crisp air, all things pumpkin and spice and naked boys riding their quads. It doesn't get better than this. I just love this kid!

Rewind

We had such a wonderful trip home to California in October, probably one of our best ever. There was no drama, which is rare, and we stayed just long enough without overdoing it. 

Each time we go home, however, we are reminded that two(well, three really) are missing. This past August marked the tenth anniversary of the passing of Paul's brother Jason and his wife, Tanya. Although the years have softened the blow, they don't erase the memories and the pain. I'll never forget that horrible late night phone call where Paul answered and then didn't say anything for what seemed like an eternity and when he finally spoke he only asked if the kids were in the car. At that point my heart sank and Paul didn't say much else before he hung up the phone. He then proceeded to tell me that they were in a car accident and that Tanya was thrown out and killed instantly and Jason had to be pried out with the jaws of life and taken to the hospital and was in surgery. We drove to Provo to tell Paul's brother Mike and then returned to our house and made arrangements to fly into Fresno the next morning. We went straight to the hospital and spent the next day and night there with Jason. He never regained consciousness, but we were grateful for the opportunity to say goodbye and see him one last time. I can remember almost everything about this period of time; the hospital, the family meeting where Paul's parents might have said a couple of inappropriate, but funny, comments regarding the burial, how their daughter Jessica was in disbelief and almost laughed because she didn't know what else to do when she was told her parents were dead and how Kassie, who was just barely walking, would walk around saying "mama" and when someone would pick her up, she cried when she saw it wasn't her mama. 

Jessica and Kassie are so grown up now and have hard times I'm sure, but they have so many family members who love them and would do anything for them. It's been hard to watch Paul's family deal with this, especially since they also lost another daughter/sister to a car accident a few years before. I can't imagine losing a sibling or child, let alone two, but am comforted in the knowledge of a life after this one.    

So with this being said, we fondly remember Jason and Tanya and are so grateful for the daughters they left behind.

Post Birthday Bash

We had so much fun at Devon's birthday party and decided we weren't ready to quit, so we had the kids chill out in front of Alvin and the Chipmunks and then Emma had her first sleepover at cousin Mia's house. Claire slept there too, but it wasn't her first sleepover. Cousin Grace also slept over so a great big thank you to Uncle Jon and Aunt Tricia for dealing with all the giggles, especially since their own daughter Mia, fell asleep on the way home.

Asher and Aunt Tricia just winding down. 

Cousin Grace, Emma, cousin Mia, cousin Devon and Claire

The Last Day

We spent our last day of vacation at a pumpkin patch with the cousins. It was kind of hot and all the pumpkins were green and withered, so we were glad we already had pumpkins at home that were perfect and orange. California grows lots of great produce, but pumpkins are not among those. 

Cousins back row: Ireland, Audrey, Claire, Emma, Mia, Autumn, Grace, Devon, Keston and Kassie

Front row:Abbey, Asher and Conrad

Affectionately referred to as the fabulous five. These are all the cousins who entered kindergarten this year.

Bunnies Asher, Emma, Autumn and Mia.

Asher bunny

Autumn, Emma and Mia taking a little ride. Emma was so mad that she wasn't in the corn maze with daddy and the older kids that she wouldn't even look at me.

Keston, Claire and Devon ready for their ride.

Cousin Josh was so sweet with Asher and went in the petting zoo with him.

Abbey catching chickens.

The perfect ending to a perfect day; bubbles and stories with Grandma Pat.

This trip ain't over!

We left Thursday night and headed up to Paul's hometown of Tulare. We smelled it an hour away. Welcome home! Friday was a lazy hang out and do nothing day-very much appreciated and then Saturday was our niece, Devon's third birthday. Aunt Kerry and Uncle Duane rented a bounce house and had food and fun galore. Abbey's favorite part...catching a frog.

Cousins Grace and Audrey, Claire, cousin Autumn and Emma.

Too many cousins and cousins of cousins to mention.

The birthday girl and her Tinkerbell cake.

We're losing it

Just as an afterthought, souvenirs and phones weren't the only things we lost on this trip. Abbey lost a tooth and got a little spending money.

Day 6

For our last day of Disney, we divided our time between California Adventure and Disneyland. We met up with the Faux's again. They brought their friends daughters with them as well and our girls had so much fun with Jayde and Star (yes, that's her actual name.)

Abbey, Jayde, Emma, Claire and Star after a round of Splash Mountain.

The Universal Studios section of California Adventure.

The whole fam. I needed an elastic to pull my hair back after a fight with the water on Grizzly Rapids that I lost. Oh well for the bad hair day.

Although this is supposed to be the happiest place on earth, Asher asked to go home every day. As we were leaving the park on the last night, Paul decided to check the lost and found one last time for Claire's lanyard and Asher had a mini-meltdown about leaving. He kept saying, "I wanna doe dinneyyand." I told him we couldn't go back, so he insisted on taking his pictures at the Mickey benches. Somehow it turned into a photo shoot with everyone. 

Emma

Claire

All four

Asher got so mad when the girls would get in "his" picture so Abbey had to sneak in this one.

The girls

That wraps up our fun in Disneyland ...until next time!

Day 5

Marissa joined us and was such a good sport to put up with somewhat ornery kids and their parents. Claire was too busy pouting to get in the picture. She didn't want a picture with Chip. At least this time she was silent-very much unlike the monumental tantrum of 2007 when she didn't want to ride Dumbo and I was sure that at any moment a Disney employee would escort us out of the park. 

 We had so much fun with Sissa and we were laughing that since she doesn't actually look like my sister, people probably thought she was our nanny. Let's hear it for the nanny!

Asher and Handy Manny.

The girls and the Queen of Hearts. I'm pretty sure Asher was riding Monsters Inc. for the upteenth time-that would explain his absence. 

Here's another lost and found update. Abbey bought some HSM sunglasses as featured above and promptly left them on a ride (sound familiar?). Much to our delight someone turned these in and we had a very happy girl the next day.

Day 4

California Adventure! During October, the "a's" in the letters outside the park spelling California are candy corns. Yum.

Ash boy in bug world. He kept wanting to ride the caterpillar because Hiemlich burped. Such a boy!

We met up with our next door neighbors, the Faux's (pronounced Fox) and Asher was so excited to see "Tinley" (McKinley), but mostly he just wanted to ride all the rides with Lacey, Tinley's mom. Asher and McKinley wait for the Toy Story ride. It was a huge hit and Lacey and Don still owe us dinner for creaming their behinds. Paul's high score: 170,000 and Jen's: 163,000. Yeah, we rock!

Asher and McKinley on the carousel.

The princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto.

Maybe we don't get out often enough, or maybe we had had more than our fill of McDonalds, but the food was so good. Totally worth every penny. And it was so pretty I had to take pictures.

Abbey

Asher

Claire in her element.

Emma, a bit blurry, but happy, nonetheless.

Claire's childhood favorite, Sleeping Beauty.

Much to our surprise, Asher enjoyed the princess's the most, he was hugging on Cinderella and then put stickers on her arms.

The crew with Cindy

The dessert platter- so yummy!

We went to the parade that evening and when Lightning McQueen came out, Asher said, "ya, mom, I want that car!"

Candy Corn Acres-advertising so convincing that we bought three bags.

Just one more pic.