Fall Fun 2012

 Fall is one of our favorite times of the year. Not only do we have 3 birthdays but lots of other fall activities. Two miles from our house is Shuckles Corn maze where there were lots of things to bounce on...

 face painting...

 and hayriding...

 The neighbors threw a halloween party for the kids this year and Kaleb got to bob for apples for the first time.  All the boys were really getting into it.

 Kaleb with the neighborhood boys...

 Go, Granddad, Go!

 Hiding in the corn maze. It was sooo cold that day we had to retreat to the corn maze to shield us from the wind.

 At the corn maze there was this gigantic slide that used sleds. You FLEW down them. Kaleb must have ridden it about 50 times.

 Our pumpkins. Kaleb designed the one on the right all by himself.

 And now...to pick out just the right halloween costume...Elmo and a dragon??

 Uh, No! Batman and Ironman???

 Uh, no! Yoda and Darth Vader it is!  The boys together with Flash. We went to a neighborhood halloween party for dinner and then went trick or treating with friends.

 "May the Force by with you!"

We also went to "Boo at the Zoo" where we went trick or treating a couple weeks before halloween. There were also bounce houses, a haunted hayride, haunted carousel and dance floor. Darth Vader was busting some major moves to the Monster Mash. Wow, I'm tired just writing about all of it!

Chase's 2nd Birthday

 Well, don't most 2 year olds eat breakfast with their marshmellow gun?

 On Oct. 27th you have to carve your pumpkins. Some morning birthday fun.

 We invited some neighbors over for an "impromptu" party to share some cake with us. All of our family was coming in the next weekend for Kaleb's big party so we celebrated Chase's birthday the next weekend too.

 Chase was very excited and ready to open his presents.

 Chase loves spider man and it was a fun and pretty easy cake to make.

 Chase just fits right in with the big kids in the neighborhood.

This is after the party...I imagine Chase was sitting there in his diaper looking around at the wrecked room thinking "Wow, that was some party!"

Kaleb gave Chase this yellow motorized car for his birthday which was Chase's favorite...it also happened to be Kaleb...they fought over it for a whole week.  We kept saying..."Kaleb, it's Chase's car and you can take your birthday money a get one for yourself in a week". Now, as I am writing this blog a month later, neither of them play with the car...Arhhh!

30A Vacation

 We went to the beach in Florida in October for vacation. We went with Jason's sister and her family b/c her daughter, Nylah was on fall break. I've seen those 30a bumper stickers and just thought it was some form of yoga until we ended up on 30a ourselves. This is the route between Destin and Panama City in Flordia.

 Here's the whole gang and the best picture of the vacation. This man with a funky hat came and asked us if he could take our picture for it and all of the kids were staring curiously at his hat.

 This was the most active beach vacation that I have ever had. Even sitting around the kids were drawing.

 The boys love to race on the beach.

 We went to Destin one night and went putt-putting. Jason and I have a similar picture in front of this elephant when we were dating.  Now we have added a few extra smiling faces.

 Chase used do be so careful and cautious.  All of a sudden he's getting braver and trying new things. He rode in the airplane that actually rose up in the air. I was a bit nervous but he had a blast.

 Getting a little crazy..

 We rented a bike trailer for the boys and went for bike rides several mornings.  They loved it, although they fought and hit each other about 50% of the time they were in it. The weather was awesome in October and it was crisp in the morning and warm in the afternoon. The water was only a foot deep for about 200 yards so it warmed up quickly each day.

 Yum Yum ice cream!

 We ate on our rooftop most nights. We had a view of the ocean and it was perfect!

 Fun in the sun!

 So, there was this giant hole in the sand near us every day. This entertained the kids more than we could ever imagine. They would run, jump, play all in and around it. We told everyone to stand on one leg for the picture.  Check Chase out...he's on one leg.

 Hip..Hip..Hooray

 We spent the afternoons at the pool. The water was freezing but we liked hanging out feet in the water.

 Look at those cuties...We told them to think of eating a big ice cream cone...

 and then we hopped in the car and got one...

We rented a paddle board for a few hours. Jason took Kaleb out and they saw sea rays. The water was so clear. We also rented a kayak and got to do some family paddling. We now love the "30a" area and love Florida in October.

Camping

 Jason and I both love camping but we have only been able to go one time since Kaleb has been born. Well, Jason's birthday weekend was a perfect weekend to try again. It was a beautiful forcast and we didn't have any soccer games that weekend. We packed the car and headed out for Bledsoe park after Chase woke up from his nap.  We decided to call ahead and found out that they were full. Oh no! We then drove a little further down the road to Lebannon where we found another state park. We wanted to stay close in case we had to pack up in the middle of the night and head home.

 Some boy scouts came and helped us set up our tent. I guess we looked like we needed help. Everyone commented on how big out tent was. It was pretty nice and roomy.  We then started cooking dinner.

 Chase is smiling b/c he gets to eat another hot dog! We had a great meal of hot dogs, potatoes, pasta and corn.

 Jason thought it would be cool to buy these Humongous marshmallows for our s'mores.

 Chase seemed to like them too!

 I don't know if it was all the sugar from the s'more or the new environment but chase would not go to sleep that night.  We did not have a cover over our tent and you could see the moon, stars and trees above our tent. Chase kept standing up and pointing upwards saying "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" I think he liked it. Kaleb did awesome. He slept well and loved being outdoors. Chase however woke up about 4am (probably b/c he was cold b/c he refused to use a blanket) and I had to hold him until sunrise.  Jason kept coughing b/c he was congested and kept shaking the air mattress (yes, we cheated) so I made him go sleep in the car so he wouldn't wake Chase up more.

 Our sleepy breakfast...

 and morning stretches...

 we are tree huggers....at least for the day!  The boys had fun climbing all over this fallen tree the next morning.

 Ahhh, successful camping trip!

 After we packed up camp we went for a short 1 mile hike. I was so excited to be camping and hiking again. It had been too long and it was totally worth the lack of sleep we got that night. Hopefully as Chase gets older we will get to go more often. Camping is one of my favorite things to do.

 On our hike, the boys collected pretty flowers for their mommy.  One of the sweetest memories I will have of my boys is about every walk we go on, Kaleb will pick flowers for me and Chase is starting to learn too.  LOVE IT!! So sweet! That is b/c they have a good daddy that teaches them how to treat a woman!

 After we got back from camping we had a Birthday party with friends for Jason's big 34th birthday. Ha!  We had a cornhole tournament that ended in the dark. It was a good day!