Halloween Frights or Delights

Well, Halloween has come and gone yet again.. It is fun when your kids choose what they want to dress up as....until they choose something that you don't really "like." I know its a small thing and is only going to get worse as they get older, but for the record I was not too fond of this fairy costume. Kimee put it together all by herself.. She loved the NEON tights and the pink wig hair...and the wings.. So bippity- boppity -boo.. what do you get?... a pink fairy of course. This was costume number one for her neighborhood and friend parties. We compromised and had two costumes, both her ideas, just a little more guided help on the second one.

 Ethan wanted to be "Woody" from Toy Story.

Then costume number two for the "real" party at school and Halloween night. She was Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

 In case you don't know who that is... here is Izzy.

 Ethan was Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Izzy's partner in crime..of course..

In case you don't know "Jake".

DRUM ROLL please....

Our little Hershey's Kiss and Hershey's Hug (with almonds). 

We have other pictures but I can't get them off the camera right now but here they are trick o treating in style in the stroller.  I wanted them to be matching something. I figured I only had a few years in which I can control what they are going to be. Carl wasn't too on board with the idea of "matchey matchey" until he talked to his co-workers who agreed with me (thank you!) that they should match. We got thinking and brainstorming. There are a lot of dynamic duo's out there. I saw this idea of a hug and kiss on the internet but that was it.. We ( I ) decided it would be "fun" to make the costumes since I couldn't find a pattern online.. (c'on, pintrest even let me down). Then I couldn't find "hug" (striped) fabric so we went with the almond hug...(Carl's idea, need we say more.) I had this great pattern in my head and well it didn't turn out quite like I saw it in my head, (most things don't but I always hope this time will be different..) but overall they turned out pretty cute. It is hard to tell exactly how well they turned out since they are in the stroller...  A few main problems I discovered... the twins are not walking so it was hard to get the full effect I was hoping for in the shape as they sat most of the time; they don't hold very still for measurements making sizing nearly impossible; they don't like hats; (hence Bekah's being crooked); Halloween day/night was exceptionally warm so they were "melting" in their costumes....and my kids destroyed my house while I was distracted sewing... but hey Halloween only comes once a year right?

And the AFTERMATH... They had chocolate and tootsie rolls and if I wasn't so upset and them being so cranky/tired, I would have taken a picture of them in the chocolate-coated, drool costumes. I thought for sure the costumes were ruined and it was only part way through the day. Luckily, I made them reversible (fluke...ummm maybe) and we just turned them around for night party.

All stripped down after I got the costumes off. They are starting to look more and more different.(not that there is really any reason they should look alike.. other than brother and sister) Bekah is really expanding the gap. I feel like she weighs more and is longer. She has always been a little bigger from the beginning but the doc's visits always have them close due to their record keeping errors.. (maybe because they record the same measurements for both babies but that is a different story..)

The AFTERMATH for the other kids... A little sugar coma look and they haven't even eaten any yet... It was probably more that they went to bed super late and up super early.  A little out-of-control I know..

Ethan's pile, one for him (the larger one) and one for me...(the smaller one), little does he know my pile will "grow."

This was about half of her total candy.

I thought we would do a little learning activity with the candy before it all "disappeared." We practiced sorting by color, size, brand, chocolate, not chocolate, sticky (that was kimee's idea and I think they are all that.), hard, soft, etc. Then we played which one of these things is not like the other..( ie 2 chocolate bars and 1 sucker..) She put together the combination of the Snickers, Milky Way, and Butterfinger and said to me, which does not belong... I tried color of wrapper, nuts vs no nuts, etc..Nothing. She had me stumped.. She finally said, "Duh Mom, the Butterfinger because it's gross.." (I have to admit I might have influenced her a bit on this opinion as I don't like Butterfinger.) After all the playing, I then said, Kimee you can keep as many as you count.. Talk about motivation. I had no idea she could count to 1000 all by herself...(1055 I think was the total between all the candy we collected and had left over from giving out..).I DID let her keep all she could count BUT I have put a very strict limit on the amount she can eat per day for her sake and my sanity.  This activity wasn't all bad, it did fill a good hour of the morning and WE all learned something...(1000 who knew?!!)

Last Part of Moab

Well this was the last day. We ended the adventure by going to Sand Dune Arch. I remember going here as kid and jumping off into the sand and the having my dad say do it again as he would try to get this amazing "kodak moment" re-inactment. Pretty much trying to make us look like we were jumping super high.. Anyway, my sibilings will know what I am talking about. It was fun though to see my kids really enjoy themselves. It made me happy to think I was able to do something with my kids that I did as a kid.  Passing the memories on I guess...I wished we would have brought lunch to eat here.  We stayed so long we were getting hungry and it would have been the perfect spot. Oh well maybe next time.

This was Ethan the whole time we were there. He was having a hay day climbing all over everywhere. He kept saying over and over again for the first 30 minutes we were there.."Look mom, I'm climbing.."

 I loved that they did so well in the backpack. Jacob got bored and started sucking is finger I guess.

 We did let them get out and play a little bit. Bekah was not sure at first. I am sure it was due to the cold sand on her bottonm.

 The kids found this little ledge place and put sand in it and made a fire and then made pancakes.

 Kimee and Ethan on top of one of the" mountains" at Sand Dune Arch.

 Bekah testing out the waters.  Seeing if she could pull herself on the rocks.

 This is as close as we got to the Delicate Arch.  It was from the view point. While we were there the road to get in started to wash out so we were evacuated out before the road washed out. I stayed in the car while the babies slept.

 The hikers.

 Bekah enjoying the backpack. 

 Waiting, out of the rain, in the trailer.

 Jakey with a mouth full of crackers and very content.

 The only picture I personally took of the arches and I am not even sure which one.

We had a great time and remembered that we need to do vacation more often. It was a lot of work and the kids didn't get to bed extremely early but at least they slept through the night, in spite of  Ethan rolling off the bottom bunk bed mulitple times in the night..(As a side note, thefirst night he rolled off and I put him back on . I only did this once when I realized that it might be safter to have him just stay on the floor. I went back to sleep and woke up to a thud about an hour later.. It was early A.M. but I was confused wondering what the thud was.. It turned out to be Ethan. He started waking up after he fell off and would climb back on the bed himself.. only to roll off again in a few hours.. The good news is the next night we put him on the top bunk with rails and we all had a much more peacefull sleep)

Family Vacation Part 2

One day we were down there it rained off an on most of the day. We decided that we still wanted to try and do some stuff but probably not in Arches too much because of the mud.  We made a short morning trip to HOLE IN THE ROCK.. It was not part of the original itinerary but we are glad we went.  We were able to do the petting zoo, which my kids could have done a little more feeding and a little less dropping the food and running away. It was still fun. Then we looked around outside, went inside for the 12 minute tour of the 5000 square foot house that was built literally into the rock mountain, all by hand tools and dynamite mind you.  While we were inside the house when it started pouring rain so you will see waterfalls coming off the rock. We timed it just perfect.

This is the house. No pictures were allowed inside. He carved this face of FDR into the mountain himself too. This man did just about everything painted, taxidermy (his first piece included the llama that helped him haul the rocks out of the mountain while constructing his house..) professional cook, electrician, etc. The wife was just as talented to include making jewelry from glass and beer cans she found on the side of the highway. They accomplished a lot in the little time they lived and are both buried at this site as well.

This camel did have 2 humps and wanted to be kissed.. seriously.

I found the sign a little bit ironic... It demonstrated that you could put the carrot in your mouth and then the camel would "kiss" you as he grabbed the carrot with his mouth.Pucker up!  The sign next to it scared me off.. "Be careful please do not feed your fingers to our animals.." So I should be worried about losing my fingers but not lips.... Like I said, we passed.   

 This jeep was made from all recycled metal and license plates.. Not sure why the big bone on the top..

 The tire, again made of all sorts of scrap metal.

 Ethan was fine for the most part to feed the animals. The care taker told us to stand here and to feed them carrots. He added, you will be fine, they just might be a little grabby.. Sure enough this little raccoon reached both hands out and grabbed the carrot from Ethan. Ethan had minor scratch marks on his hands as proof.  A little grabby???

 In front of the pot belly pig which you can't really see

 I don't want to mess with these horns..

Anyone need a zebra model??.. This pose kills me..She never does that pose, maybe her exotic inner zebra is coming out..

 This is how the twins enjoyed the petting zoo..

 Feeding a reindeer.

 Some other little random things they had around this place.

Guess who was in HEAVEN...He found MATER.

A random turtle that I am pretty sure you aren't suppose to "ride"

 Let me guess, back in the day of our parents this how they mowed the lawn.. It does look well-used.

Yes, a 2-story out-house.. Who knew..Notice Miner boss (woman) is on top...just sayin.. For some reason, Carl and I both, at the same time, thought of my brother when we saw this..This one is for you bro!

The water running down the front as it started to rain pretty hard. Overall  it was pretty cool. Just some additional tidbits on the house. It was opened as diner at one point,so part of the house had a professional kitchen and diner, which is now the gift shop. The wife was the waitress and the husband the cook. He died fairly young in his 50s and she lived in the house until 1970s. They have left the house exactly how it was when the owners lived there. He did chiseled 65 feet down to have a chimney installed, which you can see the top of from the outside. If she wanted shelves for nick-nacks she just had her husband carve a little space into the rock. The house stays at about 68-70 temperature all-year round.  I am not sure what ever inspired him to want to live literally IN the rock but to each their own. To think, we would have missed diamond in the rough site, thank you rainy weather.



Finally a family vacation

WARNING: There are going to be lots of pictures and commentary on this post (and it now looks like continuing posts) This is purposeful in the event that I might not ever get around to scrapbooking it..(Yes, I have come to terms with the idea that I just don’t have time to scrapbook.) Anyway, you have been warned.
We finally ventured out. We saw fall break as a perfect opportunity to plan a much needed family vacation. We haven’t really gone much of anywhere since before the twins were born. We decided to take “the rig” (as it is affectionately called by Carl) or aka the trailer down to Moab. We stayed in a RV park so I am not sure it would be called camping....We had a swimming pool, playground, and hookups (water, electricity, heat, cable TV etc) for the trailer. (As side note on the TV, I am not so sure how I feel about having one in the trailer but it did entertain the kids on the rainy day and thanks to the remote having a battery we were able to turn the thermostat on to have heat. The batery for it died.…Yes, somehow we forgot that minor detail on the check list. the remote to the rescue)
The RV park was great for the swimming, the playground, and the proximity to Arches. It kept the kids entertained and that was the idea. It was great to have a base camp. The disadvantages were the spaces are all  very well-designed to tightly fit lots of trailers and so you are right next door to your neighbor, which was kind of weird at first and made me realize we should have hung the blinds..and also that Bekah and Jacob have very loud cries…I am hoping the nice expensive “rigs” next to us had good insulated walls because nighttime was a little rough.
We didn’t take any pictures of swimming as we were both too busy in the water trying to keep all four kids’ heads above water. (Yes, again forgot to put life jackets on the check list. As you can see, we are not professional vacationers) Jacob really enjoyed his first time swimming and Bekah well not as much.. She was pretty tense. The weather, when it wasn’t raining, was perfect for swimming and the pool was heated. The pictures were mostly taken at Arches as you will see. Overall, except for the getting to bed, the kids did well and we had fun. Hopefully, our next vacation won't take us 3 years to get around to.

Arches here we come...

At balance rock.. (Ethan commented while seeing this that when he got big he was going to grow claws on his hands and toes and knock it off/over)

 Aww, if only they were like this all the time.

 An Arch (obviously right..not sure the name)

 Mom and the kids.

 Family photo op

 Jakey loved the backpack. I love this picture. He is just so happy all the time.

 Landscape Arch, Jakey was there too, just happened to put Ethan on that same side so he is hiding.

 Kimee taking a break.

 Helping, I promise, not hindering.. (quick little lesson on the purpose of these markers)

 He loved to climb everywhere.

A good little hitch-hiker.

All the beautiful things to see and he throws rocks in the water.

 Carl's shot of this tree.

 Another arch....

Every good hiker needs a power chocolate snack break right?