HAPPY HALLOWEEN

And what a Halloween it was! We took every opportunity this week to dress up in our costumes and gather candy and do Halloween things. It was a fabulous week!

First of all, however, who turned the snow on? It snowed about 7 inches of snow at our house this week (between 2 storms). This is what we woke up to on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Fortunately it was still warm enough during the days to melt everything pretty quickly - in fact too quickly for two boys who were dying to shovel the snow.And the picture we know you've been waiting for . . . we present - - - Thomas the train (Mason) and the fireman (Sam). We were very happy with our costume choices this year. In fact, Sam thinks he might actually be a fireman when he grows up and I would like to be Thomas every Halloween from now on (or so we both announced earlier tonight).

We started our week of Halloween celebrating with our usual Mommy and sons night out at Thanksgiving Point. We hit both the Dinosaur Museum and then Barnyard Boo at the Farm. It was a cold night but well worth it. In fact, we spent some quality story time at the farm with Milly the Witch (she looks very much like Polly the Scarecrow from a few weeks ago). She told stories, taught us a dance, and we did crafts with her. We really really like her!

There was face-painting, cookie decorating, a scavenger hunt, "booling", spider tosses, more crafting, and lots of other fun things to do.And of course, the usual pony ride. Sam has not participated in this traditional activity the last few times - - - he says he's scared of the ponies. We're working on him. Have you ever seen a train riding a horse?We also carved our pumpkins this week. Nothing like some gooey pumpkin guts to make some boys happy!
Then after trick-or-treating at Mommy's office on Friday, we stopped at Gardner Village to see all the witches. That was pretty fun - although it was packed with people. Here I am with my favorite witch - she was on a boat tossing dynamite into the pond.And here is Sam with his favorite witch - the fire-witch.

A few more witch pictures from the day. They were everywhere!We decided to have our big Halloween celebration on Saturday. The morning started with pumpkin pancakes - not pancakes made from pumpkin, but rather orange and green pancakes shaped like pumpkins. With whipped cream (from a spray can - our favorite) on them.
Then it was Mason's last soccer game for the season. I've had such a fun season - and a perfect first sporting season ever. My teammates and my coach were the best - a very positive experience all around. Since it was Halloween we all dressed up in costumes for the game. I didn't want to take the chance of ruining my Thomas costume so I wore an old pirate costume.The pirate costume brought out the animal in me - I scored 13 goals in the game. It was so much fun!Here I am with my coach.And me and my whole team - the Dino Squad.
Here are our finished pumpkins. Daddy picked a super cool knobbly, warty pumpkin that he turned into a witch.Mommy chose a really cool pumpkin that was surprisingly heavy. She turned it in to a pirate. Aaarrrggghhh!And here are Mason's and Sam's pumpkins all lit up on the front porch.
Today we went with daddy up to take more flowers to Grandma June's grave. We've had such pretty flowers around the garden, even with all the snow. It was a beautiful day. Sam and I have started a pine cone tradition now - every time we visit a cemetery we like to decorate the grave we're visiting with pine cones to show our love. It's like flowers, but very Mason/Sam-ish.
Sam Alert: Hey everyone - Sam here. I have loved being a fireman this week. I didn't want to take my costume off! Here I am at Mason's soccer game. I was his biggest fan! I sure can't wait until I get to play on a team. And just another cute picture of me as a fireman. I am adorable! Sam out.

Fall in Jackson, WY

There truly isn't anything better than spending a beautiful fall week in Jackson Wyoming! We get to do it almost every year and we are just getting back to a normal life after 8 great days away from home. We spent a few days with just the four of us and then Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy joined us for the rest of the week, while mommy had to leave us and go to Minneapolis. What a great week! Put your seat belts on and get ready for some pictures . . . we had a hard time choosing which pictures to include - so you're getting lots of them. Plus they will appear in the order in which they were taken . . . so for your viewing pleasure we present "our week in Jackson".

Here are the boys planning the week's hikes while enjoying the view from the Teton NP Visitor's Center at Moose.A picture of the whole family with the beautiful Grand Tetons in the background. One of the first hikes we did was at Two Ocean Lake. Here's the lake. It was fun to watch a storm roll in while we were there. Of course, where there are water and rocks . . . there are very happy boys nearby. Brothers . . . hiking in the big, big mountains.
On our way back to the main highway, Mason saw this "goat" cloud. We love looking for shapes in the clouds! Can you find the goat?Some beautiful scenery shots. The next morning we got up early and went in to the Teton NP to find animals and just enjoy the day. Probably our most favorite spot is at String & Leigh Lakes up at the North Jenny junction. It is so pretty - especially when you are the only people around for miles (except for the elk).
The whole family.Daddy took some pretty pictures didn't he?That afternoon we wandered around the town. Here is our bear . . . we take our picture with him every year.

Aunt Jen Jen is always checking the Town Square web cam and manages to capture a picture every year of us eating some yummy ice cream under the elk horn arch.

Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy joined us on Saturday evening. So we all got up early on Sunday and drove up in to the park. Our early wake-up call was met with a wolf sighting. It was very early, still mostly dark, and he was fairly far away, but if you squint your eyes and look closely, you'll see him.

Sam loves the outdoors and he loves looking for animals.

We saw lots of animals on this trip - including antelope.

Here's a picture of Mason on top of Signal Mountain - you can see forever from up there.

More pretty pictures from the top of Signal Mountain.

And here's a picture of all of us at the top.

Another family picture at the Jackson Lake overlook at Signal Mountain.

From here we decided to stop at the Signal Mountain Lodge to see if they were still serving breakfast. It turns out that they were closing down for the season that very morning and we ended up having the very last meal served at the lodge for the 2010 season. Of course, the down side to that was that we pretty much had to eat whatever was left - the choices were slim, but it was yummy and it was a beautiful place to eat breakfast.

Then we headed over to another of our favorite spots - Oxbow Bend.
We always see something here and we weren't disappointed this time . . . we were treated to a bull moose. He's that brown lump right over daddy's shoulder.

We played in the Snake River - there were no rocks left on the river bank when we finished!

Another pretty picture.

We saw a couple of bald eagles playing on the winds.

We stopped at Jenny Lake and went for a walk. Here's another family picture.

Two boys just enjoying a great afternoon!

We watched this red-headed Grebe go fishing. He was a good fisherman! That's a fish flipping around in his mouth.

Yet another pretty picture.

On our way back to town as we passed through Moose junction, we spotted this pair of moose at the river. He was a big boy.

Mommy left to go back to work on Monday afternoon. We all headed over to take a walk on the Moose-Wilson road. Sam hiked the whole way by himself.

A picture from the beaver ponds.

And a beautiful sunset.The next day we wandered through the Jackson Visitor's Center. We got close to a lot of moose on this trip, but this one let us get the closest. He didn't even bite!We saw traces of bears, including a recent paw print and also some scat . . . But this stuffed bear at the Visitor's Center was the closest we got to one this trip . . . maybe next year.
We saw buffalo.And more moose.And more beautiful scenery.We hiked to Moose Ponds . . . ah, more water to play in!And we had a lovely afternoon picnic on the edge of Jenny lake. And we threw more rocks. Boys just can't ever get enough of this activity!
Daddy's favorite animal to see is Elk. We saw plenty of them - big boys too.
And yet more pretty pictures.

On our way home, we stopped to visit some of the L family graves. The boys decorated the headstones with the ever plentiful pine cones. It's always good to see where you come from!
It was a great trip - thank you to Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy for joining us. We missed everyone else who loves to go to Jackson with us! Same time next year!