All things Halloween

I know, I have been terrible blogging lately. I have so many cute pictures, so many stories to tell, but I just haven't been able to get myself to the computer to write them all down. I am still going to try to get caught up. I love printing the blogs off and putting them in books for my boys so they'll have all this when they are older.

I am hoping to be a better blogger in 2012, and to ring in the new year I'll give a few highlights that I didn't get written before my blog hiatus for the last 2 months. (it's going to take several posts...I didn't realize how much we'd done these past 2 months!)

First let me tell you about about all things Halloween.

We love fall activities. It's our pack everything we can before it gets cold time. It was a warm fall this year, so we enjoyed it even more.

We went to Gardner Village to see the witches with Becky, her sister-in-law Jessica, my friend Amy and all of our kids. We didn't think about the fact that it was UEA weekend and it was PACKED. It was so crazy busy. And it was surprisingly warm. We had the brilliant idea to bring lunch and eat and wander around. Apparently everyone had the same idea because there wasn't a seat to be found so we ended up sitting on the ground to eat which was a little crazy, especially considering I had a 4 year old who was NOT happy to be there. He was just plain not happy that day (the pictures are deceptive because he was smiling, but I've just trained him well.)

Roman and his friend Katelyn.

All the kids that were there except Katelyn and Jason.

I thought this was too cute of the kids looking into the water. (Kaylee, Anna, Roman and Gabby.)

Hudson was just snuggling into Noelle.

Roman's sucker face

Next we went to the Haunted Hallows which was a halloween event at a local park. I didn't know what to expect but knew we should get there early (I have learned, if something is free, go early because it's going to be crowded) so we went right as it started and got out right as it got really busy. They had a bunch of little booths with activities for the kids, Roman loved it. They had bean bag tosses, fishing, free pumpkins and balloons, candy, crafts, and a firetruck with a ladder doing a pumpkin drop every 15 minutes (which Roman was not a fan of, why would they destroy perfectly good pumpkins? Hudson on the other hand thought it was cool and watched them drop several with Spencer.)

Roman found the perfect pumpkin.

They even painted his face for free...of course he chose Superman!

We heard about a "Spook-a-paloosa" from a friend and it sounded fun too, so we convinced Becky to go too, and she convinced Tiffany to go, then my friend Heidi that told us about it wasn't able to make it. They had a little trick-or-treating ally where they mostly got coupons for local restaurants and area attractions, they had bounce houses, face painting, and all sorts of fun things for the kids. Hudson even loved the bouncy slide and bounce house.

Becky caught this picture right as we were coming out of the Trick-or-treat ally.

Hudson was excited to see Becky and even ditched his monkey so he could run faster. That's huge for him. He won't drop Funky Monkey for just anyone.

Superman and Batman (Corbin) having a balloon sword fight.

Roman wanted to get his face painted again...and once again he chose...Superman.

Hudson and Gabby in the bounce house. Hudson was loving it.

We have gone to the same pumpkin patch the last few years, but no one was going to go with us this year so we decided to try one that was a little closer, smaller, it was just at a nursery, but it was also less expensive. We didn't know what to expect because I just bought it on a deal website, but the boys loved it.

They had a huge corn box that we spent most of the time in. Roman was doing flips into it, diving in, flopping on his back, burying himself, driving trucks in it, Hudson was content to just sit and let it run through his fingers. They also had a little hay maze that Hudson was surprisingly good at navigating, a bounce house, and a little train ride. And of course, we got our pumpkins.

This was the huge corn box. Hudson wasn't quite sure about it yet.

This is my favorite picture, look at him screaming as he goes right into the corn. So much fun!

Somersault!

The only picture we got of the bounce house. They weren't too interested in it. Too many other fun things to do (like the hay maze!)

Checking out the hay maze.

This picture reminded us of when Roman was about this age. We went to a pumpkin patch with my sisters Becky, and Marla and our friends Steven and Tiffany. Roman was walking through the patch (it was an actual patch that year, the pumpkins were still on the vines even) and Roman found the perfect pumpkin. He looked around and saw Steve a bit off, it was the first time he said Steve's name and he yelled "Steve!" then hit the pumpkin and kept yelling for Steve until he came to help him with his pumpkin.

Roman and Hudson with their pumpkins.

The following Monday we had our pumpkin night. Pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes for dinner with cinnamon syrup then pumpkin carving.



Hudson was more willing then Roman to help us gut the pumpkins. He was happy to stick his hand, arm, even his face right into the pumpkin, Roman was a bit more leery of it. It was gross. He was happy to look but didn't want to touch.

Roman wanted to have his be Superman and we just did a jack-o-lantern for Hudson.

Finally we are to Halloween, the actual day! I had the cutest Clark Kent/Superman and Lex Luthor around. Roman had school that morning and they had a cute little parade then the kids sang a few Halloween songs for us. I ran out of space on my camera card while they were singing so I couldn't get everything.

After that we went to Spencer's office for trick or treating and lunch. Roman loved tearing open his shirt showing everyone he was really superman. He even perfected the tearing open his shirt while throwing off his glasses. It was too funny. Hudson's head was too small for the bald cap, so it was kind of saggy, but he had a great time trick-or-treating as soon as he realized there was candy involved. Once it was time for lunch we had the boys eat in Spencer's office, in an effort to actually get them to eat. Hudson was content to sit on the floor and eat, but Roman claimed Spencer's chair, and decided it was a nice place to lounge with his feet up on the desk.

That night trick-or-treating was so nice. It was in the 60's which is unheard of for Halloween here, the last two years it's been cold and drizzly, we were out for 3 hours including the time we at at the neighbors for their weenie-roast/marshmallow-roast/pulled pork dinner. It was such a great evening. Roman was mostly polite (but still a little embarrassing) as he made sure to tell just about everyone at he was allergic to chocolate and couldn't have any. There were a few people who even went back into their houses to find something different for him. By the time we finally made it home and handed out glow sticks to a few trick-or-treaters it was time to get boys bathed and to bed.

They were so wound up I was sure they were going to be up all night, but they were asleep the minute their little heads hit the pillow. Being a superhero and a villain is exhausting!

Deer Valley

I decided I need to blog this while it's still fresh so I don't forget, and not do it like every other post lately (I have good intentions of blogging about all of our Halloween Activities lately, we'll see if I have any follow through)

Spencer had his annual CE conference this weekend and the one he had to go to this year was in Park City, at the Deer Valley Resort. He invited me and the boys to go with him for a little get away, and we had a great time while he spent 13 hours a day in classes (not exaggerating!).

On Wednesday they had a service project where they had to put some bikes together for the Guadalupe School so while they were doing their service project, I took the boys to the zoo for a picnic and to see the animals. It was a chilly day so we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves. They had fun even though it was cold.

Hudson was able to walk most of the time so that he could look around, and they had so much fun. That is until they were climbing on the bronze tigers and Hudson slipped off the big tiger, and his face came down right on it's tail. More specifically his eye came down on the tail. So we started out our trip with Hudson's eye all scratched up and bleeding. It looked so sad, and still seems to be pretty tender.

We met up with Spencer in the late afternoon and got on our way to Deer Valley. First of all I have to give huge props to Deer Valley. AWESOME place to stay. They were so accommodating (this is their down time so they were extremely slow; they said the conference was pretty much it this week there, but the service was amazing). When we first got there we went to our room and there was only one HUGE bed. It was a beautiful room but it wouldn't work for our family so Spencer talked to the office and they sent a bell boy up with new keys and got us into another room with 2 beds. The second room was also extremely nice, the view was breathtaking, right out the window it went straight up the mountain. For the continental breakfast they just had juice and coffee, they had milk for the coffee so we were just going to get some of that for the boys and they had little chugs that they went and got for them. The next morning they were prepared as soon as we came down and brought milk out for them. They made sure there was food for them for breakfast and all the employees were so genuinely helpful. They even offered late check out so that I could let Hudson have a good nap today (which was good because it was all he got until 3:45 when he crashed out in the car as we were driving back to get Spencer). Just wanted to say that the service was fabulous.

Back to our adventures. Wednesday after we checked in we got the boys in their swimsuits and we went to find the pool. We were surprised that it was outdoor...and not covered, but it was warm...kind of...and the boys were so excited to go swimming that I sucked it up and went in the pool with them. It wasn't too bad in the pool, but out of the pool, there was a breeze and it was COLD. We brought a little floaty car for Hudson but he didn't want to be in that, he wanted to jump right into the water. Roman was having fun with his goggles, that is when they weren't all fogged up. The hot tub wasn't working and we didn't stay in the pool long, Hudson was shivering. So we went back to the room and they took a nice warm bath, we bundled them up in warm pajamas and we went and found some delicious Burger King for dinner. We actually just went to the drive through and took it back to the room and ate it there then watched a little tv and they fell asleep so fast.

Thursday we had all day to explore, play, do whatever we wanted to because Spencer was in his conference from 7:30 am until 9:30 pm. After breakfast we went back to our room so that Hudson could take a nap. He slept horribly and I was kind of wishing I could take a nap too. Instead Roman and I made felt dolls with clothes from different countries (Malaysia, France, ) then we worked on some worksheets and things we brought with us. When Hudson woke up we decided to head into Heber to explore there. Roman really wanted to find some leaves to play in so we were trying to find a place to pull off, but I really didn't see anyplace. As we got into Heber we found a fun park with a REALLY tall slide that Roman loved. Hudson loved the swings.

We played at the park for about an hour then we went over to the Heber Valley Railroad just to look at the trains this time. We went on a train ride back in June.



After wandering around looking at the trains we went to Dairy Keen (aka The Train Restaurant) for lunch. This was one of their favorite things that we did the entire time. They have a train table outside that they played all over, a train that goes around the clock tower. Then...the best part...they had model trains that went around the top of the walls. They had a little Thomas the Train set in the corner that the kids could play with while they were waiting for their food. Seriously the whole time we were eating Hudson sat with his head tipped back watching the train tracks and every time the train would come around he would point and say "truck!" And I would say, "No, it's a train."

After spending way too much time at the train restaurant we went to the store to grab a few groceries then Roman REALLY wanted to go back to "the hotel." He loves staying in hotels and would be happy to sit there the entire time. We started to head back but on the way we saw the National Abilities Center that I'd head was a great place for kids so even though it was still pretty cold outside we decided to stop and let him play. Hudson was asleep for his afternoon nap so it was a nice little break to let him sleep longer and Roman get out a little more energy.

After about an hour back at the hotel Roman was ready to get going again.

We decided to go check out the pond that was across the street from the lodge. It had a trail that went around it, there was a gazebo between the two parts of the pond, a bridge that crossed a stream feeding down into the pond and lots of open areas.




Both boys were having so much fun running up and down the walkway, that is until Roman tripped. He fell on his pinky finger and scrapped it pretty bad. We went back to the front desk to get a bandaid for his poor finger. He was crying pretty hard so when Roman showed the clerk working his finger she thought he had broken his finger. I explained that he just has a crooked pinky fingers. Today he says that it feels all better, as long as he has a bandaid on it.

We didn't bring our pack and play for Hudson because we thought they would have one there. It was really expensive to use one so we decided to just set Hudson up between the two beds on the floor. We put pillows around his head, he had a pillow under him, and he had blankets under and over him.

It worked well. Both boys slept so well. They were both just tired from our day of exploring. Hudson didn't even wake up at all until about 4:00 and we could hear him crying, but we couldn't find him. Then we realized that the crying was coming from UNDER OUR BED. We had to hurry and turn on a light, I was able to reach his foot and pull him out. He was half way under the bed. It didn't seem to effect him much though, as soon as I got him out from under the bed, put more pillows around the bed so that hopefully would not happen again, he was asleep again in no time at all.

Today we stayed at the lodge until Hudson woke up from his morning nap. Before Hudson's nap Roman was running around our room, just generally being wild and he tripped or slipped or something and he hit his mouth on the chair. He had a pretty big fat lip and a nasty scrape (kind of matches Hudson's eye now.)

Roman made sure Hudson's late didn't last too late. He was singing Mary had a little lamb at the top of his lungs, threw the curtains open, even did a somersault onto the bed that Hudson was sleeping on. He slept through it all. Then I made the mistake of bragging that he had slept through it all on facebook and while I was bragging Roman decided he had been patient long enough and jumped right on top of Hudson. Yeah, that woke him up. Luckily he woke up happy and we were on our way to go find more fun things to do today.

We went down Park City Main Street and went to the Park City museum. Roman really liked the fire truck. He did not like the basement! He has mentioned several times since then that he didn't. The basement had the original Park City jail down in it and he said it was creepy and there was a mine area that had lots of loud areas. I would love to go back to the museum another day (maybe without kids) to look at everything.

From there we went shopping at the outlet stores. We found a bunch of great deals, did lots of walking, and both boys fell asleep as soon as we got in the car to go get Spencer from his conference.