Fall Leaves and Mazes

Well, I forgot that some businesses, like the library, close on Columbus Day, so we detoured to a nearby park instead.  The kids were drawn not to the playground, but to the copious leaves strewn all over the ground.  They quickly made up their own pile and proceeded to play in it for probably a good half hour, until I made them 'leave'.  Ha! Pardon the pun!  All was good, except maybe a tutu shirt and dead leaves weren't a good combination.

We also took advantage of this relatively warm October to try out the corn maze.  The kids didn't recall doing this one before; looking back it had been 2 years since we had been to that one.  The kids enjoyed the 0.4 mile loop where we found different animal footprint clues, but their favorite part was everything else!  They have 2-mile and 3-mile mazes too, so I'm hoping one of these years we'll get to do the longer ones.  Maybe even in the dark!

Mini-maze warm-up for the kids

Climbing up hay bales to get to the top of the plastic culvert slides.  She convinced both parents to go down the slides, and I have to admit they were pretty fast and fun!

They also had a "train" set up from 55-gallon barrels on wheels towed behind a 4-wheeler. Hadley enjoyed it so much, she wanted to ride again, while Owen moved on to bigger and better things.  But Daddy joined her on the second ride!

Owen found a buddy from school to wrestle with on one of the many bouncy houses.  

Not to be left out, Hadley was ready to do some wrestling of her own.

Hmm...what else...?  The kids went to the dentist, and Hadley was finally cooperative enough to get x-rays and cleaning done!  They both did great and got good dental reports.

Pumpkin Season

Ah, October.  It's been picture-perfect so far.  And now, I'm sure I've jinxed it.  :) Someone (Owen) is super-excited about Halloween and has been asking about it for weeks.  I got some stickers to put on the pumpkins to tide him over until we can actually carve them.

Of course, there's the annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch, where we got the aforementioned pumpkins. Owen was diligently pulling his sister around the patch in a wagon, but...

It's always better with a friend's help!  Owen's best friend Carson, and family, joined us for the outing.

The mini straw maze was no problem for the boys this year, but I may have seen Hadley climb over a couple of bales that were in her way.  :)

The train ride is still a hit.  The kids took over the caboose for their ride.

And don't forget climbing the hay mountain.  It was a perfect place for the kids to enjoy their lollipops and take in the sights.

Our playgroup also had their annual Halloween party, so the kids got to try out their costumes a little early.  Owen has been asking to be a ghost for a month, so I tried out a homemade version, which he was excited about.  Hadley had no opinion, and I got a great deal on a lion costume!  Must be the simple costumes and lack of modern devices, but doesn't this picture look like it could have been taken 40 years ago? :)

They did a good job decorating and doing some games for the kids.  Since there was a bouncy house, Owen ditched the costume within 5 minutes.  That was fine with me, so I don't have to make another one before trick-or-treating, but he was then just the boy with some white/black face paint and no other costume...

Hadley was probably most excited about a cupcake.

One of the games was to eat a donut without using your hand.  This was highly entertaining to watch.  Owen was all about it, holding his hands behind his back and chasing the donut around with his face.  Hadley just knew she wanted that donut and quickly broke protocol.

Group shot: mine are on the tree fort.  Hadley liked her costume so much that she did not want to take it off for her nap when she got home.  Such a change from her brother at this age.  (He was the Ewok who never wanted to wear the headpiece, and was thus just some kind of generic half-bear instead.)

Grand Teton NP Fall Colors

A couple of weeks ago, we took advantage of free National Park admission day and drove out to Grand Teton for the day to enjoy the fall colors.  Turns out the fall colors were mostly done up there, and it was a rainy, chilly day, but it provided for some interesting scenery anyway, including a random sheep on the road.  

We were a little late getting out of the house, so we arrived in Jackson just in time for some yummy lunch, while it poured rain outside!  To add to the fun, a clown was making balloon animals in the restaurant, which our kids thought was completely awesome!  Hadley requested a butterfly, and Owen got a moose on a motorcycle.

After lunch, we walked around the square a bit, since it was still raining off and on.

We went to our favorite candy store, and the kids each got a huge lollipop.  I'm thinking Hadley should not have gotten blue...

Finally, we decided to venture on into the park and see how bad the rain was.  The clouds lent an air of mystery to the Tetons:

It wasn't raining much, so we decided on a 3-mile hike around String Lake.  Even with the obscured mountains and overcast sky, the scenery was beautiful.  It was very quiet, and we only saw a handful of other hikers on the trail.  Everyone started off on foot, but after her first stumble, H opted to ride in the backpack.

Not far up the trail, we came across these deer.  There are 3 total.  Can you see them all? We could also hear elks bugling nearby most of the hike.  It was an eerie sound in the forest, and it really scared Owen!  He wanted to hold my hand. :) We even heard crashing antlers (or at least that's what we thought that sound was), though we never saw the elks.

That may have been because of Chatty Cathy in the backpack, scaring away all the wildlife.  She was so exhausted that she was chattering nonsense and crying most of the hike.  The 20-30 minutes that she finally passed out were pure blissful silence!

Owen was a trooper and did the whole 3 miles by himself, with the brief exceptions of being carried after he fell into a muddy puddle and soaked his pants in cold water and when we were nearing the parking lot.  I was so proud of him for being such a good hiker!

I wished we had binoculars on the hike to find the elk, but I remembered that we had a little pair in the car on the way home.  Those entertained the kids all the way back to dinner in Jackson.  Notice Hadley usually held them upside down and backwards, but no matter.

We are so thankful to be able to do day trips to such amazing places!

Hadley's First Haircut

It finally happened.  At the age of nearly 2.25 years old, Hadley had her first haircut.  I'm hoping this will help with the tangled, crazy ridge of hair on the back of her head and promote faster hair growth.  :) There wasn't much to work with, but I think she did a good job!  Owen's first cut, for comparison.

Before (stringy mullet):

During (very serious!):

After (chic bob):

She continues to impress me with her mimicry and increasing vocabulary on a daily basis. Some favorites: "Finish your dinner, Owen!"; "Night, Mom.";  "What doing?"; "1, 2, 7, 8, 1, 2, My Tuhn!"; "Ni-Nah-No" - I don't know; "I offa coat" - Help me take this coat off; "Daddy Buh-bye, See soon!"; (She may confuse this as his name, since that's what we say every work morning.) Sometimes I catch her making up her own songs.  And here's another one in the works - the alphabet. 

She is still a good climber, though she is developing some fear about halfway up the rainbow bars on the playground.  I just have to shadow her and she'll go the rest of the way. As I mentioned before, she likes to take a spin on the Strider bike by herself and put on a cool helmet like her brother.

She will also request music to dance to, so she is currently enrolled in Kindermusik.  I was blown away with how well she pays attention and participates in class.  I seem to remember her brother was mostly looking out the window or trying to open the locked cabinets half the time.  Don't know if that's a personality or gender thing, but it's fun!