Final Halloween Celebration

On Sunday, we decided to fore go trick-or-treating and went to our church, which was having a huge Harvest Festival. They had tons of games, bouncy houses, obstacle courses, paddle boats, carnival rides, ponies, a car show, skateboarding demonstrations, food, entertainment, etc., etc. The kids had a great time and got a ton more candy!!!

This time, we went as basketball and football players

A.J. trying out one of the carnival games

A.J. and Isaac

The petting zoo (the cleanest petting zoo I have ever seen)

What's a carnival without cotton candy???

Halloween Fun

Yesterday started our long weekend of Halloween fun. A.J. had a Halloween party at school and got to wear his Darth Vader costume...he got tons of candy! Then last night, we went to one of the local grocery stores. The kids wore their costumes, got to play games and decorate cookies, and got tons of candy! Today, we did our annual trick-or-treating at the retirement home with my MOMS club. Every time I told Isaac to say 'thank you' he would say 'welcome'...the older folks ate it up! The kids (and adults) had a great time and we got tons of candy! It's not even the actual day of Halloween yet, and we have so much candy, it is ridiculous! We still have a neighborhood potluck for Halloween tomorrow and then on Sunday, we're skipping trick-or-treating and going up to the church instead. They are having a huge Harvest Festival with carnival games, rides, bands, and more candy!

The ASU football player and Darth Vader

Trick-or-treating

Everyone had a great time

Puppy Love

On Saturday, we got to meet our puppy for the first time!!! We don't actually know which one is ours yet...next weekend, we get to pick her out! But we did meet all the puppies and got to play with them. They are all so adorable and soft! The boys loved them! They can't wait to pick one out and take her home!!!

Girls' Week--Grand Canyon & Sedona

The final leg of our trip was visiting the Grand Canyon and hiking in Sedona. We first drove to the Grand Canyon, making a stop at the Hoover Dam. We didn't go on any dam tours or ask any dam questions, but we did take pictures of the dam clocks ;-) Then we drove on to the Grand Canyon. We got there just before dark...enough time to take pictures at one overlook. My sister did not seem very impressed with the canyon; she said she thought it would be bigger. If we would have had more time, we would have drove along the scenic road and she could have seen just how big it really is. On Sunday, we decided to go on a hike in Sedona. My sister likes hikes but does not like heights. She did really well hiking halfway up a mountain and standing on a natural bridge, even though she said her legs felt like Jello coming down. Overall, we had a great vacation, and I think we should make this an annual tradition!!!

Angela at Hoover Dam

The grand opening of the new bridge across the Hoover Dam

Ang and I at the Grand Canyon

We made it to the top of Devil's Bridge

Angela at Devil's Bridge

I told Angela she needed to show more emotion and this is what I got

Girls' Week--Las Vegas

The third portion of our trip was to Las Vegas. I promised Angela I would get her cultured, and I don't think I failed. From the dirty card flippers to the cross-dressers and getting propositioned with 12 inches, I think this might have been the eye-opening part of the trip :-) We did have a good time though. We walked, saw the famous Las Vegas sign, walked, saw the fountains of Bellagio, walked, watched the volcano at the Mirage...did I mention we walked? We walked up and down the strip, going into various hotels and doing a lot of people-watching. We also took the monorail up to the Stratosphere and then took a taxi over to Fremont Street. The lights at Fremont were really neat!!! I think Angela would definitely go back to Vegas!!!

The famous welcome sign

Our room at the Palazzo (Ang couldn't believe 1 room had 3 tv's)

The lobby at the Palazzo

The Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel

Ang in front of New York, New York

Watching the fountains at the Bellagio

The lights at Fremont Street

"Wide is the new skinny"...my FAVORITE sign!

Our hotel

Girls' Week--LA and Hollywood

We spent the day Thursday doing tourist-y things in LA/Hollywood/Beverly Hills. We started out by hitting Randy's Donuts...made famous by Wayne's World. My sister kept making fun of me because I wanted to go here, but the donuts were awesome!!! Definitely the best donuts I have ever had (my sister agreed, and no longer made fun of me for this venture). Then we went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We saw many stars on the walk, Lucille Ball being Angela's favorite. Of course, we had to see the Hollywood sign as well. Then we drove over to Beverly Hills and saw Rodeo Drive...we didn't even bother getting out though, as we knew we couldn't afford anything! Last, we saw the hotel made famous by Pretty Woman.

Mmm...Randy's Donuts

Had to get my picture taken with Shrek for the kids

One of the many, many stars we saw

The Kodak Theater

The Hollywood sign

For you Pretty Woman fans, Reg...Bev...Wil

Girls' Week--San Diego

My awesome hubby arranged to have my younger sister fly out for a girls' vacation (he tried to get both my sisters to come, but my older one had obligations with her kids). He watched the boys for a whole week, while my sister and I traveled the southwest! When my sister arrived, we drove to the ASU campus to have her picture taken in front of the softball field (my sister played varsity softball for 4 years in high school and always wanted to go see the Sun Devils' field). Then on Tuesday, we headed out for San Diego. In all her 29 years, my sister has never seen the ocean, so our first stop was Coronado Island to see the ocean! We walked around Seaport Village and then ate Mexican in Old Town. Our hotel, La Estancia La Jolla, was very nice (and thanks to Priceline, we were able to stay there at an affordable rate)! Our room even had a doorbell!!! Angela kept calling it shi-shi poo-poo (and I referred to it as sushi po-po)! We did see on an episode of Family Jewels that Gene Simmons from Kiss stayed there as well. On Wednesday, we went to La Jolla Cove, where Ang really got to see the waves! We were lucky enough to see the seals, crabs, and even dolphins! Then we went to the Gaslamp District for some dinner and retail therapy!

Angela in front of the ASU softball diamond

View from our room at La Estancia

Angela sticking her feet in the ocean for the first time (San Diego in background)
La Jolla Cove

Dolphins

Say Hello to our little friend!

The seals

Me at La Jolla

Angela's first trip to the ocean

Bouncy House Fun

There's a fairly new bouncy house place near our house...it's small, but the boys love it! Even Isaac will go down the humongous slide without giving it a thought! It's a nice little break for both the boys and Mommy when Daddy is not here ;-)

Sporting the hooded towels from the Tokyo Davis'...they love them! Thank you so much for their birthday gifts!!!

A.J. (and Isaac climbing the stairs)

Isaac

They loved going down together

Brothers and best friends