Ghosts, Witches, Mermaids & Ducks

Why some people don't like Halloween (and you know who you are) is beyond me! Halloween is soooo fun! I love getting out and visiting our neighbors and feeling that sense of community and celebration. I love how exciting it is for the kids to dress up and be something else! I love being creative with 3 empty paper towel rolls, tin foil, pipe cleaner and red lip stick to try to come up with a costume (I am all about putting something together with what you already have). I love carving pumpkins and cute decorations and the fall weather and colors . I like a little bit of candy but I have no problem confiscating it and hiding it for another day (the shelf life on that stuff... whew... not a big deal to save it until Christmas and Easter etc.- really!). And every now and then I like to be a little scared! Ready for something scary?!....
She's good isn't she!
For those of you anxious to see what our theme was this year, I am so sorry to disappoint you. Honestly, you have no idea. Since Jason worked until 4 am the night of the Ward Halloween party and since Allie had changed her mind so many times on what she wanted to be and since Luke would not wear anything fun... it just didn't happen. Allie decided to wear one of her old dress-up dresses and be the Little Mermaid. It's nothing homemade but it is something we already had. We did buy a wig at the grocery store (on sale). I decided the wig looked like fun so I got one too. Luke finally let us put make-up on him last minute and even wrap some toilet paper around his head and neck which looked really cool. And Wesley's cute hand-me-down duck kept him nice and snug.

This was Jason's 2 second creation. He is so cute!
And he is so cute too!!!



For preschool on Friday the kids could wear orange and black to celebrate if they wanted. I bought these adorable candy corn pants and the hair things as well as Luke's shirt last year after Halloween. I really hoped that they would fit. Turned out perfectly!

Yosemite

I was just thinking about back in the day when people would take slide film on their vacations and then have friends come over and make them sit through a slide show of their trip. At least here you can skim what you want and come back to it if you cannot sit through an entire post.

Yosemite was BEAUTIFUL! Absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous! A neighbor of ours says May (around Mother's Day) is the best time to go because the waterfalls are flowing after the melting of the snow. We only got to see two waterfalls flowing and they were so beautiful albeit there was obviously not as much water as normal. BUT the fall COLORS... I kept thinking "If we were here in May we would be seeing water but missing out on this [the amazing colors]". I guess we will just have to go again. It was so fun camping with Ilene, Jay and little Andrew. We had our radios on so even though we were in separate cars we could still carry on a conversation (isn't that right Kilo Echo 7 Romeo India Lima).
People kept telling us to watch out for the bears and don't feed the bears. The bear boxes are the absolutely ONLY place you can store food (other than your tummy). If not properly latched, you will get scavengers.
These boy were never happier than when we finally put them down to let them crawl in the dirt.And talk about yummy food. Doesn't everything taste better when you are camping? Instead of going through our whole menu... here's a sample- pork chops and stuffing with a dijon apricot sauce and topped with peaches . Baked in the dutch oven. OH Yum!!!
The kids had a GREAT time. I think Luke slept better in that tent and sleeping bag than he has for a while. Allie and Aunt Ilene (why don't we have a photo of Ilene?) found a baby tarantula nearly dead while washing dishes.
And other than crying because they were cold or whining because they wanted to be carried or pushed in the stroller on any of our hikes we had a great time with them. You should have seen the looks and laughs as we pushed the double jogger 0.8 miles UP HILL to Vernal Falls. Not one person passed without commenting. It was hilarious and quite a workout. We decided to make them walk when we read the Sequoia grove was 1 mile down a steep trail. Turned out to be a gentle slopping WIDE paved single lane road. Perfect for a stroller. ugh.

Jack Kerouac didn't travel with 3 kids

(With any luck, this post will appear half way into our Yosemite adventure; we'll see if this works when we get back to Albuquerque)....

Monday afternoon we drove west for a few hours to California's central "gold coast."  The drive was a rural one and very beautiful; definitely golden rolling hills this time of year.  We decided at the last minute to Hotwire a hotel and wound up at a great little place across the street from the dock below in Morro Bay, CA.  We also considered Pismo Beach and were happy we wound up in this little fishing town rather than the typical big, busy beach town.  Down on the "Embarcadero" you could almost sleep in the street there were so few cars.  Staying in the middle of the week in October helps too...

No amount of post processing can fix this photo.  I looked and looked for the muscle button to no avail.  We hit up the hot tub twice while we where there.  Duck duck goose is pretty fun when you are 4 and 2.

We went on a short walk down the street to see what we could find.  Allie found this cool tree.  (By the way, I used our new ultra-wide Sigma for most of the photos on this post).  

Allie found this dock and ran down to to the end to see what was going on.  We found these two Phillipeano guys fishing off the dock for sardines and spanish macrel.  They were nice and fun to chat with.  The grocery sack hooked to the white box behind Allie is full of fish.  The guy tried to get Allie to hold one, and she almost did but got a bit scared in the end.  Luke was too scared.  Luke and Allie kept looking into the disgusting sack to see the wiggly fish so would "have to" wash their hands off with the the sprayer behind them.  

Our little Allie is quite the fearless wanderer - almost to a fault.  At church Sunday she went right into Primary without looking back (like she did in nursery as a 1 year old).  On our way back Tuesday, we stopped at Pismo Beach where she ran off chasing a gull without ever thinking twice.  Below you see her after running off and finding this interesting staircase with cool seaweed at the bottom.

Wesley and his sister (yea, we need to trim his hair a bit so people don't think he's a girl).
At the end of our walk we found a cool little city park with these interesting trees.  The park had a pirate ship that the kids thought was super cool.

Wesley swimming with the dolphins. 

I woke up Tuesday morning and went on a walk while Joy and the kids slept.  We stayed on the nicer end of the embarcadero.  The opposite end has some commercial fishing interests and a power plant (the whole walk is ~ 1.5mi).  The gull below is not lit real well, the sun was just on Morro Rock behind it.  This rock is a volcanic plug and is now a paregrine falcon preserve and as such covered almost completely in white (hmmm... as Lindsay would say).

Here we have Ms. Allie climbing on an anchor in the city park.  She asked me what these letters said.  We ate dinner Monday night at an Italian restaurant.  Joy and I had some great fish.  Allie on the other hand was given a menu (with no pictures) and was looking it over and loudly told us "what am I going to eat, I can't even read!"

Here are some of the nicer commercial fishing boats before sunrise Tuesday. 

And a detail of one of the not so nice ones.  The next time you eat a fillet-o-fish, think of me.

...sunset Monday night walking back to our hotel...

We missed Jay, Ilene and Andrew.  Jay had to work of course, Andrew wasn't feeling so hot, and Ilene ended up watching some kids after school so they ended up staying home on the farm.

Grove Adventure

You just cannot appreciate 16,000 acres of trees.  Even when you are walking down the long endless rows of them.  Its the whole "forest for the trees" thing quite literally.  Jay and Ilene's house is in the middle of the pistachio orchard.  I don't think I have ever seen a pistachio tree before this trip-  I have seen thousands now.  We went on a walk Sunday evening; the weather is so beautiful here.  Something about long symetric rows always makes me want to run (is it to reach the "end" where the trees meet which of course doesn't exist?).  Anyway... we walked.

Do you know what these are?  Pistachios of course.  Aren't they pretty?  They grow in clumps like grapes and the hulls are a beautiful burgundy red.  When they ripen and are ready to harvest they lighten up to an almost white and then the split open (which is how you buy them from the store). 

We reached our destination- an irrigation reserviour.  The perfect place to dig in and fling mud.  Jason tucked Luke's pants into his new socks for some reason.

Look what else we found growing on the side of the reservoir!

We took it home to show Aunt Ilene.
Disclaimer: Another guy took this photo.  Uncle Jay took this shot while Mom and Allie were walking up ahead.  Boys are so gross sometimes.  How does the saying go?  Something about dirt and snails and puppy dog tails.  And maybe some saliva and snot too.  Ok, I admit... I still love them... every bit!

VACATION HERE WE COME!

CALIFORNIA!  We made it to Jay and Ilene's house near Bakersfield, CA last night at 9 or so after a stopover in Flagstaff.  Wesley and Andrew (3 weeks apart) got to meet each other for this first time.

This morning Allie, while blessing breakfast, prayed that Uncle Jay Jay would take her fishing (we had to remind her to bless the food too) so off we went in the heat of the day to a canal up the road.  Last summer when Taylor got married, Jay took everyone fishing to the kid's fishing pond in Logan, UT.  Allie caught several big catfish, so I worried that she would be disappointed (like her dad) in waiting so long to catch anything.  She proved her skills again and reeled in a little fish seconds after her first cast.  Luke caught one too, then Allie another.

Apparently Luke thinks fishing is for the girls... 

Dinner anyone?

Tagged

Do you remember the emails that used to go around where someone sent you funny/silly info about themselves and you were supposed to in turn write about yourself and then send that on to everyone you know? Now people "tag" each other in their blogs. Shara tagged me (Joy) with this one. It is fun- the 4th photo from your 4th folder. Our folders are kind of... jumbled. But here it is:

Vic and Molly dating. Do you two remember what the stresses of life seemed to be then? Different world then, different life now. But there is a little hidden message in this photo, there is hope. Do you see it? Right above you and between you. That is where you will find it.