Too much candy!

The boys had a blast on Halloween. Adam didn't want to dress up this year...but he did want to "help" his brothers trick-or-treat. Whatever. Greg was the designated driver for the trick-or-treaters, while mom stayed home and relaxed with some serious peace and quiet! They came home loaded up.

They love sorting and exchanging their candy...it is a complicated process, but they have it down. Adam is happy as long as he gets all of the butterfingers. No one objects. Overall, it was a fun evening, lots of sugar and lots of smiles, and lots of cavities. We did go to the pumpkin patch earlier in the month, but the pictures are not to be found. So I will describe it for you. There were a lot of pumpkins, a corn maze, a haunted house (which my boys did not appreciated at all), a petting zoo and train rides. The boys had a blast. So that is our Halloween activities in a nutshell. So until next time, whenever that will be!

Labor Day @ Twin Lakes Beach

We made plans to go to Santa Cruz and got ourselves on the road @ 10 AM. Arrived at the beach around 12:30, had our sandwiches, then played all afternoon in the sun. It was a gorgeous day around 80 degrees. We left around 7 PM. I think the boys were happy to have a day relaxing at the beach. I know I was. After four 18 hour days at work last week, I could've used this whole week to relax. But you take what you can get, right?

Weekend fun

Friday night was clean out the garage time. Christy had enough of our mess, so we tackled it and made it look a little better. She's on a cleaning rampage, so us boys are following orders.

We went to Herald day on Saturday morning. It's a small town north of us. The kids were excited to get candy from the parade. Our farm mechanic is involved in their community and told us about it. We were late and missed the pancake breakfast though, darn it. So we had tri-tip sandwiches after the parade. They had mud volleyball tournament as well with 50 teams. They started at 11 am and finished at 9 pm. That would be fun.

We headed out to IKEA where Christy said she needed something for the mud room so kids could hang their backpacks and put their shoes. We found what we needed and the kids had a great time. We had some meatballs too. I love meatballs at IKEA. Zach found a stuffed animal dog that he fell in love with as well.

It was a fun Saturday, and I even watched vantage point with my honey.

Playing in Island Park - Daw Reunion

We had a great time in Island Park at the reunion.  We went to the top of Sawtelle and the kids threw rocks over the side of the mountain. Kids went tubing and I water skied and realized just how old I am.  I golfed five times in six days. That's a record.  And Christy golfed two times in three days...another record. It was a lot of fun having her golf in the annual Bud Daw Memorial Golf Tournament.  We teamed with my bro-in-law Larry Valdez and my sis-in-law Jill Searle.  We managed a respectable 2 under par, good enough for middle of the pack honors. Chisty's Uncle Dennis and his two sons Josh and Jared won with a sick 12 under par...that's gross. We also floated down Big Springs in a canoe with Adam and Zach doing most of the paddling when they weren't out in the water wading. Adam was in big trouble for losing one of his Crocs. We drove home Saturday night and arrived home Sunday morning...11 hours later and a whole lot loonier after a night of driving with little sleep.  At least the kids slept sound. So the kids started school Monday.  That's their pic just before catching the bus. 

Our room in the cabin had a tub with jets. The boys thought that was pretty cool as you can see with all the bubbles.

Aloha

It ended too quick, but we sure enjoyed our time in the sun. Christy said we need to do something like that more often. I agree. It was pretty windy, but I won't complain. The sun felt nice, and we saw some interesting places. Some of the highlights were a visit to pineapple plantation (yummy), hiking, getting Mom and Dad dancing at the Polynesian Cultural Center (happy 50th anniversary), snorkeling, being goofy with my older brother, temple, byu-hawaii (how lucky is Katie), sun, sand, good food, pearl harbor, late night games, golf, and fun. It was a great trip.

I started this post a long time ago, but am just now six months later finishing it. Some kind of procrastinator huh?

The big 5

Luke wanted to go to Chuckee Cheese for his b-day. So we invited a few friends and partied for a little bit. He is excited to be school age and was already packing his backpack with the help of his brother Zachary the night before he turned 5. They didn't quite get that he has to wait until August to actually go to school. You can see he was excited to open his presents, gnawing at one and beating on another. He's quite the expressive and funny kid. The other night he was on his way to use the bathroom waddling and saying "almost there, almost there, almost there." He will often express "phew, that was close" as well. He's famous for cutting it close, sometimes too close.

Stormy weather

So, we had a rainstorm in Northern California if you hadn't heard. You can see from the gauge it dumped on us. On Friday the 4th it rained 2.75 inches. More rain than we get in a year in Idaho. Don't quote me on that though. Then over the next four days we had enough to end up with a total of 4 inches. As you can see, it kept us busy at the farm pumping water off the fields. There were wind gusts up to 70 mph and you see what that will do to wheel lines that aren't tied down. It has been an eventful few days.

Christy and I are going to Hawaii with my parents, siblings and their spouses. It's to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary. We're leaving on the 21st and Christy's sister is watching the four wild Indians for us. Good luck Mai, we hope you survive.