The Zoo and Labor Day

We headed up to good ol' P-town for Labor Day.
My dad's birthday was the 8th and we asked him what he wanted. He said family pictures so we rounded everyone up and went in the back yard. Usually I'm the one that gets the charge of trying to get everyone matching but this time we just showed up and just said "Go change to match us"- SO much easier that way. I think that will be how we do it from now on.

And look: It looks totally fine with like 99% less stressing about matching. Everyone did really well finding something don't you think?

Yay! So happy birthday dad and I'll hopefully have some time to play with it and edit it in my photoshop since this one was done with picasa.

Then on Monday my mom woke up and said, "Let's go to the zoo!" She had gotten 1/2 off coupons from papa murpheys the other week so we got a couple more and headed to the Hoogle Zoo! I've been wanting to go and I didn't know that September was the last month they would have the Jurassic display and Grant is so obsessed with dinosaurs so of course we couldn't get enough of those. Huge giant robotic dinos.

My mom had to work so she only got to stay for not even an hour with us. That's how she is though- she'll get everyone going somewhere even if she can't. She's the reason we even went! Thanks for making us go have fun mom! Hopefully we can do it with you next year!

Cooling off in the splash pad with auntie B 

Buds G and Grandpa

Waiting for the Bird show

They had a worker play like she was scared of birds and fall in the pool again! My whole family was fooled! Ha ha! They were REALLY good actors this time though- seriously- wow.

A little boy next to G told him the dinos weren't real- "if they were real they'd come and bite your head off!"

Measuring up

Turn around so I can see your face- put your arms out. "I don't know how to do that!"

Almost

Neat that the lion slept right next to the window! 

We ended the day with a train ride

We stayed until the zoo closed. What a fun day!

The 4th

We got to spend the 4th weekend with the Jensen grandparent's and uncle G! We had a little hotdog thing at the park and then met up with some friends at our old place which is right next to the stadium so we had front row seats to the fireworks show! What a fun, great day!

Then, they got to stay the night and the next day we headed to the beach:

Esther HATED being in the water so we let G take her floaty and He loved being independent out there kicking around.

Garr was a good sport hanging out at the beach since he doesn't like to swim but hopefully he got some relaxing in since he's such a busy guy. I need to get one of those anti-gravity chairs for you next time so you can take a nice nap!!!

Thanksgiving

You guys! I forgot my camera.
I know.
So so sad.

So I stole a couple photos from family posts- so thanks because it's hard for me to post sometimes without at least one of the kids!

But Grant finally got to play with his Montana cousins which was soooooo cute. It's fun watching how kids can just pick up and be friends together and laugh (and fight) so easily.

Pretty sure Grant just stayed in his jammies every day.

Mandi's pumpkin pie was G's favorite.

Don't Eat Pete- Grant won this game both times he played it. Like how does that happen? Seriously, he got to eat all the chocolate from off the board (without CHEATING PATRICK!!!- the kids learned that you just pick the whole paper up and bend it down the middle and dump all the chocolate in your mouth)

Favorites:
1. Esther learned to CRAWL on Thanksgiving Day!
2. Grant learned how to do walk up legs while holding hands to do a backflip from his cousin Quincy.
3. Mandi's play: The Grouch Who Stole Christmas- oh that was sooooo fun. Nana and Papa watched the kids and Jay and I had an actual DATE. And so neat to see your sister-in-law and enjoy her wonderful talents- her solo was BEAutiful! I felt the message of the words so clearly- that Christ is the reason for Christmas.
4. We got to see everybody! (except my siblings on missions)
5. Amazing bowling games celebrating birthdays- I think I got like 75 or 80 on one game- it was cute watching the kids push the ball. Jay got like 108! (He says put that he got like 170--- ha ha) nope.
6. I have the most amazing family. Ever. I got the CUTEST outfit for my birthday and some cute cute headbands for my short hair. Oh I am so in love. Like my in-laws know how to make a girl feel good and loved. THANK YOU!!!
7. Pie- so I was determined not to eat ANY sugar because Jay and I had this cold for a couple weeks and we were really trying to get better. But, guess what? A couple slices of pie made with love actually healed our illness. No really. Like we got better a few days after eating pie. And a lot of pie. And ice cream. I am now a believer of sugar made with love as being a GOOD healthy thing.
8. We watched The Giver which was very good.
9. My mom made the most delicious stew out of FOOD STORAGE in a pumpkin. It was really good.
10. I loved just being around all those good people we call family. We are so lucky.

Happy Halloween

This year I knew what we had to be for Halloween and had all these ideas on how to accomplish our final "look" as a family.

Since becoming "crunchy" I've had to figure out how to still have fun because a lot of "fun" involves SUGAR! And Halloween is the biggest SUGAR (but not like good sugar- like homemade pies and ice cream- a lot of it is these junky little sugary hard candies that I still find myself eating even when I know it's not even that good).

So, I felt a little stuck in the fact that Grant is only 2 and 1/2. Not old enough to really understand what is going on but old enough to trick-or-treat. I knew though, being the parents of a child who doesn't really get it yet that I would be tempted to eat his treats- but I would know that it was not only because I would want some for my own taste buds, but that I would be "saving" my son from all the sugar too. Such a good mom- eating her child's Halloween candy to save him. Well, as I'm typing I'm scarfing nerds and a cookie. Jay got the Reese's- I'm expecting one for my upcoming birthday to make up for that one- he didn't even split it! See look at me with my child's stash of candy! This is terrible. I become a little bit of a monster with all this candy!

So finally the day came and I had talked to a friend who told me she was going to make caramel popcorn and watch a fun movie with her kids and I thought, "Now there is a fun little tradition that doesn't have to be filling our bodies with junk for the next month because we know we shouldn't be eating all the candy but not having the will-power to give it away or throw it away." That sounded fun and we still get a treat!

I ran into a neighbor talking about this carnival and ran into another friend telling me about our local grocery store and how they give out other things other than candy so I caved. We would be going trick-or-treating after all, which you already know from reading about me eating nerds huh? Anyway....

I whipped out the scissors and began snipping and hot-gluing like a maniac.
Threw the kids into the appropriate attire to match the idea and jumped in the car.

Our local market was wonderful and it IS so fun seeing all the costumes. And the store was great- we got a toothbrush, cheese stick, eye-ball ring- and they had a haunted house.

Well, I know you are dying to know what we dressed up as so dun da da DUN!:

And in case you are like everyone else who said, "Oh how fun, a monkey, bear and girl in a dress?" Read Jay's name tag....We are Goldilocks and the 3 bears :)

Of course Jay's original ears did look like this:

Now you know why people were confused originally. HA!

G also tried on my wig from another year as we were looking through out Halloween Stuff:

He even did cutsie smiles for me- ha ha. Wow. Oh I love that kid.