THE BLAZE

Everyone told us we needed to go to the blaze. We bought the tickets and thought it would be a great activity to bring the whole family to, plus my mother after she had spent the whole week watching the kids for us. Little did we know that Ben would be gone! His flight left early in the morning. It was a strange day, but we kept our plans and just went without using one of our tickets.

We were quite shocked at how much an adult ticket cost, as well as a child's price to enter this historical event.

Walking through there were pumpkins everywhere, carved in so many different ways and many different faces. We got there at dusk and were able to see an overall view of the area, which was nice. As it continued to grow darker and darker it became easier to lose the children while walking around the property. We had the boys hold hands with either me or grandma. Briel thought it was funny to run off at different times.

this was a huge spiderweb made out of pumpkins, and hundreds of pumpkin spiders all over the ground. It was pretty creepy!

The boys were starting to get tired near the end. I couldn't get them to stand up straight or smile for the camera.

I guess it's different when grandma is in the picture with you. Cael and Connor were more cooperative.

I don't think we were super impressed – with the cost and what we saw. I can see why it is a fundraiser, but I wish I had known that before we had purchased our tickets. To all the people who say "you must go to the blaze", I'd say to them don't waste your time... Both my mother and I agreed.

At least we had something to do for our family home evening night that Ben left

APPLE and PUMPKIN picking!

Weeds Farm

One Monday the boys were out of school and we wanted to pick apples and get a pumpkin for the Halloween Holiday. The only catch was Ben was "on-call" and needed to be close enough to the hospital in case he needed to go in. It was a beautiful day and we really could have spent most of it here at the farm.

 We ordered some Bar-B-Q chicken, cornbread, corn on the cob, apple cider donuts, and a gallon of apple cider to wash it all down with. My mouth is watering just a little bit thinking about our tasty lunch.

 As we made our way to the pumpkin patch Ben's phone rings-- it's the ER and they have a patient who needs to be admitted. They told Ben to hurry, but to meet up in an hour! This really put a cramp on the day. We ran and grabbed the best pumpkins we could see quickly, walked up to a playhouse and playground area for about 5 minutes. Skipped picking our own apples and instead filled a bag from large wooden boxes near the front gate and bought everything we could before loading up in the van to get Ben back to work. I wish we could have explored the corn maze and all the other festive things at the farm.... I just loved the experience and everything they had set up here for all the visitors to do.

 Brielle sure thought her apple was delicious! Cael enjoyed one as well.

And just because I like to remember that Ben and I were here together too!

All the FUN of Halloween!

Family Home Evening Tradition: Carve a pumpkin. This year we helped clean-out about 15 pumpkins for the ward party. Ben was amazing! He could clean out a pumpkin in less than 5 minutes, which was pretty great since there was alot of 'guts' to scrape outta there.

We are so scared!
I love watching the kiddos dress up, especially when they run around the house and wrestle or spray webs on one another. Spider-man SLASH Optimus or Spiptamus kept getting attacked by the masked ninja. He was able to defend himself quite well... and make his mom and dad laugh with the web action and noise.
The whole crew ready to go to the Ward Party... we look pretty good, right?

Hippie Dad, Spider-kid, Mustache biker, Ewalk (from Star Wars) and "how to train your dragon" Viking kid

Then on Saturday night we went on the base to a 'carnivale'... otherwise known as complete chaos! There were so many people packed into this gym area, little games like musical chairs, cake walk, etc... We had more fun when we left the gym and watched the boys run, jump, and roll down a little hill where the car was parked.

October in Arizona

 

 

 I don't remember if this was how Ben was dressing up for Halloween at school or what. He sure looks cute standing in our empty and clean house. Bare white walls, new carpet and tile! Have a great day at school!

 

*Last night we played softball on our co-ed city league team. The team that we played had shirts and they looked like they might be tough, but after we got over our nerves, we beat them pretty soundly. Ben was a maniac pitcher and did really well. I was the catcher and would cheer my honey on. After our game we met at a park and carved pumpkins in the dark. Ben is great getting the pumpkin all cleaned out and it was fun to spend time with the other med-students/wives/and families. Ben and I carved our FIRST pumpkin together. It looks like an evil demon/elf/pig but I think it is pretty cute. We sure have a great group of people that we can count on for support and good times getting together.