Halloween festivities

A week before Halloween, we went to Manitou Springs, where our good friend took our family's pictures. Afterward, there was the big annual coffin races on the main street. We've always heard about this event but have never gone. It is HUGE!!! People REALLY get into it. The costumes we saw in just the crowd of people were amazing. We had to wiggle our way through the crowd until we found a tiny space on the curb where all 5 (and 1/2) of us tried to fit. It was long and the kids hadn't eaten , but we made it out alive and we all had a great time. First they have a parade of different groups and hearses (sp?) that are all decked out. Then the actaul races begin...

Who you gonna call?!!

Flame throwers.... Tyler's eyes sure got big with this one.

Group of people doing the "Thriller" dance down the street...definitely a crowd pleaser.

A cannibal tribe...all in good fun!

Grinch and Cindy Lou-Who

Pirates of the Carribean

Cuddled close together...

Nate and Colton enjoying the festivities. At one point a group threw out a bunch of lolli-pops to the crowd, my kids scaveneged many of them and ofcourse Colton wouldn't have any part of being left out and he made the biggest stickiest mess he's ever made (and that is quite a feat). We had no wet wipes or tissue or anything handy, so we used his shirt, luckily it was black.

My 3 lil' munchkins before our church party. Ty as a dashing pilot, Lexi as a sparklified Dorothy and Colton as a gnome (or Mr. Travelocity as some called him).

This costume was definitley a huge hit! Especially while trick-or-treating , people were going nuts. Never thought some felt and hot glue would make such an impression...ofcourse it wouldn't have had the same effect if Colton wasn't so stinkin' cute!! (Biased?...yes!)

The next night we went trick-or-treating and Tyler decided to wear his other costume, Rex from Clone Wars. We went with some friends in this awesome historic neighborhood where everyone gets into the family spirit of Halloween. It was a lot of fun and luckily not very cold.

There's Lexi and Colton with their Rock Star dad. Notice the tatoos on his arms...yeah he's changed a bit since the last time some of you have seen him. Also the crowning glory was the blonde wig that was a little more feminine-looking than Nate realized. Should I have told him it used to belong to my grandmother?........Nah! I'm glad he got into the spirit though. Overall it was a very fun Halloween season.

September/ October review

The new addition to our home, the infamous tree fort.

This is Tyler on his first day of preschool, he's sooo proud of his Star-Wars backpack that his dad used to use when he was young. And we're proud of him!

This is Tyler's teacher, Ms. Marsha and his classmates. He's having a ball at school.

Tyler showing off his school bucket that he decorated by himself (No need for ribbons, glitter and paint for this manly man).

One of the most exciting things that happened to us in September was that we found out I was expecting...again:) The baby is due on April 12th and this time we're not finding out if it's a boy or girl. Nate wasn't too excited about that idea, but now he feels he's 100% positive what it is, so he's content (and so am I). Things have been going relatively well (except for a small scare) and I'm feeling pretty good. Lexi and Tyler are so excited about the baby and already trying to be better helpers.

This was at Lexi's field day. Nate, Tyler, Colton and I all went to see her and she was overjoyed:)

I guess this was supposed to be like tribal warrior paint or something, to scare their opponents maybe??? Sure scares me!

The highlight of field day is when they had the parents jump in and help the kids out (well I don't know if they ever actually wanted the parents to help, but parents kept taking the initiative anyway). Our team was apparently crazy competetive and didn't take this matter lightly. We had several "rounds" and were never defeated. It was fun to watch some of the men become giddy with the thrill of victory over and over (OK, so the moms and kids were LOVIN' it too)! I'm in the green sweater there, not knowing how sore my arms and shoulders would be the next day - kinda pathetic!

Nate and Tyler were getting in on the action too!

Colton trying to change the obstacle course when he thought no one was looking :)

Here's Lexi with her teacher and class. They were the green tree-frogs that day and had a cheer and everything.

Here's the long-awaited pictures from inside our tree-fort that Nate's dad so lovingly finished while Nate and I were on vacation. He worked so hard to get it done! The kids LOVE it!

(Again I have a double here and I can't seem to delete it, not too savvy)

We ended up taking a trip to Arizona at the beginning of October for my grandad's funeral. It ended up being a lovely service, a great tribute for such a great man. I think many people were able to feel some closure. It was great to see family and friends. It really was a nice time, considering the circumstances.

Whenever we go to AZ, Colton has to see his girlfriend Maddy (my friend Kristen's little girl). She's just a few weeks older than Colton so it's always fun to get them together.

My mom took us to this neat park in Mesa that has a little amusement park and ducks, a few different playgrounds etc. The kids loved running around in shorts and T-shirts (b/c it was already getting cold in Colorado).

Maddy, Lexi and Colton

One of the other pieces of big news for our family in October was that we got a camper. This a fulfillment of a wish of Nate's after many years. After we bought it, Nate was as happy as a school boy (or maybe happier) :) It was fun to see! It's used, but in great condition and the price was right. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to take it for a "spin" yet b/c it's just too cold and we're wimps.
It's a little small, but does sleep six and our van can handle towing it. Hopefully we'll be able to get a lot of good use out of this for some years to come.

While we were in Phoenix, my parents took us to a neat pizza place called the Organ Stop. Apparently it's been there for over 50 years (it's always fun to go to new places in Arizona, after living there most of my life). They have this incredible organ that rises up onto this pedestal from beneath the floor and rotates and has thousands of organ pipes that take up most of the restaurant walls and have many other instruments attached to the walls and ceilings that are all controlled by this organ. The organist was....AMAZING!!!!!! and took requests on the spot. It was quite something to see and hear all the thousands of "moving parts" working in synchronization. The kids really had a ball - dancing all over the place. I highly suggest the trip for anyone in the Mesa area.
Sorry about the poor quality of the video, but it's still pretty fun - I think. You made need to turn the volume down a bit on your speakers.

Alaska trip

In an attempt to catch up just a bit on our blog, here is some information about the Alaskan cruise Nate and I took in Septemeber with my parents. There are just WAYYY too many pictures to post here, so I encourage you all (no, I ORDER you all) to click on the link to our picasa web albums in the top right hand corner and then click on our Alaska trip album. There you'll see more pictures than you probably want of our time on our cruise. There is some breath-taking scenery.

Overall, like I've told many of you already, it was a cold, wet time, but absolutely WONDERFUL! We all got a little dizzy and sea-sick at times, but not too bad. As an added bonus we were able to see some family in Juneau we haven't seen in years and years and also some good friends from high school in Skagway (of all places). So let me say THANK YOU once again to Nate's parents who came to our house and stayed with our kids all week. That meant sooo much to us and our kiddos had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa. Also, THANK YOU of course to my parents who gave us this opportunity and let us "tag along" with them on this great trip. This would obviously have never happened without either set of parents. We feel very blessed!

July/ August review (fashionably late)

Here's July 4th, celebrating with a few friends. It was actually raining and COLD this year so fireworks were a little more complicated.

(Out of order) Later in July, Lexi auditioned for a play for the touring Missoula Children's Theater Company, organized through our library department, and got a small part. She was THRILLED!!! They put on a musical production of "Robison Crusoe" in less than a week. Lexi got to be one of the chamelions (funny lizard). It was really a neat process and learning experience for her. She had a ball acting like a lizard and doing the hula (the story line was quite interesting :) ).

She's the one in green on the end standing up, being lizard-like.

(I don't know why there's a duplicate of some of these pictures, but I don't know how to get rid of them...sorry.)

Back to 4th of July...here's some of the kids super excited over our small attempt at a fireworks show. You should have seen the dads - they were even more giddy!

What can I say????.... Colton's hair is the BEST!!!!! (His red eyes set off this picture particularly well)

In case you missed them the first time...... ;)

Here's Lexi after her play, loving her stage makeup and saying she wishes she could "be in the play every day for a hundred years" (I don't know how long I could be supportive of that).

The chamelion crew

So in the summer, we always love to try to discover new parks around town and this time we found these two cute parks that are connected. One had an Alice in Wonderland theme, and the other a Charlotte's Web theme. The kids were jazzed.

Lexi and Colton on a giant Charlotte.

Tyler getting a piggy-back (or piggy-head) ride on Wilbur. In the background is this really cool web thing the kids (and maybe adults) climb on.

Our fam at another free concert at the park (we never get sick of those).

With the lack of pools in Colorado Springs, you have to get creative in finding other ways to cool down. One of our favorite ways to get wet is the "Uncle Wilber" fountain downtown. This was Colton's first time (atleast in a swimming suit), but he was not too thrilled about the idea.

We found these 3 cute wet kids on a bench and took a picture :)

On one of our many walks in the summer we came across this little part of a creek that's right next the freeway and thought it might be fun to have the kids wade and play a little in it sometime. We're not exactly sure if it's legal, in fact it's probably not, but we didn't see any signs, so...... play we did!

Nice and shallow, but the kids didn't mind.

Here is Lexi's first day as a first-grader (which in her mind is like a senior in high school apparently). I'm so glad she loves school- we'll see how long it lasts.

Colton loves to try to wiggle in tight spots and hide, here is just one I found him climbing out of with his little cheesy grin. He's a crack-up!

So there's a small review of how we spent some of our time this summer. I still have a lot of catching up to do, but I appreciate your patience (for those of you who were waiting- OK maybe just my mom).