Happy Halloween!

It is one of my favorite days of the year! Happy Halloween everyone! I love the magic and fantasy of Halloween. This year we have an unusual collection.

Josh is an angry bird! I figured he would be nice and warm trick-or-treating but we are supposed to have a record warm Halloween.

Mathew is a BYU super-fan. Your are never too young to cheer for the Cougs!

And Brittany is a beautiful peacock! She always comes up with something pretty and a little unusual. This is one of my favorites I think.

Don't you love the tail? I am so glad she isn't finished dressing up!  Hope everyone has a fabulous Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving 2012

 The Dad has been gone all week. It was a looong week. But he came home last night and today was crammed full of fun to make up for it. After going out for a late birthday lunch, I love when my birthday lasts a long time, and after the kids were all home we managed to tackle this year's pumpkins. I think I have ruined my family. Somehow I have become the scooper of guts. Yes, I scooped four pumpkins. I decided I would rather scoop one less than carve my own. Ugh I hate pumpkin guts. Not as much as my family apparently.

 Matthew's finished pumpkin. So appropriate given he is still wearing his BYU  jersey and they even won today!

 Bittany's was like a little Danish villiage. That is a windmill, sun and little houses. Creative girl.

Who taught this kid to pose? Seriously I think he thinks he has a future with GQ. Josh always wants the littlest pumpkin. That is why he is my favorite child when I am scooping pumpkins. Hard to tell but he wanted his to look like a puppy. It tried.
As much as I hate scooping guts this really is a fun family tradition. I am still trying to talk them into  painting them next year!

Ready for Halloween

After we got home from the cruise and I finally got caught up on the huge mounds of laundry that we created I hurried to get our Halloween decorations up. Since they are going to be up a week and half less than usual I thought I would document them, just to make myself feel like the effort wasn't wasted.

Front door. The kids added spider-webs of course. I added a new wreath this year.

Also added the purple sign I found on good old pinterest that says, "A witch and her monsters live here". More appropriate on some days than other.

The new wreath. I think I found it on pinterest. Just a simple straw wreath I wrapped in sheets I tore into strips an then wrapped.  Stretched spider-webs and then hot glued spiders. I like how it shows up against my door.

And finally the mantel. Since there was a new wreath for the front door the old one could come inside. That is supposed to be a pumpkin on the silver candle holder but I forgot to add the stem. Hopefully I will get to it before Halloween!

Now if only the costumes were ready!

Fall at Scary Hill

 Saturday was a beautiful  Fall day here and so we took advantage and went to have our annual round of miniature golf at Scary Hill, the transformed Cherry Hill minature golf course. It is so nice to have some things that you can count on always being the same. Halloween at Cherry Hill is one of those. Even I get a kick out of seeing our old favorites like the cool spider.

We had a great time, can't you tell?

The Last Day

It was a seven day cruise and I have done seven posts and I could easily do more. It was one of the most fun weeks my family has ever had. The morning  after Pirate Night we had our breakfast with some of the Disney characters. It was tough to get there as early as it started but so worth it. After all, this was our last day on the ship and we didn't want to miss any of it.

The boys with Chip. Or Dale. Not sure which.

Three goofy fellows!

My family with Micky. Wasn't it clever of Brittany and I too coordinate with that wall behind us?  After we had finished eating and been visited by all of the characters our hysterical waiters started to make us hats with the colorful napkins.

They started with William. They turned him into Dumbo! He is holding the trunk. This may be one of my new favorite looks for him.

Everyone else became a pirate, check Grandpa out! He has teacups and a creamer hanging from his fancy hat.

Josh has Jack Sparrow type locks and Uncle Nate reminded me of Smee. This is their Captain Hook look.

Matthew was a classy looking pirate. Or maybe Peter Pan. Not exactly sure.

These are Brittany's Minne ears. For some reason I didn't get a picture of my sister's girls but Abby had these ears too.

Aren't I cute? Or not. Somehow Grandma escaped this treatment. Tiff had a hat but I didn't get her picture either.

The whole group. What a fantastic trip. Such great memories and so much fun.Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Pirate Night

One night on our cruise was Pirate Night. Of course our resident researcher, Miss Brittany, knew this and made sure we were all outfitted appropriately.

Brittany and Libby, sporting a dashing moustache.

Josh, with is handmade hat, patch and hook.

Our wonderful wait staff, Carlo, Ronald and Arman in their pirate gear.

I Pirate night came right after Sea World so Arman made the ketchup that night into a dolphin.

Carlo used Grandpa's hand to do magic.

All of our fierce pirates with Carlo.

Later that night there was a pirate party up on deck. Goofy and Minne were really getting down.

Brittany and Libby danced their little hearts out.

We old folk were having fun too.

Josh and Abby doing their version of the tango.
Toward the end of the evening Captain Hook showed up and tried to ruin the party. Luckily when we looked up we saw Mickey coming to the rescue on a zip line! Then there were fireworks at sea. Such a great night!

Formal Night

One night during the cruise we were supposed to dress up for a formal night. Our family is not really very formal so church dress was about right for us. I do think we clean up nicely though.

We didn't want to wait in line for Mickey so we had someone take this in front of the cool chandelier up a few floors. The funny thing was we turned around and William ended up taking pictures for family after family. Good idea I guess!

My cute family. I swear we didn't torture Matthew before the picture. Got to find the perfect word for that boy to say when we take a picture. He is still awfully handsome though.

While we were waiting I took a few pictures in front of some Mickey windows. Brittany got her brother to dance with her for a split second. So even though it is a little blurry I love this picture.

Here we are! All of us looking beautiful! I wish you could see more that the kids meals at the end of the table, it was all so pretty.

Brittany and her mom!

A little on the food. Everyone wanted to try Creme Brulee. It was super yummy. I love dessert.

One of our adorable waiters Arman,would bring the kids ketchup for their fries every night. He took requests and would pour it in different shapes, this one is the ship. Usually animals like a dog, bird and dolphin.The guy had skills.

Our fantastic grandparents!

Sea World

Another port that we stopped in was San Diego. So if you are in San Diego you have to go to Sea World right? My kids had never been so it was a lot of fun. It did remind us how good we had it on the ship not waiting in many lines and being waited on all day. Sea World on a Friday is pretty crowded and busy but it was a lot of fun.

The kids with Shamu. The soft plush version. Not sure where Brittany is in this one. Maybe Shamu ate her!

Kids pretending to be in the sea.

Waiting for the Shamu show. Matthew was the only one who would take a picture with me. Poor kid wishes he had my sunglasses though. The shows were different than I remember when I was a kid. Still amazing though!

How does something that large get itself into the air?

Next was the dolphin show which didn't even seem related to the one I remember. There was a whole story complete with aerial acrobatics. Not to mention this guy riding the dolphins.

The end of the show with the amazing bird characters and performing animals. This show was my favorite part of our trip to Sea World.

Watch out, the girls are being attacked by a huge starfish! Wait, it is just a sculpture.

Looking for starfish with Grandma. Goodbye Sea World we sure loved you!