October 2018

C is for Caterpillar in preschool. Chris coaching Alec's soccer team. Freddy playing soccer

For Fall Break we combined a checkup in Nashville for Chris and his oncologist, Dr. Kassim with a camping trip in Kentucky at Mammoth Cave National Park. We also kinda last minute, tagged on a day with Chris' old mission companion, Nate Millar and his family who drove down from Ohio to meet us.  I of course took the kids to the Pancake Pantry and the Centennial Park to see the Pantheon, and big train (some of our favorite traditions while in Nashville) while Chris had his appointment and then we met him at Vanderbilt towards the end to say hi to our favorite nurses and let them see how much the kids have grown. 

Then we drove up to Kentucky to Mammoth Cave National Park. We arrived kind of late and had to find a camping spot quick before we lost all the light. This is always stressful and the kids were so excited to ride their bikes that they didn't listen well or help us with the tent and instead rode around like hooligans exploring the new territory. Totally natural, but it was challenging for Chris and I and I remember us both being pretty short tempered.  The nights were TERRIBLE. Freddy had to go to the bathroom like 3 times and refused to just pee right outside the flap.... he is terribly modest and refused to go anywhere else but the bathrooms across the street (which is more sanitary anyway but at 1 and 3 and 5 AM it feels totally unnecessary. Not only that, but Max woke up and cried every 30 min to an hour it seemed like and the only thing that soothed him was nursing back to sleep. I worried he'd wake up the other kids if we didn't soothe him quick so he basically slept in the cot with Chris and I and I just switched sides nursing him all night long. Ugh... it was rough and Chris and I wondered WHY THE HECK WE DO THIS TO OURSELVES.  But then we spent the day hiking and signed up for a long 1.5 hr cave tour. No strollers or hiking backpacks allowed but I could wrap Max on my chest and carry him that way. This was pretty epic. (Our kids still talk about Fat Man's Misery -a really tricky part where you have to turn sideways, bend over and twist as you walk-  4 years later!!)  The caves here are the longest connected series of caves in the world. They're still exploring new caves. The museum at the trail head was really fascinating. We loved this.  Then we met Nate and his family at a nearby adventure place where they had horse back riding, Fair-style rides like bumper cars, and putt putt etc.  Gwen didn't feel like going on the horses so She and I played with Max while we waited for the boys to get back from their trail ride. First time riding a horse for the boys, I think. They did great!  It ended up pouring down on us for a portion of it, but there was a covered picnic table area to retreat to. We couldn't do some of the rides we wanted though, the kids were disappointed but really the point of the whole day was for Chris and Nate to reconnect and to meet Nate's family, so in that way it was a total success.  Then we drove home and tried to listen to General Conference on the way, but we missed the timing a bit. It was the first General Womens' Session on a saturday and it was kind of monumental with Pres. Nelson's issuing some challenges including a social media fast and reading the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. I was pretty bummed to have missed out on hearing it live, but made the sacrifice for  Chris to see Nate....I probably should've been a bit less grumpy about it. 

Cute Max sleeping with his bum up. I love it when babies do this! Also we're constantly in love with the sky and clouds and trees in MS. I think Alec made me take this picture as we came up to the round-a-bout south of campus on the way to some practice or something. 

Our Farewell dinner for Emma Grace who gets married this weekend! It was fun for the kids to get to know her and then to go to her wedding reception. We loved holding the sparklers to send her off (in the rain!) 

In preschool D is for dinosaur. We made 'fossils' with salt dough and little dinosaur figurines.  Then E was for elephant.

The YW and YM planned this awesome Murder Mystery Theatre Dinner night. We all had roles to play and dress up as and the detective  (Holden) and everyone else besides the murderer was trying to figure out who the murder was! Super fun. 

Finally got the front entryway set up how I like it. :) 

Charlie's birthday! Turning 10! He had friends over and played football outside.  We celebrated the day before and then still had his breakfast in bed the morning of and opened a few more presents. 

We also did F is for Fall in preschool and played with leaves. 

Gwen loves having Rebecca as her Activity Day leader. Her and Rachel are loving the chance to meet together twice a month. 

I often have a carfull on the way home from school pick up. Bringing friends home to come play. (Notice Freddy asleep in the background. Carpool takes almost 90 minutes from start to finish and if Freddy didn't sleep before, he definitely falls asleep on the drive. We have two schools and two LONG LONG carpool lines to wait in. 

Everyone loves to play with Max! We had Trevor and Rebecca over to carve pumpkins for FHE. 

G is for Ghost!

Halloween morning we had green eggs and other spooky fruit. Then Freddy, Max and I went to the Homestead for some more fun in the big leaf piles and spent time watching the chickens. 

Gwen was an Ice Princess for Halloween, Charlie was a HALO guy and Freddy was a Power Ranger, Max wore the traditional Tigger costume and Alec was a hooded starwars person?? I can't remember. Our neighborhood is not very good for trick or treating in because the houses are so far apart and there aren't very many kids so we just stopped by the Laughlins across the street who told us to stop by and then we joined some friends in a different neighborhood.  We went to the Gine's for their outdoor Halloween party and some of the bigger kids did more trick or treating around their neighborhood. Audra goes ALL OUT for Halloween. Its her favorite holiday and I love being the recipient of her awesomeness.