Halloween

The kids enjoyed Halloween and trick-or-treating. 

Yes, two of the three kids wore different outfits than to the trunk or treat. Santa was a huge hit! A lot of people were asking him for gifts.

Daddy carved the pumpkins that the younger two designed.

Matthew really likes that his pumpkin is winking.

Megan's pumpkin's nose came out looking like a carrot so we stuck it out of the nose hole.

Working in a coal mine, going down, down, down...

Ever since Matthew earned his last LEGO set, he has been saving up to get another one. He has done extra chores and sold 98% of his candy last night to finally have enough for his next set. It is a mining set complete with miners, a dump truck, a loader and, of course, dynamite.

Trunk or Treat

The kids had a great time at our ward's Trunk-or-Treat.

The kids each picked up probably a couple pounds of candy.  They were really excited.  Mom and Dad offer to buy some it from them at a very generous rate.

I'm losing my mind!

I've felt a bit scatterbrained lately, like I'm losing my mind. Case in point:

I was looking at Sarah's AR report this week and saw she had 30+ points already. Since she hasn't taken that many tests this quarter, I figured some of the points were from the end of last quarter and tried to figure out which ones. I clicked on one book and was confused since the test was from the end of September and ones from the end of last quarter should be mid December (right?!?). I clicked on another one and it was also end of September. Then I clicked on one she took this past week and saw the date was mid October. Now I was really confused--shouldn't it be January???

Then it dawned on me--there must be some sort of offset in the whole AR system, with tests showing up 2 1/2 months earlier than they were actually taken. That's pretty weird, I thought. How would they even do that? And why?.....

Then I realized it's October, not January. And I apparently have a 2 1/2 month offset in my brain.

I can't believe I was putting a date offset into the AR system....I really must be losing my mind!!!!

Intel Fun Run

We participated in the Intel Fun Run.

Megan, Matthew and me on the 1 mile run. Maneuvering that stroller around all the people was quite challenging at times, especially with over 60 pounds of kids in it.

Sarah coming into the finish. She was the first girl finisher in her age.

Sarah showing off her medal.

All of us with our finishing medals.

(Not quite sure why Megan and Matthew got them, since all they did was sit. I think I should have gotten three, since I physically moved all three of us for the mile run.)

U on his 5k run.

After the races, we enjoyed eating breakfast and playing on the bounce houses.

Megan loved going down the big bouncy slide and spent most of her time doing that over and over again.

Sarah enjoyed playing in the obstacle course.

Matthew was proud that he could go through the obstacle course on his own.

All the kids loved going down the slide.

Cute faces!

We have some kids who love cameras! And what better way to entertain them while waiting then to take a bunch of pictures?!? It's sure fun to see them.

(Notice the orientation of Sarah's hat in the pictures. U stuck Sarah's hat on backwards and told her it looked cute. So she wore it that way the rest of the day.)

Phoenix Temple Open House

This past week, we went to the Phoenix Arizona temple open house. The temple was beautiful with lots of amazing artwork. We went right about sunset which made for some lovely views. Here are a few pictures that show the temple as it is getting darker.

Family shot--not the best lighting, but it proves we were there:)

The three girls.

The kids liked sticking their hands on the side of the reflecting pool.

The kids really liked that we got to ride a big bus from where we parked our car to the temple. And when we were leaving, we got to ride on a golf cart to our car. And they liked the temple tour, too.

We're a little spoiled in these parts right now, with 2 temple open houses in one year!!!

San Diego: Odds and Ends

Here's a few odds and ends about our trip:

Megan said "Yee-haw!" whenever she was excited. Which happened a lot.

Kids took to the condo like it was home. They especially liked having a tv in their bedroom.

It was really nice to listen to the surf crashing all night long.

Matthew asked us if lot of ships he saw were pirate ships. Regardless of our answer, he told us they were pirate ships and that there were pirates on them.

Favorite activity of the trip

Matthew: Firehouse Museum

Megan: Sea World

Sarah: Sea World and boogie boarding

Me: everything except when people were grumpy; really liked seeing the sunset and hearing the surf

U: seeing the Murrays

Sarah's favorite day was Saturday because we did a lot of fun things that she liked.

Last walk on the beach, Firehouse Museum

Sunday, we left San Diego. To say good-bye, the surf was big. There had been high high tides and low low tides all week, but Sunday morning definitely took the cake in terms of huge waves crashing in. We enjoyed one last walk along the beach.

What would you do with a giant pelican statue? Climb on it, of course.

Couple family pictures with the ocean behind us.

Megan and Matthew with the big surf behind them.

Big surf. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture how big it was, but it was big!

On our way out of town, we visited the Firehouse Museum. We intended to park by the museum, but there was nothing available, so we took the trolley instead.

The Firehouse Museum was a hit, especially the area where the kids got to dress up like firemen.

Must be a big emergency to have TWO firemen on the phone!

Hurry, hurry!

Our brave team.

Matthew wanted a picture with all the firemen hats.

Silly picture with a firetruck.

Another truck.

The kids liked that they could walk under this fire truck.

Big hook-and-ladder in back with two other trucks in front.

We then drove home. It was certainly a nice trip!

Favorite activity of the day

Matthew: going to the Firehouse Museum, also walking along beach

Megan: walking along beach

Sarah: walking along the beach

Me: seeing big surf

U: going to Firehouse Museum, sleeping in own bed