Halloween 2013

It had been super rainy all day so we were a little worried about whether trick or treating would be a total bust or not -- and then the heavens cleared, the clouds scooted, and it was actually quite pleasant!  I did miss the usual crunch, crunch, crunch of the leaves, but it could have been much worse.  One thing I kind of dread is the strange people that wind up on our street for Halloween.  For some reason, we are a very popular destination -- some theories include: first nice neighborhood heading east, no driveways so houses are closer together, very picturesque with old houses and big trees, most people are home so can get lots of candy... Regardless of the reason, it always bugs me a little because a.) we have to buy TONS of candy every year and b.) I get a little nervous with complete strangers around with it getting dark, etc.  One neighbor, who happens to be an actuary, has started keeping track of our visitors.  Last year we had 278 trick or treaters, and this year we hit 210 (probably because it started raining again).  So if you figure that we give each person two or three pieces each, that is almost 900 pieces that we have to buy!  I was complaining about it at our fall party last Saturday, but someone pointed out that they think of it as a small tax for living in such a lovely spot.  That helped change my perspective, for a moment, until we were out trick or treating and somehow got in step with the weirdest guy ever!  He would stay out by the sidewalk smoking and then say odd things to my kids when they would walk back to go to the next house.  Then, every once in a while he would add to the fun by donning a grotesque mask and growling at them! Even Ibby was disturbed, but Archie was especially dismayed.  He wouldn't let me put him down!  So after about 10 houses or so my friend looked at me and told me that I should use my energy to get rid of him (back story required here: I'm reading a book called "The Emotion Code" that is very interesting and talks about how our energy is more powerful than we realize -- like one can tell if someone enters the room in a bad mood, etc.).  I laughed, but then whispered really low and slow, "Gooooo awaaaaaaaay" and not two seconds later he called up to his daughter on the steps, "Come on!  Let's go over here!" and they promptly crossed the street.  It was just so random!  The people hadn't come to the door yet, we weren't to the end of the street -- it was truly a Halloween miracle!  And/or I have a hidden superpower!

just another October Saturday...

We had a very fun weekend.  Matthew had bought four tickets to see Jim Gaffigan in Champaign -- I am not quite sure why he bought four -- I had thought it would be fun to just go on a date, but c'est la vie.  So the question was, who was going to get to go?  We sorted through all of the variables and had decided that I was going to go with Charles and the girls since it didn't seem fair to just take two of them and not the other.  But then! Charles wanted to go to a pasta party at Sam's before his meet so I got a babysitter for the boys and Matthew and I would go with the girls.  But then!  Phin came home early from school on Thursday (I had noticed he looked flushed and listless when I went in for his class party -- I had even set him up in the basement with a show and then he put himself in his bed... that is truly ill!) and threw up in the night so I didn't feel like I could leave him home with a babysitter so I called around and offered about 6 different people a free $40 ticket to see Jim Gaffigan! but no one would take me up on it.  We then tried to sell the ticket on Craig's list and had even gotten an email about it, but Charles came home and said that he would be happy to leave the pasta party early and watch the boys.  I told him that we could go back to the other plan of him coming to the show, but he thought his dad should go, wasn't that sweet?  Super long story, whew!  And not even terribly interesting or funny.  It was very fun!  There were a few dodgy parts, but overall perfectly appropriate for the little girls.

 Matthew was sitting on the other side and on the front row.  He said he would have enjoyed it more with us to laugh with him, haha!  Yes, I am notorious for making things more fun because I start laughing so hard about everything.  I inherited that from my own dear momma.

Saturday was a little crazy.  We left quite early to see Charles run in Metamora.  It was a beautiful, crisp fall day and the drive was pretty.  The interminable wind made it a little uncomfortable, but it was still nice.  Phin doesn't ever like to go so he stayed home with Lucy and we had our little outing with Ibby and Archie.  They're pleasant companions.  Charles got a pr of 15:56 so that was really good.  I was praying so hard for him because he hasn't done as well as he had hoped this season, but this time should help him qualify for a college team.  Now his grades came in the mail yesterday and are a completely different story, grrrrr.  That kid frustrates me to no end.  Just turn in your blasted homework!  So maybe he can become a plumber.  Yes, I'm back to that.  

Next on our agenda was a quick lunch and then Ibby's last volleyball game.  She is doing so well this year and even serving the ball over the net!  I love watching her concentrate and really focus on what she is doing.  She is so earnest!  After the game we ran home and got costumes on for our neighborhood block party.  It is always nice to visit with friends, eat some yummy chili, and let the kids run around with wild abandon!  The boys particularly loved the pinata -- who doesn't like to smack something and then get candy for it?  We then came home and carved pumpkins.  

 Not the best pics in the world, but hey! 

lagoon!

We left Ammon, ID early Thursday morning so that we could get to Lagoon by the time it opened at 11:00.  The older kids went off on their own and we had a pleasant time in the kiddie area with the little boys.  Archie wouldn't go on anything at all!  But he was happy and liked looking around at everything and everyone.  About halfway through the day we went to the pool for a few hours.  We always have such a good time there -- it is one of our favorite amusement parks!

 

Idaho!

We left Yellowstone and instead of driving the 1 1/2 hours to Rexburg from West Yellowstone, MT we decided to drive the 7 hour scenic route through the beautiful Tetons and back up through Jackson Hole and some gorgeous parts of Idaho.  We couldn't pick up Ella until the next day anyway, so why not?  We got to Aunt Karen's house after dinner and got all settled in.  She was so gracious and hospitable!  The next morning we woke up early to go get our girl and she was so happy to see us! She said that she had been extra homesick for the last few weeks.  She was pretty much done cleaning her apartment and everything when we got there, but we had some glitches getting her computer turned in since it was Pioneer Day.  You would think that they would have limited business hours since it was the end of the semester, but oh well!  So we had to take the computer and then ship it back to Rexburg.  We also didn't have room for all of her stuff (and she had given away most of the items that I had spent so much money on just a few months ago...) so we had to run to UPS and ship a lot of her things to our house in Illinois.  Once we had the worked out we spent some time wandering around campus and visiting the places where Ella ate burritos with her "friends." 

 And the kids played at the park while Matthew and I went to Deseret book.  We then went to Idaho Falls to see the temple and have a pizza picnic along the river.

Old Faithful

Another day into and out of the park -- we started becoming quite familiar with the twists and turns and lovely vistas!  We visited the lower geyser basin and waited in vain for one to erupt -- it wasn't very faithful.  And then we drove to the upper geyser basin to see Old Faithful.  Charles didn't want to see the museum or the film, so he and Archie saved us some front row seats.

 Waiting, waiting, waiting...

And there it is!  It was worth the wait!  The whole time I was in the park I tried to imagine what it must have been like for the first explorers when they stumbled across some of the hot pools, sizzling fountains, and exploding geysers -- I would've thought the world was ending!  
Here is our pic at the sign, but my lens had something on it so this is as good as it gets.

 

Yellowstone!

We tried to get going early, but it was quite a drive to get anywhere in the park so it seemed like it was a slow start.  We took a hike around the Norris Geyser basin -- it was so pretty, and so hot!

After some lunch and a long break we decided to drive up to the north end of the park

 We snacked, the kids slept, we got out for little jaunts every now and again.  The park is so amazing as we went through forests, deserts, mountains, pastures -- it has it all!  We ended the day by visiting the waterfalls.  I didn't get any good pictures because I was quite certain that someone was going to fall of the cliff at any given moment -- fortunately, no one did.

a 48 hour day

It isn't really July 20th when I'm writing this, but I am going to back date the posts so that I can keep track of where we were when.

We are off on our adventure!  We left the house in pretty good time.  It is 14 hours from Bloomington to Mount Rushmore so instead of booking a hotel room in advance we decide to just see how far we get and stop somewhere in South Dakota.  It isn't that populated so surely we won't have any trouble finding a place to stay, right?  The kids were very good on the first day and we made it to Minnesota by lunch time.  I missed Iowa, but took this picture thinking I would catch all of the state lines on our trip.  Sadly, this is the only one.

Minnesota is so pretty and, as usual, we think, hey!  We could live here!  But the mosquitoes at the rest stop helped me to quickly change my tune, yikes!  By midafternoon we had made it to Mitchell so we pulled off to take a gander at the Corn Palace!

 It was had a big auditorium, and, most importantly, some nice bathrooms.  We also picked up a few corny snacks.

 The flavored popcorn was amazing -- seriously the best we'd ever had.  I had determined to not break my "no eating sugar" rule even during our trip, but after the white chocolate caramel popcorn was presented to me that resolution was thrown out the window for the duration.

 Aaah, the prairie -- it is quite pretty!

 By late afternoon we had made it to the badlands.  We got out of the car for a bit of hiking and determined that we would just stop in Wall for the night.

 It's never not a good time to check our texts...

 The Badlands were so cool!  We had never been there and realized we hadn't planned enough time there -- as a rule, we're chronically bad at planning out an itinerary.  We're better the second time around... Phin loved it so much we had to promise that we would return someday.  The whole rest of the trip he kept asking if we were in the Badlands again. 

 So we piled back in the car and drove into Wall.  Not a single vacancy!  And that place was chock full of motels!  So we stopped in the next town, and the next, and the next place that wasn't even a town, but had rooms rented out behind the convenience store... nothing!  It turns out that there was a music festival in Rapid City that weekend and that everything was booked within 100 miles.  We finally pulled into Mount Rushmore around 1 a.m.  We tried to get as comfortable as we could in the car and went to sleep.  As my head bobbed, and my body contorted to find a tolerable position, I couldn't help but say a prayer of thanks that my children are so wonderful!  Not a one of them complained about the situation, there was no one whining about how cramped and horrible it was.  They are really nice kids who just roll with the punches for the most part.  Aaaah.  

At 5 a.m. Matthew turns to me and asks if we should just get going.  Yes!  Definitely!  Let us not prolong this night one more minute, thank you very much!  So we drove up to Mount Rushmore to watch the sunrise.  Surprisingly enough, we had the whole place to ourselves!

 We then hobbled our way in and out of Montana and Wyoming to Yellowstone.  Matthew was such a good driver while everyone else drifted in and out of consciousness.  I drove one scary stretch through some very curvy mountain roads, but I think he took care of the rest of it.  We basically just drove through the park to get to our hotel in West Yellowstone, MT -- we had had the foresight to book something there, but that made more sense at the time.

We saw some buffalo

 And some elk... no bears, though.