Happy Halloween!

It was a busy Halloween Day today.  Peyton had a costume parade at school first thing this morning.  She was so excited to see us as she paraded down the sidewalk with her class.  She waved excitedly at us.  Then I raced over to Hunter's school to help out in his class during their little Halloween party (pics of that to come).  Then I took Hunter to the doctor because of this cough he has.  Ends up that he has an ear infection and the drainage is causing the cough.  Exactly what Peyton had a week ago.  An easy fix and if you ask him... he's not sick.  So, all is well.  We rested up for a couple hours before we went trick or treating.  Our neighborhood is usually packed with kids, but this year seemed a bit light on the crowd.  The kids got a LOAD of candy and had a great time.  The weather was PERFECT this year!  Hunter chose to be Darth Vader at least 6 months ago.. probably more.  He never once changed his mind.  I bought his costume for $5...score!  Peyton declared a couple weeks ago that she wanted to be Cinderella.  I looked a little for a costume, but couldn't find her size.  Luckily, she was completely happy to be Princess Minnie right out of her costume trunk.  So, it was a cheap and easy Halloween as far as costumes went.

Trick or Treating friends

The loot!

 
 

Pumpkin Patch Outtakes

Getting the 4 kids to take a good picture is pretty much impossible.  I cannot stop laughing over this serious of photos! We're makin' memories :)

The boys demonstrating how wild they were.

Hunter fixing his eye brows?  Peyton with the duck face.

Drama.

Iris and the tongue. Hunter possessed.

That's pretty much what Peyton thinks of this.

And this is about as good as it gets.  Crazy kids.  We love them so!

 

 

Pumpkin Patch

I always make it a point to visit a pumpkin patch this time of year.  We missed the patch at our preschool while we were on vacation so we had to find another one.  I have to say, it was pretty weak.  But we threw some pumpkins together and made it work for some pictures.  The kids were most interested in running around like wild banshees, of course.

A rare family picture thanks to Robyn!

And here she is with her beautiful family :)

 

You don't want to miss Part 2 from the pumpkin patch tomorrow!

 

Our Favorite Day

This was our day in St. Thomas USVI.  We've done sailing trips 2 other times when we've visited the island and it's always the best time.  We booked with Simplicity Charters again.  Charlie, the captain and his first mate, Josh are awesome.  We enjoy spending the day with them.  This experience by far beats going on a cattlemoran (as they call it) with 50 people and cheap booze for only a couple hours.

Our sail started at noon

Charlie (captain) 

Josh (first mate)

Henkley - boat dog

We stopped first to snorkel.  Josh came with us.  He has a marine biology degree so he's able to tell us what everything under there is.  We saw a sting ray during our swim and then a sea turtle right after we got back on the boat.

This is the punch that inspired the infamous Powell Punch.  We had this punch back in 2008 when we first went on the Simplicity.  It's still a staple on their boat.

They made us lunch, grilled right on the back of the boat.

We hung on our water noodles for a bit...

then decided to sail around some.

Charlie took us to this beautiful area with the most gorgeous water.  There wasn't another boat around.  That's what I love about this experience.  A cattlemoran wouldn't take you to a place like this.

We rode the dingy over to the beach and explored a bit.

6 hours later we sailed back as the sun was started to set.  It was the most perfect day.  If you ever visit St. Thomas look them up!

Flow Rider

The back of the ship had a surfing simulator.  You can boogie board/knee board or surf.  We tried the boogie boarding.  It was hilarious to say the least. The pictures speak for themselves.

This is what kids look like on this thing....graceful show offs!

Jason managed to get to his knees!

Heath was the best of all of us.

But the bust at the end is always the funniest!  It shoots you back to the top.

Sarah looking good!

And me.... trying to get to my knees and....

BAM!

Rockclimbing - A First

I'm kind of surprised that I've never rock climbed before.  Sarah, Jason, and I decided we would try it out.  Heath took pictures. Notice here that Sarah is climbing in the shade... important tid bit there.

That's me...not in the shade.

Sarah and me

  And Jason.....also not in the shade.

So, those rocks you grab onto were SO hot.  I almost let go, but the guy wouldn't let me.  He told me to climb faster... jerk!  This is what my hand looked like afterward.  I should have taken a picture of Jason's because he had 3 blisters immediately form on his pinky finger right after.  Aside from that, it was fun.  I used way too much upper body... should have used more legs.  I was pretty sore the next couple of days.