October 2013

For Columbus Day weekend we headed to Tucson to visit Papa and Janet and see their new house. We arrived late Friday night. Saturday we tried to go to Reid Park Zoo but by the time we got there it was closing because they were setting up for Zoocuson. We had to make a quick change of plans and go to Desert Museum instead. We saw all sorts of cool and interesting animals. The funnest part was stamping Cole's torso. You're supposed to pay for a stamp book and collect the foot print stamps throughout the museum but who needs a stamp book when you have Cole's belly. Grant loved stamping Cole at every stop. Eventually, Tyler and Grant got in on the action but Cole definitely had the most stamps. On Saturday night we had a delicious BBQ of ribs and steak. While we were preparing for dinner I walked straight into the closed screen door at full speed, knocked it off the track and landed flat on my back fighting the attacking screen. That morning I broke the shower head off of Papa's guest shower trying to fix the crazy spray.

On Sunday, I woke up with the stomach flu which put a damper on some of our plans. Chad and I still went and stayed the night at Marriott Starr Pass Resort while the boys stayed with Papa and Janet. We ate at a yummy new restaurant in downtown Tucson. I forgot my swimsuit at Papa's house but Chad hit the hot tub and tried out the lazy river. The resort is high on the mountain so the view as amazing. The boys a BBQ and feet in the pool with Papa and Janet.

We got home Monday afternoon and took a walk with the boys to the park by Papa's house. On the way home Chad was leading the boys in a rabbit chase. Cole wasn't watching where he was talking and ran right into a cactus before Chad could grab him. He got a good chunk of cactus in his hand and screamed the entire walk back. Papa put on his dentist magnifiers, grabbed some tweezers and pulled out the tiny remaining spines. I somehow ended up with a big spine in my thigh and Chad had some in his hands too from helping Cole. Before our walk Cole and Grant were running around Papa's car and Cole smacked his head straight into the rearview mirror of Papa's car. That night while getting ready for dinner outside, Janet walked straight into the sliding door that Papa and Chad had put back on earlier in the day. She stabbed it with a knife and knocked it back off the track.

Tuesday we took the boys to the zoo, ate delicious Magpie's pizza then dropped off Chad at UA for his preceptor preview. He's trying to recruit 4th years to do rotations in Flagstaff with him. While Chad was at the function, I took the boys to visit Donau & Bolt and see Papa one last time. When we finished there we parked at UA and played on the grass until Chad finished up. We then headed home to Flagstaff.

On October 16, Cole went on a field trip to the fire station with school like last year. On October 17, Grant participated in his school's annual jog-a-thon. He had a great time running laps with his classmates. Last year he only made it two laps because he was really sick. This year he was able to redeem himself and ran quite a few laps. Cole and Tyler cheered on Grant and they all got popsicles at the end. Tyler gets to go to open gymnastics when we don't have anything going on. He loves to jump in the foam pit and climb on the giant shapes.

Of course, October is Halloween season. Our house was decorated up for the season starting with Cole's zombie birthday party at the end of September. Grant wore three different costumes and Cole wore two. For the ward Halloween party, Grant and Tyler were zombies and Cole wore an Indiana Jones costume he found at the Mountain School clothing exchange. For the school Halloween parties, Cole decided to be a zombie and Grant decided to be a vampire. However, for trick or treating later that night Grant changed his mind again and put on his hockey gear to be a hockey player. Tyler was a zombie all season and loved wearing his bloody t-shirt and scary face paint. Cole, Tyler and I spent a night in Phoenix with Oma because I had a hearing in Phoenix. Cole and Oma carved a pumpkin together, which Cole was proud of all season long. Just before Halloween, Chad and the boys carved another, larger jack-o-lantern. We didn't pass out candy this year. We took the boys to Walnut Meadows for trick-or-treating. The boys didn't last very long though so their haul wasn't quite as plentiful as last year.

The boys got worked up one night and started belly sliding across the ottoman:
http://youtu.be/tDroVQ0wmBg
http://youtu.be/3hnD-wVujSY

The home teachers were over one evening and all of the sudden during their visit, Tyler started singing his version of "If You're Happy and You Know It." A couple of days later I convinced him to sing it for me on camera. It was a feat to get him to do it.
http://youtu.be/OOfdOufIWjc

These are my other attempts, which show just how coy, cute and stubborn this boy can be:
http://youtu.be/JCDw8zE1HuI
http://youtu.be/-5I6goz_Tys
http://youtu.be/17Jchxs8x_g