Parks

Before the weather turned cold, (it snowed last night and the high for today is 35, with more snow on the radar) we spent a couple days at the park.  Tuesday we went to the Black Forrest park.  This is one of my favorite parks in the area because of all the trees.  It makes it feel more like "home."  The kids had a lot of fun on the playground, but even more fun running around in the field, practicing cartwheels, and rolling down the hill.  I enjoyed their laughter, the beautiful view, and a good book while relaxing against a tree.

Yesterday we just went to the park right by our house.  The kids rode their bikes or roller bladed.  I walked around with them too.  While they played on the playground, though, it wasn't as much fun for me, because my back was really hurting and the only place to sit is on the big rocks they have place around there, which made my back hurt even more.  I couldn't wait to rest it all night last night!

Applesauce

Sprouts market had a great deal on apples a couple weeks ago, so I bought 4 bushel of golden delicious.  Nana helped me can them this week. We did it over 2 days, and I kept a bushel for myself to eat and make pies and such out of.  I got about 45 quarts canned though!  The kids helped the second day, which did make it go faster.   There isn't much better than fresh, homemade applesauce though!

Tink's 11th Birthday

Tink turned 11 last Friday.  We kept telling her she wasn't allowed to get any older than ten, but for some reason that didn't work.  She has been waiting for this birthday for a long time for this birthday.  Tink loves Harry Potter and has been waiting for her Hogwart's Acceptance letter for a few years now.  It was so cute, cuz she made one up for herself and "found" it in her window that morning.  It told her she had to continue at her own school, but it did inform her that she really is a witch!  She had a couple friends over and her closest cousin on the Coleman side was also able to come down for the weekend with her family.  And Nana, Papa, and Johnny were also able to come.  We had a good time.  She got a Headbandz game, a Wrinkle in Time book, Go Fish, and a pencil drawing set from her friends.  We got her a Harry Potter Clue game, a green watch, and a saxophone book with cd accompaniment.  We played Clue all weekend!!

Chuck E. Cheese's

The kids are on fall break this week and last, so we wanted to do something fun with them before PC left on a work trip.  We had a bunch of free tokens, and the kids love Chuck E. Cheese's so we headed down there for lunch.  There were only two other families there when we got there (not all school districts get a nice long fall break like we do!), but they left before us and we had the whole place to ourselves!  There were some new games there since we'd been last, so that was fun.  They have a new touch screen for Fruit Ninja.  Everyone liked that one.  There was also a big "hamster wheel."  That was fun, though I didn't try it.  The kids got a lot of tickets, and when we went to redeem them, the lady pretty much doubled them when she gave the kids 2 balls instead of the one that they had enough tickets for.  Then she gave them each a piece of candy instead of just the one we had earned.  It was a fun afternoon.

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Weekend Visit

Two weekends ago, we had visitors for the weekend from Utah.  Short Stuff has become a good friend of mine over the years, but was PC's good friend as a teenager.  It was fun to get together and get to know their family better.  I had visited her with the kids this summer, so that helped the kids a lot. They played nonstop all weekend.  It was great.  Their Little Guy was a joy to be with.  Tink and Minnie couldn't get enough of him!  Short Stuff grew up here and spent time showing her family around her old jaunts.  On Friday afternoon, we met up with them at the Air Force Academy.  We went to the visitor's center, the chapel, the fieldhouse, and the cadet gym.  It was a bit chilly and rained on us at the end, but the weather held out for the most part. 

I was recovering from a bad cold, so I wore myself out pretty quickly.  We let them do some sightseeing on Saturday, while we rested at home. On Sunday, we invited another friend over for dinner.  She was one of our good friends in England, (She's the one who took our awesome family pictures over there.) but she also knew Short Stuff from college.  We had figured out the connection a few years ago and since she lives only about a half hour away, we had to all get together.  It was a fun night, as you can see from all these silly faces!  In fact, the whole weekend was great!

Landsharks Finale

Today was our last Landsharks meet of the season.  Minnie did great and came in at 7 minutes.  (If you look at the time clock, you have to subtract a minute because they let the boys go a minute earlier than the girls.)  She had a good time and loved getting her medal!  I had fun with all the kids and would love to coach again someday, though with a small baby coming, I don't think it will be anytime soon!

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the Pumpkin Patch.  It was up past Monument and we had bought a deal from Living Social.  It was the coldest day so far this season (high of 35 degrees F), but it was the only day we could go.  So we bundled up with several layers and tried to enjoy ourselves.  I think everyone had fun until they started getting too cold.  We spent about an hour and a half there, so our extremities were starting to feel the cold pretty well.  The first thing we did was run over to the slide.  Oh yeah, it snowed last night and up here it actually stuck to the ground.  You can see it on the hay bales.  Goofy loved the slide the most and went down it more than anyone else!
We then headed over to the tractor hayride.  That was fun, but a little chilly.  They had some fake animals spread out over the course it took, and the kids had fun looking for all of them, especially the fox when the driver told us he didn't believe there was a fox out there. 

The other fun thing we did was the gourd launcher.  The kids loved using the big slingshots to shoot the small gourds.  I also got a good picture of everyone (except me, of course) on top of the hay bale pyramid.  Boy, do I love these guys!

After the pumpkin patch, we headed up to Ikea.  We stopped at Chick-fil-A in Castle Rock for lunch.  We bought shelves for the family room at Ikea.  We also picked up the baby crib, mattress, and changing table.  It was a good day.  And tonight while PC was at the priesthood session for general conference, I flipped on this morning's session and was surprised and excited to hear President Monson's announcement that the age for missionaries was being lowered to 18 for boys and 19 for girls! I had the kids come up and hear it too and we figured out that Tink could be going on a mission in 8 short years!  Minnie asked me why I was crying and I told her it was so exciting I couldn't hold it in.  That, plus all the hormones right now that I cry at just about anything!