Turkey Week

Dear Kate and Riley,
I guess nothing very noteworthy happened between Halloween and Thanksgiving! We just got back from a week in Wisconsin to visit Grandma Janice and Grandpa Ross at their new house in Waunakee, WI. I never, ever thought I would be spending any time in Wisconsin, let alone that my parents would live there! It was a very very different place from CA or Houston and it felt strange to have my parents things in a house that wasn't "ours".

We spent a week with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jenny and Uncle Chris were there for part of the time too. It was fun, we missed Summer and Ali, but Zach liked being the center of attention and it was a little less chaotic with only one 2 year old to entertain. We came prepared for the worst but Wisconsin decided to go easy on us our first time and we had mild (?) weather-- 30's and 40's were the highs. Someone at church even said a prayer of thanks for the warm weather! The wimpy Californians did NOT think it was warm but the locals were out in their t-shirts and enjoying the fact that it was 20 degrees higher than the average for this time of year. We had no snow which was only momentarily disappointing and I think I realized more than ever that I HATE the cold and I hope we never ever have to leave CA.

Because of the "warm" weather we were able to enjoy some fun hikes and walks and Zach even spent time at the park with Papa Ross. Thankfully someone was brave enough to face the elements for the sake of entertaining the 2 year old. Thanksgiving was nice with just the 7 of us, probably the smallest I've ever had but nice.

On Saturday we headed out to the Wisconsin Dells which is a resort area where many of the resorts have indoor water parks. We spent the day at an indoor water park which was actually pretty fun! Zach of course enjoyed himself but I think the big kids did too. The Dells is a place unlike any other, really hard to describe unless you see it for yourself. Wisconsin was just so different than what we're used to.

Grandpa Ross carving the turkey

Jenny learned how to make pie crust (but I'm pretty sure our friend Marie actually made this one!)

Grandma Janice made her famous rolls-- 5 years of marriage and I still can't get them as good as mom. Maybe in another 20?

Zach sneaking rolls before dinner. This is probably the most you'll see of my belly.

The group, minus the pregnant girl (hey if I take the pictures at least I don't have to be in any of them!)

Friday hike, I loved him all bundled up

Mom all bundled up, not quite as cute

The girls

Jenny and Chris
the hike was short and perfect for Zach until we came to the end-- the cliffs of death. Not exactly crazy 2 year old friendly. I think grandma and I each had five heart attacks before we left this spot.

Wisconsin Dells-- Kalahari indoor water park!

One night we went up to the Capitol in Madison to look at Christmas lights--except there weren't any. It was FREEZING but still pretty to see the capitol all lit up.


The Zoo!
Our last day in town we went to the Zoo in Madison. It was free so we figured even if it was too cold, no big loss. There were a few indoor enclosures to warm up in between walking around in the cold so it was a successful outing.

Zach and Grandma in the monkey house. The chimps were funny and so close! (and it was heated in there, I didn't ever want to leave)

The fun thing about a small zoo was how close we got to the animals. I don't think I've ever been so close to a tiger!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We had fun! But we're glad you are coming to us for Christmas.

Love,
Mom

Halloween Fun!

Dear Kate and Riley,
It really did sort of feel like Halloween lasted a month this year. We had some friends over Friday night to carve pumpkins and make cookies. The problem with pumpkins is that it seems that mom does it all and Zach wouldn't even TOUCH the pumpkin. But he was very proud of it afterward.

Then on Halloween we went to a party with people from Zach's play group and other ward friends and then met up with some of the neighbors for trick-or-treating. It was fun that Zach really understood it this year, could go up to the houses himself and say "trick-treat!" but it was NOT fun that he wanted to eat the candy as SOON as he got it and screamed for treats for like an hour after we got home! Its a good thing he's cute! I'll be hiding all the candy in the house tonight and hoping he forgets about it by morning.

His new thing is to say "cheese!" and tilt his head to the side. Pretty cheesy! Here he is getting ready to cut out cookies

Zach and Addie, I love these faces like, "who us, eat the dough? no way!"

Nate was the only dad brave enough to carve a real pumpkin. Dad and Zach stuck in the potato head pumpkin pieces.

Now MOM carved a pumpkin!

I love this. We really needed a video of it. He was SO good at saying "Arrrg" like a pirate

Zach and Addie. We lost Will to bed time.

Zach and a bunch of the kids at the Halloween party. So cute.

Zach and Isabelle getting ready to trick-or-treat!

First house, too cute. They had the biggest entourage of adults, it was so funny!

Lexi, Isabelle and Zach

Zach and his pumpkins. The potato head one was the best. I really think we'll do only these from now on, no carving involved!

He loved his Pirate pumpkin

... and now, I'm ready for Christmas. Is that sad?

Love,
Mom

Irvine Regional and Disneyland

Dear Kate and Riley,

To continue the Halloween fun we headed out last Saturday to Irvine Regional park with Dad. There was a pumpkin patch there but, more importantly, there was a CHOO-CHOO there as well as other fun carnival type stuff. The moon bounce turned out to be Zach's favorite thing and one of mom's most embarrassing parenting moments when Zach refused to come out of the moon bounce and there was a whole line of kids waiting to go in but he had to come out first. The attendant wouldn't let us go in to get him so we were left to yell and plead, all to no avail. Eventually the girl had to go in and get him herself.

Then on Monday we headed out to Disneyland to see the Halloween decorations and ride the "ho wide" (aka Pirates of the Caribbean). Zach got to wear his pirate hat on Pirates and all was right with the world.

A little shy with the train engineer

moon bounce

there was a not too scary haunted house. Zach was a little nervous

All he wanted to do with the pumpkins was pick them up and carry them to new spots and then throw them down. It was pretty hilarious to watch.

Disneyland

For some strange reason, after 100s of times going on Pirates, he got nervous at first this time. He was screaming "NO HO WIDE!" and everyone was looking at us like we were bad parents. But two seconds into it he was singing "YA-HO!" and loving it.

Proof, this was him at the end saying "ARRRG!" in his best pirate voice

Stay tuned for MORE halloween fun!
love,
mom

Tanaka Farms

Dear Kate and Riley,
To get in the Halloween mood we headed out to Tanaka farms with a few friends to check out the pumpkin patch. Nothing says fall like 85 degree weather, right!? Zach was really excited for PUNKINS! But really he would have been happy to run through the hay maze the entire time and drive his cars on the pumpkins with Will.

They had a corn maze but for the little kids they just had this hay set up which was more like a corral than a maze. He LOVED it. I mean seriously it was like running through this path was the most exciting thing he'd ever done, he cried when I made him leave!

We went on a "tracor" ride which he's still talking about today (but seriously, $5 to ride through the parking lot!?)

Ok mom, enough of the pictures please!

Will and Zach were seriously bugged when we made them stop driving their cars and trains on the pumpkins and tried to take their picture.

Well despite the fact that I'm holding his hands down like he's in a straight jacket, at least he's looking!

We had a good start to Halloween fun and can't wait for more fun next week!

Love,
Mom

Mom's turn! More B-day Fun in Palm Springs

Dear Kate and Riley,
We had to let the birthday fun continue all week long since it was my turn on Friday! So Thurs. afternoon we headed out to Palm Springs with part of the Bowen family (Clarke met us later in the weekend). Dad was so sweet and sat all the way in the back of the van so Megan and I could talk the whole drive out. I don't know what was worse for him, listening to us talk non-stop or having to deal with me driving!

Zach had SO much fun with Addie, he was so excited that he couldn't even sleep or calm down. They just ran in circles all through the condo, chasing each other. It was so cute. We spent three days doing not much but playing at the pool. Zach and Addie both loved the water slide and I loved sitting by the pool and eating WAY too much. I got all my birthday wishes, a card from dad, a slice of Godiva Chocolate cheesecake and a renewed Disneyland pass! What more could a girl want?

I actually didn't take many pictures this time. I'm photoed out...

birthday dinner at Red Robin, it was seriously the only place we dared go with two two year olds!


Embarrassed while the Red Robin people sang to me. I grabbed Zach so people wouldn't focus on me. Then after they sang some lady in the restaurant yelled out "How many years!?" (I'm sure thinking it was for Zach) Dad so wonderfully yelled back (so the whole restaurant could hear) "31!" awesome, huh?

Megan and I sipping our virgin mojitos by the pool. Heaven I tell you!

Love,
Mom