Puddles and Capes

So life just got crazy there for a little bit. We've been busy with Halloween, flipping two of the rental houses, a trip to California, Charlie's birthday, and temporarily moving out of our house for a couple days while our cabinets were finished and the lead was removed. Most of these will be future blog posts. But here are some photos from before our life got a little crazy. 

We got some good puddle jumping in

Then, I had my boys pick out some fabric for their capes and my cousin made these awesome capes and masks. So, they run around with those now.

So, yes we are still alive, and our house is protected by some pretty great super heroes!

Pumpkins

The weekend before Halloween was filled with pumpkin related activities, naturally! ON Sunday, we carved pumpkins together, I was happy to se that Charlie at least touched the slime a little bit this time!

Miles kept pushing his pumpkin onto the floor so he got to play with the cups instead

You will have to wait until the end of this blog post to see what our pumpkins looked like...I know, so much suspense

On Monday, we went to the Bagenstos pumpkin patch with Richard and Marissa. we ended up finding a local one that didn't cost a ton for everything. Max and Richard both got off work a little early so we could spend an evening at the pumpkin patch. It was the PERFECT time to go. It wasn't very busy, there was plenty for the kids to do and the sunset was AMAZING!!!

Charlie wanted a picture with the sign.

And he was pretty excited to find a minion.

The boys ran through the hay maze with Daddy!

But the view...and the sunset...they were my favorite! I don't think I will ever go to a pumpkin patch on a busy Saturday morning again!

Perfect little friends!

I'm a little obsessed with his charm! Enjoying the tractor pulled hayride!

We were a little surprsed to see this pumpkin "patch" The pumpkins obviously didn't grow here...?

 We enjoyed the rest of the sunset while eating our little picnic! It was the perfect family night with friends!

And that's it, one of our best pumpkin patch experiences, (and we didn't spend a dime!) 

Oh yeah, and here are our carved pumpkins,,,we never got around to carving Miles' pumpkin...

Slumber Party

For awhile Max and his Best Friend Richard were discussing taking our families camping. I was kind of excited about the idea, but Marissa and I were really worried with how cold it would get at night. Even when we went camping in the middle of the hot summer, the nights were still freezing. Instead we decided to have a "camp-out" at Marissa's parents house. We did this last New Years Eve and it was so much fun! We headed out after dinner. We started our camp out with a bonfire and roasted marshmallows.

After a good time around the bonfire we went back in the warm house and put the kids to bed. It was so fun to camp out in the basement. Charlie had a rough time falling asleep since he had decided to take a really long nap earlier, so we just spent time in the living room with our friends and eventually ate Pumpkin pie ice cream before going to bed. 

The next morning, we fed the kids breakfast and Marissa and I went on a beautiful run through the countryside. She showed me some of her favorite trails that she ran when she was in high school. It was a perfect day and beautiful scenery. When we got back, Max and Richard went out shooting. When they were done with their shooting, we packed our stuff up.  We discussed going to a pumpkin patch but decided to go the following Monday after Max and Richard got off work. We had to go home and do a lot of grown up things like pick our car up from the shop and pick up cabinets from a warehouse.  But it was definitely a fun slumber party with friends!

Hunting

Max went hunting three weeks ago. Luckily it was his shortest hunting trip yet and he was successful. He left Friday after work, got his deer Saturday morning and did the prep work he then helped Jay on the property Sunday morning and was home to us on Sunday, early evening.

So this is how I'm told that it went...
He got up early on Saturday morning and hiked down the canyon in search for a delicious deer. He saw a herd of Elk, which was exciting but also disappointing because last year he had an Elk tag but they never found any Elk to hunt, it was just ironic that it was the first thing he saw on this hunting trip when he only had tags for deer. He also saw a herd of wild pigs far in the distance. After a couple hours, and a long hike, he decided it was getting late in the morning and he should start heading back to meet his Uncle Jay. He had mentally decided that he wasn't looking for a deer anymore because it was late in the morning so he had put the safety on his gun and wasn't really trying to be very stealthy or quiet. . But then he had heard something and realized it was a deer. He got his gun ready and waited. He shot from a distance, and he got the deer in the rump. The deer seemed stunned so Max, quietly waited. The deer started to run off  but didn't get too far, so Max shot at him again. HE was still not dead so Max finally did his last shot and the deer was dead.





He was able to get a white tail deer which apparently means it's more delicious than a mule deer (we don't know yet since the meat is still at the butcher)

I know hunting is often a taboo topic and I think I would have a hard time if I was the one shooting or skinning the deer but I do love that Max is able to do this primitive task for our family. We are grateful for the healthy and clean meat we are able to have and there are many lessons that come from this experience. I look forward to the day when my boys are old enough to participate with Max, party for the bonding experience but also for the lessons in patience and the value of life and resourcefulness.


Anyway, the day after Max came home, the boys and I had some exciting field trips to the butcher and taxidermist, (to tan the hyde)