Trunk or Treat

Our church hosted a Halloween party with a chili cook off and costume contest and at the end most of the Adults go and open the decorated trunks of their cars, sit and wait for the little kids to come "trunk or treating". This is pretty standard for most LDS churches. This is a pretty good idea given how people have decided to ruin the fun nature of Halloween over the years by slipping razor blades into candy. Not only that, but for the really little kids, they get to dress up and get a pretty good amount of candy without their parents having to take them all over the neighborhood. For the older kids it is just double the fun!

We are pretty new to our ward so a lot of people don't know who we are. I knew this would be a good opportunity to stick out a little bit and make a way for people to remember us. Plus, I really just love dressing up for Halloween :). After Kevin and I bounced ideas back and forth we finally agreed on dressing up like Characters from Star Wars. Kevin originally wanted to be a storm trooper , but after seeing the $500 something costume he picked out (yeah right!) I got him to settle for Han Solo. I, of course was princess Leia, but not the white dress with the buns on the side of her head version. I dressed up like when she was in the woods on Return of the Jedi. Morgan was a super cute Ewok! I had to add a little bow to her costume though, because I didn't want people thinking she was a boy.

At the party everyone would comment on how great they thought we looked and especially how cute our little ewok was. They gave out awards for the cutest, funniest, and scariest costumes. Then they said after looking at all the costumes they felt they needed to add another category and they gave us the best family costumes. That was kind of fun. The next day at church there were several people coming up to us saying "oh you are the star wars family!" So I guess I was right, we have made an impression after all.:)

Pumpkin Patch

Have you noticed that today's "pumpkin patch" is usually located in the back of a mall parking lot and consists mostly of inflatable slides? (The best being the sinking Titanic. Wow! That isn't the least bit irreverent.) That's why I was kind of excited when I received an email from a girl at church about an actual pumpkin farm close by. I don't think I actually went to one when I was little, but I thought it would be a fun thing to do as a family. Kevin's parents joined us this past Saturday at Peltzer farms. It was really overcast which was nice temperature wise, but it wasn't too great for picture sake. I managed to get a couple of cute shots, but I know they would have been much better with more sunlight.

I have found that when other people are around my daughter has no interest in me. This is Morgan ignoring me after calling her name about a dozen times.

 After posing for some pictures by the pumpkins we took Morgan to the petting zoo. Kevin held her hands and let her walk around to look at everything. She seems to really like animals and has no problem walking right up to them. She didn't seem to be scared of any of them. Not even the turkey which was a little creepy looking to me.

After the petting zoo we checked out the corn maze.

Peltzer farms also has a "train" that goes around the property, Ponies for the kids to ride on, and pig races, which we missed by like 5 min. I think it was a fun trip and I'm glad we got to enjoy it with Kevin's parents. Thanks again guys for joining us. I know Morgan loved having you there too!

Feeding the ducks

My friend, Emily and I wanted to get out of the house and do something fun. We decided to take our kiddos to a pond by my house. It was hot out, but by the pond it was so nice and breezy. The kids (especially Joseph who couldn't  wait to get out of his stroller) LOVED to see and feed the ducks.

Joseph caught on quick how to toss the bread to the ducks. Morgan, on the other hand, would try to eat the bread herself :)

Poor Morgan is almost a year younger than Joe, but she really wanted to keep up with him and do everything he did.

I don't know why, but while Morgan was on the swing she kept holding her arms up like this. I showed Kevin and he called her "our roller coaster baby" I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she turned out to be just that. She doesn't seem to be scared of much. Except the vacuum cleaner. Such a silly girl.

How funny is this? I just had to get a shot of his hair after he went down the slide.

Do you think she had fun? Em and Joe, thanks for coming and hanging out with us we had a great day and we hope you did too.

Last weeks adventure

Last week we:

**Had a play date with Emily and Joseph**

**Went to a car show in Old town Temecula**

(pictured above-Herby and "The Munsters" car)

**Took Morgan swimming for the first time**

 

(as you can see she loved it)

**And fed the horses by Kevin's parents house**

Not too bad for one week huh?

A free family outing

This Saturday we wanted to get out of the house and do something fun without spending a lot of money. I'm sure that is something that many of you can relate to these days. Living so close to San Diego, I thought it would be fun to check out what we could do there. So...after looking online and eliminating some options due to price we decided on the Birch Aquarium and the Mormon Battalion historic site.

We went to the aquarium first. Now like I said before we were aiming to have a very inexpensive day, and the appeal of the aquarium was that is was only $12 per adult. When we went to buy our tickets Kevin was going to pay with his Bank of America card and apparently Bank of America had donated a lot of money to the aquarium. So... for this month they are letting anyone who was going to pay with a B of A card get in FREE! That is right...totally Free! That was an awesome surprise :). I wouldn't say that this was the best aquarium I had ever been too, but I was more interested in seeing what Morgan thought of what she saw. It was really fun to see her take everything in.

Morgan and me (no need to adjust your computer screens I am currently a brunette. :)

Kevin and Morgan exploring the tide pools

 

They had people working outside at the tide pools to pick different "creatures" up and let people touch them. Morgan was pretty into that part of our trip.

"Can I really touch it, dad?"

"This is so cool!"

The aquarium was on top of a cliff with a pretty sweet view of the ocean.

After we left the aquarium we headed over to Old Town San Diego to check out the Mormon Battalion Historic site. We were really impressed with the detail they put into to the tour. Kevin kept saying that parts of it reminded him of Disneyland, and it is a neat way to learn a little about church history.  There was a little area where kids could pan for gold or try out an old fashioned water pump. I would recommend it for anyone who is planning a visit to San Diego. It's free, informative, and just a neat little site.

Here is my weak attempt at a family shot

It was fun to get out and take advantage of some of the things we have close by. Oh and it was cheap too. Always a plus :)