Pumpkin Pickin'

I'd really like to post what we did for Halloween before the Christmas post. I was supposed to do that before Christmas actually got here. But (not surprisingly) I didn't get it done. Now I'm trying to frantically update our bloggity-blog.

So here's the annual pumpkin pickin' at the pumpkin patch. And yes, we made our kids wear their costumes to the farm so we could take cute pictures. Thankfully they're not yet old enough to care.

There were so many cute pictures of Melanie. It was hard to narrow it down so the post wasn't a mile long. Because I think she's awfully cute.

Surprisingly Erik didn't love the guts out of this sweet little kitten. I was scared for it for a while.

It's really hard to get a picture of all the kids looking at the camera and smiling. We'll settle for one where they all look fairly normal.

There was a corn maze there as well. It was pretty well-planned, seeing as how Kent and I actually got lost.

At least we got a decent picture of all of us out of the trip.

Sweet little cow tale.

The end.

*chuckle*

The Great Outdoors

So pretend it's still September. And this post isn't over 3 months late...

Last year we went to Kalaloch by the coast and camped there. We LOVED it. Close enough to the beach to walk there but not so close that you're cleaning out sand from every orifice for 2 weeks. So Taylor wanted to go camping for his birthday. Lucky for him that we had planned on doing that anyway.

First on the list was some beach action.
This is me sleeping:
And this is what happens when I fall asleep and fail to keep Melanie from crawling away:
Erik doing what he does best.

Warning: lots of pictures ahead.
I love this pose.
There's a short and easy hike close to the campsite. Off the trail a little is a small stream. We love to go there, eat lunch, and throw all the rocks into the water.

How can you NOT laugh at this picture?
We decided to go check out the tide pools that were a little further away than our beach. It was totally worth it, although it was freezing and incredibly windy.

This was our pitiful attempt to get a picture of all of us. I'm sure it will be much easier when they aren't all trying to go 50 different directions.
And for my two FAVORITE pictures. I have to laugh at this picture. It makes it look like we try to lock her in the tent the whole time we camp-
"Ooh, they're not looking. If I could actually walk, I would be able to make a run for it."

And the winner is:
Yes, we're totally white trash. By the end of the trip, between the two boys, we had about 5 or 6 pairs hanging off of our rack. Good times.

Crash Landing

So our laptop crashed. Which is what I use to do all our blogging (so I can watch TV while my pictures are uploading). I swear I haven't forgotten about our blog, even though most people probably assume I have and don't check it much anymore...

Did I mention...

...that Taylor turned 5 on August 22nd? Well, he did.And he loves himself some good ol' lemon-jello cake. Just like his daddy.And what little boy doesn't absolutely love Legos? Star Wars Legos, for that matter.He was looking pretty sad riding his old bike with his legs going 100 miles an hour since it was so small. It was about time he got a new one. Good thing his birthday came.

It was weird when he started kindergarten. Like life was going to be totally different since he'd be gone for almost 4 hours every day Monday through Friday. It just seemed more official than pre-school. I wasn't one of those moms that left the first day of school on the edge of hysteria because their "baby is all grown up." In fact, I'm pretty sure that he was gone about 5 seconds before I started thinking of all the things I could do with only 2 kids in tow. But it's still just different. And there are even days when I actually miss him being home...

Cruisin'

Two months ago (yes, two months... I'm that behind) we went to the DuPont Corvette car show. Taylor and Erik both loved it. Of course, they'd probably also love a show with a bunch of rusty old cars on cinder blocks. But we'll settle for a Corvette show.

One of the owners asked Taylor if he wanted to "drive" it. He took one look at Erik with his sticky fingers and bag of popcorn while screaming for the box of juice he had just thrown on the ground. Erik didn't get an invite.I love how in these pictures my kids look like I woke them up at five in the morning and forced them to come. I'm still trying to figure out why there were 2 Camaros there. I'm pretty sure it was a Corvette car show.Melanie hates sippy cups and hardly drinks anything from them. But she loves the camelbak bottles.You can really see his "rash" on his cheek in this one:Taylor spent about 15 minutes like this. I think he was tired...