Pumpkin Patch

This first picture has nothing to do with the pumpkin patch. 

I took the boys to Mike's squadron's Halloween party and this is a picture of Jonas with the cookie he decorated.  I wanted to include this picture because it's the first time my smiley boy has deliberately assumed the "tough guy/no smile" pose for a picture.  This is right after he wouldn't hold my hand in the parking lot because "Pirates don't hold hands".  So maybe this tough guy pose was because he was in character, but no doubt there will be more of that in years to come.  Joy.  :/

 

So here begins the pictures of from our outing to the pumpkin patch.  The closest one here in Colorado Springs was $10 per person (including the kids) and they were sold out of pumpkins!  So we drove an hour and 15 minutes to Canon City.  Mike and I only paid $8 with a military discount and the kids were FREE.  The weather was gorgeous, it wasn't too crowded, and there were plenty of pumpkins to choose from.  It was totally worth it!

 

The kids headed to the slide first thing (see the video at the end of the blog) and then pet a few of the animals.

 

 

Next up, hay ride!

 

 

 

Then it was time for the corn maze/scavenger hunt.  (Love this picture of Ezra and Jonas.)

 

 

THEN, it was time for some corn bin fun!

 

 

 

Here's my beautiful girl in the corn pit.

So this corn pit was something new to me, but it was awesome!  It was like a big sand pit with buckets and shovels only with corn, and soooo much cleaner.

 

 

 

This was the beginning of a corn war between Mike and the boys. 

 

 

Super cute sign.

 

Ugh.  My kids do not know how to take a good picture anymore.  Judith does not like to look at the camera, Jonas just wants to be silly, and Ezra doesn't want to stand still. 

And here's how family photos turned out....

If I had to choose, I guess I like the first one the best, but it's still not that great.

Pretending to eat the corn.  Nice.  Ezra's trying to make the scarecrow's hat fall off.  Nice.  At least Judith and I look cute (even though she's STILL not looking at the camera.)  :)

The kids in the wagon while we were picking out pumpkins.

Heading out after an afternoon of fun.  (Ezra is behind the sign.)

 



See.  I told ya.

Trunk or Treat

Our church had Trunk or Treat tonight so we had the kids layered up under their costumes and braved the left over snow and freezing temperatures to get some candy and have some fun.

 

This was taken before we left.  I can not tell you how much I love this picture.  It cracks me up.  Judith looks especially plump, but she has on 2 layers of tights, a fleece hoody, and a long sleeved shirt under her Tinkerbell costume. 

 

 

 

 

I tried (to no avail) to get the kids to be a pirate crew for Halloween.  Jonas is a Neverland pirate and Judith is Tinkerbell, but Ezra was set on Luigi. I had thought of trying to push for a Super Mario trio but sadly, I could not find Princess Peach in a toddler size. The days of making them all be something cute together may be gone. *tear*

 

The Chick-Fil-A cow was dressed up as a knight.

 

A couple pictures of the kids trunk or treating.  Again let me say, it was 32 degrees!!  Burr!  They were troopers though.  I guess if you want candy badly enough...

 

Having a few munchies and warming up.

 

Just the beginning of a weekend full of Fall/Halloween fun!

Autumn Fun

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?  Leaves have overtaken our yard.  After Mike having bagged them once already, I decided to let the kids have some leafy fun.  I have really good memories of my Grandpa piling up leaves for us to play in and the weather has been lovely so it was definitely time. 

 

 

 

Mission accomplished.

Roller Skating

AWANA had a skate night so we took the kids roller skating for the first time ever.  It was sooo much fun!  Both Ezra and Jonas picked it up really fast.  This ol' girl was a little wobbly at first, but I was surprised how easily it came back after not having skated in more years that I care to remember.

 

They have these cool "trainers" now for new skaters.  We rented one, and I'm glad we did because I think it really helped build their confidence, but by the end of the night they weren't even using it!

 

 

As you can tell, Mom was in charge of the skating part.  Mike "doesn't skate".  I think you can tell by this picture that I may have been enjoying myself a little too much.  ;)

 

It's a lot of fun to have the kids be a little older now and we can start doing some really fun family stuff!  We were pleasantly surprised with how well they did and can't wait to go back!

 

Fall Foliage Drive

Since this will be our last fall in Colorado, I was begging for Mike to take me on a drive through the mountains to see the beautiful foliage. 

 

He finally gave in and we headed north about 3 1/2 hours to Estes Park.  Then we turned south onto Colorado's oldest scenic byway--established in 1918.  This was taken just south of Estes Park.

 

 

We ate a picnic lunch at Lily Lake with a great view of Longs Peak (the one with snow on it).

 

This was the best (sadly enough...)  of many attempts to get a decent picture of the kids.  You can clearly tell that my 5, 4 and 2 year old were not cooperating. 

 

We had to get back for game night with our small group (which I did not want to miss of course),  so there wasn't much time to stop.  Mike was gracious enough to allow me several quick photo ops when he pulled over to the side of the road along with dozens of other cars.

 

These are a couple of pictures from the weekend before.  We saw Curious George at Toy Station.

 

Ezra and Jonas with some Star Wars storm troopers at an Austim Speaks walk we participated in.

Will Rogers Shrine

Our Cheyenne Mountain Zoo pass also allows us to visit the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun.  It's a tower high above the zoo, but not quite at the top of Cheyenn Mountain.  The kids always call it "the castle" when we see it upon our approach to the zoo.  So one Saturday in early September we decided to check it out.

 

 

This is some of the silliness my family exhibited when I was trying to take a picture.

 



Ezra and Jonas looking over Colorado Springs.

 



 

It does look like a castle.  There is a chapel in the bottom and 3 or 4 rooms off the staircase on each level that showcase pictures and/or artifacts from Will Roger's life.  The shrine was built by his best friend after Roger's untimely death in an airplane crash.

 



 

A picnic and playground afterward.

 

Then, a drive through the mountains.  The aspen were already beginning to change.

 

We found some good climbing rocks for the boys.

 

Jonas, our little mountain goat.

 



 

Jonas pouting when it was time to leave.

 

I did end up getting a decent one back at the shrine.  :)

 

 

Random other picture--Jonas' preschool class had a field trip to Garden of the Gods.  It had snowed on Pikes Peak the night before, so after we were done with our hike we parked at this overlook to watch the clouds part over Pikes Peak to catch a glimpse of the first snow!