Halloween with Nana and Grandpa!!!

Aaaaarrrrggggghhhh!!!

Happy Halloween!

We were so happy that we would be able to spend Halloween with Nana and Grandpa!  Grandpa dressing up was the cherry on top.  We had fun dressing up as pirates.  With covid, we didn't have a ward party so we went to a Trunk-or-Treat and went to trick or treating around the neighborhood.  

I call this my lazy year because I recently found all our pirate stuff from the disney cruise and I wanted to get one more use out of them before giving them to Goodwill and I think it turned out great!

Look at these cute pirates!

We made the ship out of cardboard and the wagon.

This guy is our model for the ship.

Trick or treating

Blow up characters make things so much fun!

Candy Time

Derek had to do an emergency case on Halloween night- Why not show a little blood for the sake of Halloween.

I was in charge of a yw/ym Halloween Party for the youth.  There was a costume contest, pumpkin carving, and dinner.  It turned out great!

Derek is really pushing himself again.  Derek is hitting new personal records and really working hard, but he is also puking again.  I am impressed with his perseverance.

Our Annual IHOP scary faces breakfast!

I know we are going to look back on this time and reflect on when we had to wear a face mask everywhere.

We are so blessed to have Scott and Ruth Ann come to our house.  They are such great grandparents and we are extremely lucky to play, laugh, and make so many memories.  I admire how loving, easy-going, playful they are with the kids.  It is fun to see them play so many games with them, playing the piano, and many hours of reading.  They are great examples of what Derek and I want to be like as grandparents, very present and in the moment, and very easy-going.  

Scott shared some wisdom with me that will stick with me forever.  He said that his job as a grandpa is to LOVE!  That is so powerful and he and RuthAnn really LOVE GREATLY!  Thanks for being amazing grandparents!!!

It was so fun to hear them play duos together.

Nana brought a craft for the kids to color masks.  They loved it.

We also carved pumpkins!

Desi has been begging to cut her hair and I love her long hair so I have been telling her, "Someday" ha ha well, she decided that someday is today.  She decided to cut her own hair.  Luckily it wasn't bad, but she still needed it cut.  We took her to get her haircut and I let her choose how she wanted to cut it.  She loved every second of it ha ha.

I only have before pictures.

Evelyn our neighbor likes to bring the newspaper over and Ruth Ann had a great idea to copy a coloring page from the newspaper and we color it.  It was a lot of fun!

Our family enjoys hiking and so we took Grandpa and Nana to one of our favorite places Tejas Mission.  It was beautiful and it was even better with great company!

 Halloween Art

The kids begged to have Pig dinner...

This is one of their favorite traditions!

It was fun to do it again with Nana and Grandpa!

What a sweet girl!

I got my hair do and went a little darker.

Desi sure loves preschool!

I love this picture!

We went camping and this was the sunset when we pulled up into our campsite!

BEAUTIFUL!

Scott and Ruth Ann are real troopers for going camping with us.  We had such a great time with them!  It was fun to experience something that our family does fairly often and experience it with them.  We camped at a new campground that we have never been to before and it was beautiful spot and a had a great view!

 

Grandpa taught us about clams and the kids caught lots of them.

Here is a small portion of what we caught

This was a special moment for me when I got to see Ashlyn and Claire laugh and play together.

This was a beloved tree that everyone loved to climb.  I love watching them use their imaginations and pretend.  So fun!  Childhood is magical!

I love these times that are precious and you just want to pause and soak it in.  

I love the memories that the kids are making with grandparents!

Ashlyn and I played Yahtzee.

Ashlyn is fun to play games with.  She is getting to the point where she is beating me.

Derek and Scott playing ladder ball

This was my favorite evening and I think the girls would even say the same.  We roasted s'mores and then we sat for awhile to watch the stars and just talk.  The stars were so fascinating to the kids.  I forget that they don't stay up late very often and so they don't have much experience with seeing the night stars.  It was so fun to see them so excited when they saw their first shooting star.  That night inspired us to study the stars, sun, planets, and space science for our next science unit.  

What a fun night!

Nana is reading to Ashlyn.  That is something that is so precious.

Scott and Derek went on a canoe ride all the way to the other side of the lake.  It sounded like they had a great time.

More playing on the beloved tree

So much for playing games!

This picture doesn't look like much, but it was a point of victory for me.  

When we got to our campsite, the hosts came over to us and told us that there is an alligator that lives near where we are staying (to me really close and we even saw her) and she is about 8-11 feet long.  Well that will make my inner mama bear come out and be very aware of my kids by the shore.  Derek tells me I am over reacting and I just need to chill out.  Well that night I had a dream that Derek took all the kids in the canoe and went by the alligator and told me that I need to get over my fear.  When I woke up that morning I was so mad at him... ha ha. 

Well I knew that I just needed to get over my fear and so I HAD TO (for my sake) get in that canoe to get over my worry and fear about this alligator.

I love this picture.  It just reminds me of the wonderful walks and talks we had throughout the trip.  It reminds me of the fun memories and great grandparents Scott and Ruth Ann are!  

Thanks for being YOU!

Another beautiful sunset

Brinley created a secret fort!  She was so proud of it!

She worked so hard and I love the creativity!

The baby alligator is chilling on the log

Ruth Ann and Scott has read many hours to my kids.  It has become such a fun tradition that the kids look forward to doing everyday.  We are so blessed to have them spend so much time together, even if it is over skype!

The girls planted these in school

I enjoy reading to all the kids!

We wanted to express how much we love Daddy so we made him a scavenger hunt!  His first clue was on his car when he walked out of work.

Thank you Scott and Ruth Ann for coming out for 12 days!  It was so much fun!  We are so lucky to have you guys in our lives.  Thanks for being amazing grandparents and in-laws!  I couldn't have asked for anyone better!