Hurray for Halloween!

While I was doing the girls' hair and makeup, the boys were hard at work decorating the front with spooky spider webs, jack-o-lantern luminaries and bones spread all around.

We were so grateful for the break in the rain and a fun-filled candy night with neighbors and friends.

Vampires!

Not smiling should have been easy for these girls after a few hours of hair and makeup, but it really did prove difficult.

I was so proud of all the work I did, I had to get a few pictures.  Norah was rocking some curled extensions and makeup, while I texturized Ava's hair and gave her some dark eyes.  Both girls were given a pale complexion and looked so realistic as a result.

Doubleheader!

Today, Jack and Ava went head to head on the volleyball court and as you can tell from this picture, Ava's team won.  Jack has some great skills already, but a team of 3rd graders couldn't beat a team of 5th graders with some teammates who have been playing for as many as 4 seasons together.

Poor guy, at least he played great!

Chop!

I have been hating on my hair ever since I got some side bangs cut, but today I am loving my hair again!  I cut off another 3 inches and not only does it feel healthy again, it feels so great to have the length of hair I have been fawning over since last year!  Glad I finally got the courage to cut it off, and the new length works perfect with the bangs.

Songs@!

You can tell by Ben's performance that he has missed about half of the past month's classes, because when it came to knowing the lyrics and motions to the songs, he wasn't very accurate.  He got the parts where he had to yell really loud and where he stood up and danced by himself, but the rest of the time, he looked like he was just moshing around.  It was such a great party!

Parade!

Ben rocked his costume with all the other kids while walking around the playground. It was super cute to see him at school like this for the first time.

Storm Trooper

We got back into town just in time for Ben's preschool Halloween party, something Norah and Jack both loved about Little Harts.  Ben got to wear his costume to school and after about an hour and half I came back for the party.

Last Stop

After a great two days, we headed back to LA, got some of Randy's finest and made it to the airport in time to catch our flight.  The traffic back home was horrible, so we had some Mexican food for dinner and got to bed on time, something we haven't done since we left!

Hilarious!

This picture is so priceless.  Jack is so intense and Kyle has been to Disneyland way tooooo many times!

Better!

Lines were so much shorter and we did all of California Adventure before heading to Disneyland for a few hours before closing.  Norah had been begging to go on Haunted Mansion, and we finally did it.  The line was shorter and the weather a bit cooler.  Today was a much better day!

Day 2

After some better sleep and an earlier park opening time, we hoped for less lines and more fun.  We started at California Adventure.

We were pumped about getting to the park early and taking advantage of the 8am opening time, since everything was shutting down early tonight for the Mickey Halloween Party.

Elsa!!!!

Norah loved seeing Elsa, it was the first time she had ever seen her favorite Disney princess up close.  So fun to see this sweet girl's joy!

Ecstatic!

I usually am back at the rental with the little kids while Kyle and Ava are off having an insanely awesome time at the park at night-until today!  Norah was in heaven, waving at all the princesses and them waving back to her.  I could not get enough of how great the parade was.  The music, lights and dancing was amazing.

1st Time

Because the park had some earlier hours today, we thought it would be a perfect time to take the kids to the parade and fireworks at 8.  That is, until they all woke up at 3am!!!  We limped through the day, and had some major breakdowns at the end, sitting on the pavement and crying about legs hurting, but we stayed to the very end and it couldn't have been more magical for everyone!

Nice Shot!

You can tell from this picture, that this guy has been up since 3am after going to bed around 10.  That's an insane sleep deficit for a guy that normally gets 12 hours!

Toy Story Ride

For some reason, shooting stuff is something we all like!  The kids really enjoy this ride and the 30 minute line wasn't the worst one we waited in all day.  Kyle had top score, as usual.

Indiana Jones

The lines were so brutal today, but luckily we were able to do some fast passes and get some relief.  These girls loved the Indiana Jones ride, always a favorite!

Paul Bunyan

After a lot of unexpected lines, we needed to rest our feet, get out of the heat and have something to eat.  The Golden Nugget always seems to make its way into our Disneyland trips, this time was no different.  We got the same fare-corn dogs and fish & chips, but as soon as Kyle sat down to eat, he was asked to volunteer.  The kids loved that their dad was up on stage.  He didn't have many lines, but when they all did a kick line to some music, it was too much!!!  I wish I would have gotten it on film!

DLand!!

After getting to the rental late following a get together with some friends who moved to LA from Dallas three years ago, we hit the sack and woke up bright and early and headed to Disney.

Our first stop was tomorrowland where we actually got on all the rides and then ran into these guys.  There was no line, so we figured these characters would be a perfect to our first day!

I love how everyone totally got into character with Thor.  It was really fun!

We have never been able to cash in on all the Disney characters, because we never wanted to waste our time in line.  Glad it finally worked out for us.

Girls!

The girls snuck into the visitors center and looked around while the boys managed outside.  I love how sweet these beauties are, and I love that we are standing in front of a giant statue of the Savior!

Magnolia What!!???

This tree is as tall as the temple, it was so impressive, we took a picture of it to remember how awesome it was!

Good Times

Being the second largest temple in the world means a lot space to walk around.  There are statues throughout the grounds and this temple even boasts a visitors center.  Most of the kids enjoyed our time there, but for some reason Jack was not happy.  Poor guy.

2nd Biggest

We wanted to stop by the LA Temple today, since it has held such a significant role in the family.  Nana was sealed to her parents here after they were all baptized, and Nana and Papa were married here for time and all eternity.  This was the view as we drove up the hill to it.

Off We GO!!

We tried to keep things simple, even though we were traveling on Sunday and dressed as if we were ready for church, since we would be heading to Sacrament after we landed.  I think we all looked so good, especially these white shirted boys.

A7

For months, Kyle has been looking at A7's, test driving A7's, talking about A7's, and today he finally bought one!!!  He is such a contemplative person, that by the time he was ready to pull the trigger someone else had bought the car out from under him.  And then there was the whole cabin thing, he wanted to close on that before having his credit run again.  Smart guy!

Goosebumps

Ava and I were both really tired, but somehow we mustered enough energy to go to the movies with everyone.  The kids, especially Ben has been begging to see this movie for a month now, so we bit the bullet and hoped that no one would walk away scared.

There was a preview that was actually scarier than the movie.  All in all, two thumbs up!  The best part was when Ben was letting Norah know when the zombies were gone in case she was scared!  What a fun way to end a fun few days.  I can't wait to go to bed.

We Did It!

We won the clean broom award!!!  Not sure what that entailed, but we were sure glad to have won!  We even got the principal in this picture right before we all parted ways and headed home from camp!  I was glad to be able to ride with a friend, their mom and Ava instead of on the bus!

Clapping Games

In every cabin seated in the cafeteria there were at least two girls doing some sort of clapping game while singing a rhyme.  It brought back so many memories of my childhood, but alas, I couldn't remember any of the ones I used to do!

Fisherwoman

After a much better night's sleep, some more braiding and a cafeteria style breakfast, we all headed to the canoeing, water life and fishing activity.  Everything was interesting to these tired girls, but the fishing was their favorite and when Ava caught a fish within the first minute, the girls were all obsessed with catching one of their own.

I caught a fish as well and then Ava caught another followed by the most of the rest of our girls catching one.  It was really exciting and no one hesitated to take the hook out with their hands and a few of the girls, including Ava, even kissed their fish good-bye!

Sunflower A

Ava and I really lucked out with our cabin mates.  These girls and their moms were super fun and great to be around.  Without books, Ava was quite the socialite and made some great friends with the girls in our cabin.

This was the picture we took right outside our cabin on our way to perform our skit at the campfire tonight.  All the cabins had the opportunity to come up with an original skit that demonstrates one of 7 leadership principles the girls are working at school.   Our skit was 100% original and made up by the girls alone.  We were selected to go first and it was for the best, as most of the other skits either didn't include one of the leadership qualities or was written by the leaders not the kids.

Teepee Practice

Jack, Ben and Norah will benefit from one of the camp activities, teepee building, since they all want to build one with the plethora of dead sticks laying around the cabin.

Working Hard

I think Ava is an incredible student and apparently a sleepless night doesn't get in the way of that, as she continued to keep a positive attitude and complete her assignments well.  She wasn't nearly as chatty as yesterday, but then again, no one was.

After lunch there was another activity for the girls called the race through time.  I missed most of it, as I had to hike to the camp entrance to meet up with Kyle to retrieve my emergency inhaler so I could breathe the rest of the trip and hopefully sleep a little tonight despite all the allergens that are present here!

Rise and Shine

I'm not sure anyone wanted to get up today after staying up late and not sleeping great. We managed though, and after braiding most of the girls' hair we headed to breakfast at the dining hall and then to meet our instructor for a wilderness walk/language arts lesson.

Late Night

After a long day of communication and team building activities, we ate dinner, had an hour of free time and then headed to our last activity.  It was fun to be outside in the dark, but the hour was late for school work and brain usage.  We made it to our 8pm end time, though and headed to the cabin for showers and some hair braiding.

Sunflower Archery

After arriving at the adventure camp, finding our cabin, unpacking our bedding and eating lunch, our group of 9 girls and 5 moms made our way to our first activity-archery!

Ava and I were able to make it onto the target a few times, it was really fun to test our skill.

We're Off

After weeks of feeling like I couldn't possibly go to 5th Grade camp with Ava and leave Kyle with all the other kids to sleep in a cabin with a bunch of rowdy girls and eat cafeteria food while walking miles and doing schoolwork with Ava and her friends-I relented and paid my $175 fee and volunteered!

We packed our stuff up last night and made it to school on time today to load the buses.

Primary Program

We have been practicing our Primary Program speaking parts and songs both in and out of church for months now and it really showed today during the program.  The kids all memorized their parts, spoke slowly and clearly and knew most of the words to all the songs.  So fun to see them do so great after so much hard work!

Date Night

Kyle and I are really good about going on dates, tonight was no exception.  We love to see movies, and eat popcorn, so see The Martian together was pretty much a great end to our week!

School Pics

Another example of why school pictures are never purchased.  I'm not sure I've ever seen Ben make that face, and what's with the ill placement of the fall foliage.  Additionally, Ben said he doesn't like them at all!  Amen!

Really!!??

As we were pulling away from the gas pump at the gas station in Amarillo on our way home, this happened!!  Not sure what our car is made of, but with this kind of damage, its amazing we are called safe while driving in it!  Kyle is estimating about $7000 worth of repairs, but we are only responsible for our deductible if we are found liable.

The scariest part of the whole ordeal was hoping the car was still operable so we could drive the four hours back to McKinney.  The tire was being rubbed by the wheel well that was torn up, so we drove it to the home depot about a block away (hello tender mercy!) and ran into an off duty store manager who hooked us up with some free bungee cords (hello more tender mercies!) that held things in place until we got home and brought it to the repair shop.

It was a little unnerving driving the car like this, but we were all fine in the end.

Wasted

We have been awake so much at night during this trip, its been a common sight to see this guy zonked out on one of the drives through the canyon from Angel Fire to Taos.  I'm hoping after we get some bunk beds in the cabin to replace the queen beds and blow up mattresses, we can all get some real sleep on our visits to this beautiful place.