Monday, November 7, 2016

Halloween 2016

Axel had a Halloween-themed gymnastics day. He got to fly like superman! (And sorry for the crying kid at the end... There is a younger kid who has a cow almost every week...)




Axel practicing a cartwheel on the beam. Look at that form! (His teachers are soooo great. We love them!)

Jeff's office had their annual Halloween party and trick-or-treating. I am "Mrs. Nerd USA" and Axel is "Iron Man Witch" (he came up with it himself, about 2 weeks before Halloween). Jeff is himself.




Axel came out and said, "Look Mom, I transformed!" Haha.

Axel drew a scary face for his pumpkin, and Daddy helped put it on the pumpkin and carve it.

Can you tell whose is whose pumpkin?

Us at the ward Trunk-or-Treat.

Halloween night. He found lots of leaf piles to walk through.

We have such nice neighbors. He came home loaded with so much candy, just from 1 street!

Axel and his loot (this does not include his haul from Jeff's work or from the trunk-or-treat. We have soooo much candy at our house!)

Axel and I went to the zoo (I know, I know, we always go) and he finally had the courage to climb the spider web.

He made it all the way to the top!

The zoo had pumpkin carving demonstrations for Halloween, and this beauty was still set up! So amazing!


Aunt Natalie's Visit

Aunt Natalie came out for a quick weekend visit.

The first day we decided to meet Jeff in the City at the Natural History Museum (he was already down there for a work service opportunity). It was POURING and we got sopping wet walking across Central Park to get to the museum. But at least it was a warm rain.


Posin' in Central Park.



We went to a yummy BBQ place for dinner, and they had these fun Wikki Stix for him to play with. 


Long day, so of course he passed out on the train. Aunt Natalie did too (she did a red-eye flight the night before), but I didn't think she would appreciate a picture of that.

The next day it was still wet and raining, but we went to the Zoo anyway.

My two studs.


I love his face, like "What are you doing, Natalie?"

The Zoo had a really cool jack-o-lantern exhibit.

Natalie took family pictures for us while she was here, so I will post those later. Here is Axel throwing leaves after we were done with pictures.

Thanks for coming, Aunt Natalie! I was so great to spend time with you!


Saturday, November 5, 2016

Hartford Temple

They day after we flew back from San Jose, Axel threw up all day... So he spent all day in this position. So glad he wasn't throwing up on the plane...

We had to postpone our trip to the Hartford Temple Open House by a couple of days due to sickness, but luckily there were still tickets available!

We ran into Sister Vassau at the Temple, who was assigned to our ward for about 6 months. That was her first area, and the Hartford Temple was her last!



That face. Haha!




There was an awesome mini golf place across the street from the temple, and they were setting up for Halloween! So fun! Also, it ended up being SO HOT that day, and we were dressed way too warmly!


Then we picked out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.


And wandered around the apple orchard, even though there were no more apples to pick.

"Axel, do a fun pose!"
Axel:



Not too bad for a three-year-old photographer. (You should see the 50 that are just us from the waist down, haha!)






San Jose/Fallon Trip

Axel and I flew from Las Vegas to San Jose for a trip with my family.

Grandma and I took Axel to an open gym place, and he LOVED the foam pit! He told his gymnastics teachers about it when we got back to NY.

 We hauled the whole clan over to Fallon to see the cousins, and bless baby Peter.

Axel and Adeline playing fishing.

We went to a haymaze at the dairy. We went through it twice, taking an hour total (we let the kids decide which way to turn)




ALL THREE KIDS ARE SMILING! Amazing!

Axel got to sit in the tractor with Everett's uncle.




We got to tour the dairy barn.



Axel was fascinated with watching the suction milkers going on the udders.




Baby cows!


Brennen could get around the dairy pretty well!

Strong boy!

We went to a nice restaurant for Brennen's birthday dinner.



The lighting at the hotel pool was terrible, but here are some pictures. (Also, did you know that diapers can explode? Because I sure didn't... Next time Addie can just go commando in the pool if we don't have swim diapers.)




At Peter's baby blessing.







Axel apparently fell out of his chair asleep during singing time, and didn't wake up when it was time to go to class, so he got brought to me! Poor tired boy!

We had a fun time in California and Nevada! Love you family!