Fall Break

As an early birthday present to Nate, we got him some tickets so that he could go to Colorado and see his friend Mike Pettingill.  They have both missed each other a little bit so we figured it out and Nate went there during our fall break.  We found some good deals on plane tickets so we drove to the valley to drop him off at the airport.  Since he was gone for like 3 days, I just decided to stay in the valley with the kids and play with them.  We went and did a few things with the Pogo Passes, stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, and got to go see Nana and Papa too. We sure missed Nate while he was gone and were so glad when he came back. 


Dropping off Daddy and saying goodbye

 On our first day we took family pictures before Nate had to go, dropped him off at the airport, and hung out then went out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa at Golden Corral.

 The next day was Sunday and we went to church with Grandma and Grandpa then went to Dad's house for Sunday dinner. We love getting to hang out with Nana and Papa!

The next day we decided to use our Pogo Passes.  We tried going to Fat Cats for bowling, but since it was a holiday of some kind we only got to go mini golfing and play a few arcade games.  The boys lucked out because they won a lot of tickets on the arcade games and were able to get some prizes.

Glow in the dark mini golf

Their winnings!

 After Fat Cats, we still wanted to do something else so we headed to the public library in Mesa.  I knew there would be something there they could do.  They read a few books and found some computer games to play for a little while.  It was fun to take them back to the old library that I use to go to as a kid.

All ready to go to bed after a long day.

 The next day, I took the boys to Makutu's Island and they ran around and around and surprisingly, I even got Jax to go to sleep for a little while. 

 After we were done playing, we got some Dairy Queen.

The next day was our last day alone and Nate came home that night. We wanted to try a place on the Pogo Pass but it was all the way up in north Scottsdale. I decided to try and stop at the train park to see the museum and maybe play on the playground while we ate our lunch.  I had a little bit of trouble though and I thought that I locked my keys in my car when we got there.  I called my car insurance company and they sent a person over to unlock my car for me.  Before they got there though, I had a meltdown and then went back to realize that one of the doors never actually locked so I was able to open my car and then I left.  We headed up to the Air Jump place for some play time.  The boys jumped and got to play a few games of dodgeball on giant trampolines.  They got hurt one or two times but had a lot of fun.  When our time was up, we headed to go see Papa at his work. 

This is us stuck in traffic on the way home from seeing Papa at work.

What a day it was.  I was so glad Nate came home late that night.  I was ready to not be alone with 3 kids anymore.  We sure missed him.  I told him about Fat Cats and since we didn't really use our passes earlier that week, Nate wanted us to go with him again before we headed back home.
We got to do the golfing, arcade, and bowling this time.

  What a trip. I was glad to be home and have my Nate back from Colorado.

Nate's trip to Colorado

I let Nate get himself an early birthday present and he was able to buy plane tickets to go see his friend Mike who just moved to Colorado.  He has missed living by him and wanted to go hang out with him again.  Since Nate doesn't really write on the blog, I am just going to recap the trip from what he told me and the pictures he had on his phone.

Getting ready to get on the plane

 On Sunday, Mike wanted to see if they could scout tickets for the Broncos game that day.  They rode the train into town and enjoyed just hanging out.They were out and about for a while before the game and ended up not being able to get any tickets. They decided to just take off and go hit a bucket of balls at a golf course. 

The Broncos Arena

 The next day, Mike had to work so Nate got to drive his car and go do some sight seeing.  He ended up going to the mall, Ikea, and went on a little hike where he could see most of the city. 

 It seemed like he had a good time and was glad that he got to go.  He sure misses his friend.

Family Pictures

Merrick Pumpkin Patch

Today I went on a field trip with Merrick to the pumpkin patch.  He was so excited for us to go.  We met him at the school and then took a walk to the patch just down the road.  We got there and I took Merrick and a boy in his class around to check everything out and pick a pumpkin.  You can't believe the number of pumpkins that Merrick chose and then changed him mind about before finally deciding on one.  He was so cute and is excited about Halloween and getting to carve his pumpkin that he picked.

With his friend Trevor

The whole class

Merrick Student of the Week

Merrick got chosen as student of the week this week.  His teacher filled out a questionnaire about him and then he was asked to bring in some pictures of himself and his family.  I got to be in his class and see all of his stuff up on the wall.  He also got a book full of really sweet things that his class wrote about him.  He felt so special.

 

"Walkie-talkies"

Our house has the air vents on the floor. One night the kids got creative and figured out that they could talk to each other between the vent in the playroom and the vent in their bedroom. They did it for a long time that night and they thought it was the coolest thing ever.

 

NPC movie night

The community college in Snowflake decided to host a movie night for just a few dollars admission.  They were playing Finding Dory and since we never got a chance to go see it in theater, Chelsea, me and the kids all went to watch it together.  There was popcorn and the movie was really cute! 

Playmat

My kids are always picky about which things they will like and what will keep them happy.  This little boy loves the playmat.  It's perfect for him and it didn't take very long before he was rolling over and wouldn't stay under it very long.