Dinner, Bowling, and Pets

Well we managed to get ourselves outside the house a few times this week other than for school and work. 

 

We had some dinner at "the yummy roll place" aka Texas Roadhouse.  It was . . . . yummy!

Sorry for the cell phone picture that imported upside down.  Don't get dizzy as you turn your heads to see our cute faces.

 

We also went bowling one night.  We got there after they turned the lights down and the laser lights up - so the pictures aren't great.  But here's Sam.

 

And here I am - I decided to bowl without the ramp this time.

 

A couple of cute but blurry boys!

 

And here are the final scores.  Sam won by a landslide - of course he used the ramp and I didn't.  We're learning to compete against ourselves . . . that's a hard thing to learn!

 

And yesterday we got to go do something super fun - - we got an EARLY Christmas present.  Aunt Jen Jen and Uncle Michael sent us gift cards to the Build-a-Bear Workshop.  And they wanted us to use them now so that we could pick out a Christmas themed pet before they were all gone after Christmas.  So we happily obliged! 

 

Here I am with my new friend - air bath time.

 

And here's Sam giving his new friend a brush.  

 

Another blurry picture - sorry.  We're just leaving with our new friends.

 

And here's Sam with Rudolph, his new reindeer.  His noes blinks and he is super cute.

 

Here I am with Elftic, my new polar bear.  He's well behaved and has made friends with my other stuffed animals.  He's also very energetic. 

Sam and Mason out - have a great week!

Another Quiet Week

 It was another quiet week for us.  Mom was out of town for a few days and you know what that means . . . . what happens at our house (when mom is away) stays at our house.  And there are absolutely, positively NO pictures to prove anything.

 

One fun thing we do while driving with dad in his truck is listen to his music on his iPod.  He has some great Irish music that we just love.  One day when we got home, Sam had written this note on his board and put it out in front of his room.

 

It says "the Irish tunes I 'heart' them".  And he really does.

So after seeing the note, we had to break the Irish tunes back out.  Here is a still shot of Sam doing his Irish jig.  For a little guy, he can sure move fast!  Nimble fellow.  Next time we'll take a video.

In other activities, our game marathon continues.  Here I am during a game of Cooties last night after mom got home from her trip.

And here is Sam playing Uno Moo.  He loves to really hide so that we can peek at his playing pieces.

Finally, we did an art project with mom this morning.  We made stained glass leaves for our window.  Pretty huh!

 

Ok - Mason and Sam out - see you next week.

A Quiet Week

Quiet weeks are still fun weeks . . . they're weeks where we make our own fun. 

This week we started a family Loopin' Louie tournament.  This is a super fun game that we love to play.  Sam is quite the Loopin' Louie shark but we've all done our fair share of winning.

We spent some "quality time" in the leaves again this weekend.  Here is Sam doing some sweeping.

Here is Sam doing some bike riding while the rest of us worked.  

And here is proof that I worked hard!  I even got my first go at the big lawn mower - after a safety lecture from both mom and dad.  Who knew that you mowed in lines?  I thought you just drove it around until it looked good.  Ah - something new to learn every day!

Finally - here's a little proof that we clean up nicely.  This is us on our way to church today.  Bet you've never seen such a couple of handsome guys as us!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - as Mason said above, I am a great Loopin' Louie player.  I'll play anyone who wants to give it a go.  

Mom snapped this cute picture of me sleeping one night.  I love to snuggle under some blankets and cuddle my stuffed animals.  

Ok - Sam out for now.  Have a great week!

Wrapping up Halloween . . . Moving into November

We had a great Halloween this year!  We did a lot of fun things and lots of fun was had by all! 

 

We had our evening of pumpkin carving last weekend.  Sam and I gutted our pumpkins and dad helped with the sharp knife work. 

Here's Sam going after the guts.

 

And here I am - broken collar bone and all.

 

Pumpkin guts . . . . they don't scare us!

 

Dad followed Sam's instructions exactly . . . and even added a touch of his own.  His pumpkin has lots of teeth - just like him.  Sam's pumpkin is also missing his two front teeth - just like Sam!

 

And here's my pumpkin - he turned out great, didn't he!

 

Here they are in the dark.  Excellent!

 

We made our own mummy pizzas for Halloween dinner this year.  Yummy and fun, all at the same time.

 

And here we are, all dressed up.  I was a Glow-in-the-Dark Skeleton this year.  Sam was Harry Potter.  Aren't we adorable?!?!!  We had a great time trick or treating and have giant bags full of candy that will take us all year to get through.  Happy Halloween everyone!

 

After Halloween, it seems we spend endless hours doing yard work.  We have so many trees around our house.  The yard fills up with leaves . . . over and over and over and over and over.  But what makes all that work a little more endurable?  Playing in the leaves before we toss them in the trashcans. 

 

 

Here I am taking a short break, soaking up some sun.  Ahhh!!!

 

And what did we wake up to this morning?  Snow!!!  Not very much, but enough to coat the grass. It melted quickly and we had a beautiful, although very cold, afternoon. 

 

 

 Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - I do love being outside.  And give me even a tiny pile of leaves and you'll find me right in the middle of it. 

 

 

 Here I am with one of my many handfuls of sticks.  As the leaves blow down in our yard, lots of sticks and twigs come down with them.  And our mower doesn't pick them up well.  So one of Mason and my jobs is to go around and pick them up.  Mom says her back thanks us!

 

 That little bit of snow we had this morning produced some snowflakes big enough to catch on your tongue.  I had to work hard at it, but I finally caught a few. 

 

Sam out - here's to a great week!

Fall Vacation

Ah - the one great thing we look forward to every fall (besides the colors, back-to-school, Halloween, and Thanksgiving) is our fall vacation to Jackson, Wyoming.  It has become our long-standing tradition and we LOVE it! 

 

We headed out last Thursday morning and got to Jackson in time to wander around town for a few minutes and to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  We always enjoy a visit with this giant wooden bear bench.

We spent part of Friday in town seeing the shops and sights.  We got to pick some geodes out and crack them open.  My geode had some quartz and amethyst inside.

And Sam's had some smoky quartz and regular quartz.

We spent the rest of that afternoon in the park and elk refuge. 

There's nothing better than a family picture just outside of Moose with the full moon!

 

We got up the next morning and headed into the Tetons.

 

We saw lots of animals - like moose.

 

And elk.

We did a little hiking around Leigh Lake and just enjoyed the day together in the mountains.

 On Sunday morning, we got up early and headed to Oxbow Bend.  It's mommy's favorite place in the whole entire world and we wanted to catch the sunrise there. 

We had fun playing a new game along the trails at Oxbow - we called it Big Whale.  

 

Another Oxbow Bend picture - can't get enough!

And looked who popped out of the willows right behind us - this super giant grizzly bear.  He was the biggest bear we've ever seen.  He walked right across the road - stood there, looking at us and then wandered up into the hills.  It was amazing!!!

After the bear we headed over to the old Cattleman's Bridge area to play in the water and just enjoy. 

 

 

We actually tracked 4 different bears through the sand near the water.  None of the tracks were very old and we think this set of tracks was probably our bear from earlier that morning. 

 

Then . . . we found some downed trees and decided to take some pictures.  We started with serious pictures - like this one of me.

And then a family picture.

 Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy met up with us there . . . . and then the fun started. 

We call this picture "The Old Men".  Take a careful look and you can see why.  

Here's a picture of mom with her boys.  

And one with dad and his boys.

 And here's one with dad and Uncle Noley and the boys.  Yes, we really are lifting that big tree trunk up . . . . NOT!

 And one more for fun - we call this one "Monkey Business".

 Here is a tree peeking picture with Uncle Noley.

 

 After that we headed up to Signal Mountain - another favorite place.  Here we are at the top.

 And there was still a little snow left at the top so of course, a snowball fight ensued.

 Here's me and Sam at "the Elephant Tree" that we love.

Isn't this picture beautiful?  It's at the Teton Mountain view point at Signal Mountain.

From there, we headed down to String Lake.  

There was more rock throwing and playing in the water . . . feet and legs and all.

We hiked down the river a bit to the big rock that we love to climb out to.  It's right out in the middle of the river and a great, warm, sunny place to spend some time relaxing.  Here's Sam with Fuzzy - the little caterpillar we found on the way.

And here I am - what a beautiful day!

Dad enjoyed a few minutes relaxing on the rock, babysitting Fuzzy. (See him on dad's tummy?)

Here we are on our rocky hike back to the car.

 Here's another picture from the Moose-Wilson road as we spent the rest of the evening looking for animals.



The next morning we headed north on highway 89 again.  This is us all at the Snake River pull-out.  Look at the blue, blue sky.

Ah, brothers!

Then we stopped at the historic Cunningham Cabin - which we'd never done before.  What a great place for a cabin and a ranch - imagine this place in the 1800's!  We all decided we would love to live at this spot.

Here we are with the mountains in the background.

 

And one more beautiful picture from this spot.

Anytime we drive passed Oxbow, mom makes us stop for a family picture.  Truly an amazing spot!

And one of just the boys at Oxbow.

We wanted to hike at Two Oceans Lake but it was closed so we headed over to Christian Pond and did a little hiking there.  

After that, we met up with Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy and did a hike at Lupine Meadows.  We love this giant rock field over by Moose ponds.

Here's Sam on the footbridge.  

On our drive back to Jackson that evening we stopped for this gorgeous picture of the Tetons.

And we saw this mama moose and her calf in . . . Moose.  That's why it has it's name I suppose.

We decided to have a football game at the condo the next morning . . . and guess what happened?  Sam decided to tackle me, and I fell on my elbow breaking my collarbone.  An xray, a sling, some ice, and nausea meds and I was good to go!

We had breakfast at Bubba's before leaving town on Wednesday and we each ordered our own hot cocoa.  That server earned the biggest tip of all time when she came out with these mugs piled high with whipped cream.  

We were in HEAVEN!

After getting back to school and taking care of my shoulder, we got to go trunk-or-treating on Saturday night.  I went as a Knight and Sam went as Harry Potter. 

More about Halloween next week.

 

Sam Alert:  Oh my, what a excellent vacation we had!  This is definitely one of the most favorite things we do every year!

 

Here I am cracking my geode open.  

 And here we are reading one night at the condo.  I love it when either Mason reads to me or I read to him.

This is me at Leigh Lake on top of an old tree stump.  

And this is just "handsome Sam", somewhere along the trails.

Finally, here I am with a "wishing flower" at Lupine Meadows.  I made sure that everybody got at least one of these cool "flowers" while we were hiking.  Ahhh!

 

And if you made it to the end of this post - congratulations! 

Wish you all could have been there with us!