Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

It was a reuse as many costumes as you can and still keep a theme sort of year :)  Yes I am OCD and I have to have a theme!

I love this fun family of mine!

I love our tradition of dressing up together each Halloween!  Does it make things more complicated, well yes it does.  But the memories are worth the added stress to me.  Justin was thrilled to just be a simple taco this year!

I love my little Flint Lockwood!

Hunter was so excited to have Halloween over with so that I would cut his hair.....lol.  It was getting pretty shabby but he needed it shabby to complete his costume.

This was a first for us.......Kiersten didn't join us for trick or treating.  Honestly it made me super sad! She had a friends birthday barbecue to go to, a haunted house to go to and then a big bonfire.  I did not want her to miss out on those fun teenager things, but I was sad to not spend the evening with her.  She had fun but she did say, "It was fun, but I think it would have been more fun if I had went with you guys!"

Ella was the cutest strawberry ever!  She hated wearing her costume but once she figured out that people put candy in her bag and actually let her keep the candy she was totally cool with her costume!  By the end of the night she would say, "tic teat" for trick or treat!  

It was pretty much adorable!

Flint and Steve

Grant really enjoyed being the monkey Steve!

It was another fun Halloween!  I love this time of year and all the fun traditions!

I have a great family and much to be grateful for!

Happy Halloween!

Phantom of the Opera

One of the first weeks Mona was with us she told me how much she loved Phantom of the Opera.  She has read the book, loves the music and the movie.  She said how badly she had wanted to see it on Broadway when it was in Germany.  But her parents were unable to take her at the time.  She mentioned that seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway is a dream of hers.

Well Justin and I decided that dream needed to come true!  So for Mona's birthday we surprised her with tickets for her and a friend to see Phantom in Tucson.  She decided to invite Pia, the other girl exchange student also from Germany.  Mona had to wait till the end of October to go but she was speechless when she read her gift.  

It was an amazing show!  We took Kiersten and Hunter with us as well.  Mona loved Phantom more than she even imagined.  And we were grateful to be able to make this dream come true for her.

The huge chandelier is gorgeous!

It was a fun trip and great memories!

Oh Yes We Did!

Disneyland WITHOUT kids!!!

I had the two day Disneyland pass left from the summer when Silvio was unable to come with the kids and I. I asked Justin what he wanted me to do with the ticket. I fully expected him to suggest selling it. To my surprise, he said, "Well you and I could go to Disneyland?"

Ummm say what? Who are you and what have you done with my husband is what I was thinking in my head. 

I did reply, "Are you messing with me? Or will you really go to Disneyland with me?"

He was serious and when I realized that I asked if he wanted to go in October while the Halloween decorations were up at Disneyland since we've never seen them before. Justin actually sounded excited and thought that would be a great time to go!  

And so we did!  

The firework show did not disappoint! 

The 60th celebration additions are super cool! 

Justin said, "Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, without kids!"

Oh Justin!

I enjoy the shows and parades just as much as I enjoy the rides. I think that makes me old....hahaha! 

Sent this picture to Hunter cause he loves Ariel! 

It's crazy that we were able to get away again so soon, since we just went on a cousins couples cruise a few weeks ago. Thank goodness for my awesome mom! She helps us out so much with our kids. Don't know what we'd do without her. 

After being at Disneyland at Halloween time, it makes me want to bring the kids back next year so they can see it decorated up! 

The kids would really enjoy this! 

The best part about the trip was the constant back and hip rubs Justin gave me while we were waiting in lines!  I kept telling him it was "his turn and that I would rub his back too."  But he insisted that it was my turn to be treated!  And so he gave me a back rub every single time we were in a line. I kind of felt like a newlywed again!  Except an old newlywed with aching hips....lol! 

I was so excited to go on Peter Pan's Flight this time. It's been closed the last 2 times I've been to Disneyland. 

The Light the Night parade is amazing!  

By far our favorite parade! 

This is a must shot for us.... A picture while in line for Toy Story Mania! 

Say goodbye to these curls because we are going on the Grizzly River Rapids!! We spun as we went down the large drop. It was crazy fun!  First time that's ever happened for us. 

Tower of Terror isn't my favorite ride. Guess I like feeling like my stomach is where it should be and not 3 stories higher. 

Yay it's Olaf!

This was the first time going to the Frozen sing along show. It was cute!  The snow at the end is super fun! 

I love this man of mine!

Marriage is a lot of work and it seems like right now we have several friends of ours going through divorces. That fact makes me just want to be a better wife!  I don't want to become part of that statistic.....EVER. 

We had a fun time acting like kids for two days!  

GETTING OUR SPOOK ON! 

The Haunted Mansion was for sure the best ride this time of year!  It's all decked out for Halloween!  

I love this picture and seeing Justin be able to let loose!!  The stress of running a company takes a huge toll on him. Getting completely out of town seems to be the only true escape and even then he still gets phone calls, texts and answers emails. I think Justin got in the work ethic line in heaven at least two or three times!!!  Justin is such a great husband and I am not sure what I did to deserve him. He tells me all the time that, "I am his best drug!" 

I hope I get to be his "drug" for eternity! 

Sweet Sisters

Oh how I love these girls of mine!  

Kiersten is 14 and Ella is almost 2!

Even though there is a 12 year age gap I think one day when they are grown they will be wonderful friends!  I love having my girls!

Albuqueque

We had so much fun this weekend in Albuquerque.  The Balloon Festival was the high light obviously, but we did fun stuff other than just that.

Monday we road the Sandia Peak Tramway to the top of Sandia Mountain.

The views were breathtaking! 

Sure love these kids of mine!  Any chance I get to slip away from the business of life with them I take it!  This is the view from 10,378 feet up!

Once at the top of the peak we did some hiking!  What great hikers I have!!

I love these boys of mine!

It was a fun filled day, FULL OF ADVENTURE, thanks to this kid and some help!

One side of the mountain you can ride the tramway and on the other side there is a ski resort.  During the off months you can ride the ski lift down and back up.  After we hike a little bit we had lunch at High Finance which is the restaurant at the top of the mountain.  Such gorgeous views from up there!!!

Grant and I had fun riding the ski lift down and back up the ski resort side.  Sure glad Grant rode with me because our ride got a little scary....

Well these boys are 12 so as you could imagine they are up for a good thrill most of the time.  They were riding the lift together.  As we made our way back up the top of the mountain, these two rug rats thought it would be fun to make their ski chairs rock.  Due to each of them only weighing 60 pound soaking wets, it only affected their chair for the most part. 

The loaders of the lift only loaded every other chair with people.  Hunter and Brodie were in the very front of our group, then an empty chair.  Then there was Mona and Logan, and empty chair, then Grant and I.  Well Mona and Logan would see and hear the fun Hunter and Logan were having.  So they decided they would start rocking their chair.  

As you could probably envision, when you have a 200 lbs person swinging and rocking a ski lift chair, there is  A LOT of momentum!!!!  Mine and Grant's chair started rocking back and forth in such a way that was scary!!  It was really windy as well.  I started yelling at Mona and Logan to, "STOP ROCKING!!"  They looked back and gave me a thumbs up and then turned back around, continuing to rock the chair.  If I would not have been holding on to Grant he would have easily slipped out.  I was getting super nervous!!  I knew Hunter and Brodie could not hear me.  Plus them being so light I knew they were not the ones causing the extreme amount of rocking.

After about 10 minutes of this continuing to happen, the ski lift stopped.  The kids continued to rock the chairs.  Mona and Logan were suspended over a 200 foot drop while the lift was stopped.  I was really scared because Logan is small for the ski lift chairs and he was sliding all over the place.  Once Mona got involved in the rocking of the chair it affected main chairs beyond hers.  Hunter and Bodie were then REALLY being bounced all over the place, as was Grant and I.

It not only made our chair rock and bounce it completely derailed one cable on the lift.  That is why the ski lift stopped.  A guy on a quad came riding up and could see the kids rocking their chairs and started yelling, and I mean yelling, at them to stop.  Once he got close enough the could actually hear him they stopped.  He yelled at them big time!  Telling them they were the reason the lift was stopped.  The poor guy had to climb the lift pole several times with equipment to finally get the cable back on track.  Boy was he mad!!!  I don't blame him, I was just relieved the rocking was over and that no one fell out.

Once we got to the top I could see they were holding my kids to the side and lecturing them.  When I got to the top they also lectured me.  We then had to wait for a manager to get to the top of the mountain and he really let us have it.  He told us we all could be leaving here in cop cars if he wanted us to.  He told us how the chairs got to rocking in front of Hunter and Bodie and that the lady in that chair had a full blown panic attack because the lift was stopped for so long and it was bouncing around so much.  The lift was completely stopped for at least 40 minutes!!!  

I agree it was a scary thing and irresponsible of the kids.  I wasn't surprised that Hunter and Bodie, two 12 year old boys, would do it.  But Mona doing it for so long and her seeing the affect her doing had on the chairs around her really surprised me!!!  And I don't know if her and Logan really "couldn't hear" me or if they just ignored me.

Needless to say I was so grateful to get back to the rental house with everyone safe.  I was thinking there for awhile that this would be another vacation with an ER visit. 

Sure grateful for these sweet kids in my life and that we all survived the thrilling ski lift.

We celebrated the day with dinner at The Melting Pot!

It was delicious as always!!!

I could have just ate the chocolate fondue and been super happy!

Oh the goodness!!!!

Hatch, New Mexico has some pretty fabulous statues.

We really love this girl!  

Mona is teaching us a lot.  It's funny because she doesn't really teach us about Germany as much as I had imagined she would.  But she is teaching us a lot about personalities.   She can be so fun, yet so serious.

We are grateful we get to have Mona in our home and for the fun times we are having with her.  I really love seeing her and Logan together.  They seem to be hitting it off really well and I think she enjoys Logan's silliness!

Logie Bear with Yogie the Bear!

What's not to love about a giant hot dog with a monster dinosaur coming to attack you in the distance.

It was one fulfilled trip!!!

I love being a mom!  Wish Justin could have gotten away from the office.  And I really missed having Kiersten and Ella with us!  Next time they are coming for sure!

International Hot Air Balloon Festival

I wanted to do something fun with the kids over part of Fall Break. So I decided to take them to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Albuquerque. 

I let Hunter invite his bff, Brodie Brown to come with us. 

It is so worth waking up at 3:45 in the morning to get here early to see all the balloons launch. 

These two boys crack me up!  They sat in the back seat on the van and learned card tricks the whole drive. They were too cool with their matching Mohawks!  They picked those out the night before when I treated everyone to Dave and Busters. They actually got asked about 5 times if people could take pictures either of them or with them. They really felt famous there for a while! 

I love my Hunter! 

The special shaped balloons are my favorite! 

It's crazy to think these are able to launch in the air. 

The different designs and colors of balloons is phenomenal! 

I was sad when Kiersten asked if she could stay home. She even offered to babysit Ella though so I knew she needed a break. There is a lot of pressure on her and I know having a girl exchange student staying with us has only added to that pressure. So even though I wanted Kiersten to come, I totally understood her desire to be at home chillin'! 

We are enjoying having Mona with us this year!  We are trying our best to adjust and help her to relax!  She sure came with a lot of "baggage" and I have to remind her that we don't get mad easily. I feel bad about the relationship she has with her dad and brother, but at the same time it amazes me how much those relationships affect her behavior and insecurities here in the U.S. 

I hope Mona is able to realize we just want her to be herself!  She can be sweet and a lot of fun.

It truly is a neat experience being down on the field right next to the balloons as they are filling and being launched. 

Those Mohawks made it easy to find Hunter and Brodie. Kind of wished the other boys had some on. 

There were roughly 200 balloons launch this morning! 

The day we went this year there wasn't as many character shaped balloons but I think that is because it was the last day of the festival.

Oh how I love Grant.  He sure had a great time collecting the cards from each balloon.

We just can not get over how cool the shaped balloons are! 

Ella would have LOVED the kitty balloon!

 I mean look at that pirate ship!

The kids even got the chance to get inside on of the baskets.  This team wouldn't give out the collection cards without you getting in their basket.

The boys needed a picture with Mohawk man!

One of my favorite balloons this year!

Logan needed a picture with his chocolate chip pancakes!

We stopped by the Albuquerque temple. 

It is always fun to see different temples when you go places.

Logan and Mona really do share a great bond.  They always have a fun time joking around together.  I has been so fun watching their relationship blossom as Mona get more comfortable around the kids. She is a sweet girl!

These boys all seriously drank these icy's during the movie!  It had been such a great trip!  Kiersten needed a break so she volunteered to stay home and keep Ella for me.  I was sure bummed because I really really missed having her on this trip!