Apartment Pumpkin Contest

Ok friends, I need your votes again for this year's pumpkin contest. Please vote for your favorite in the Adult category and in the child category. Adults win $100 off their rent and the kiddos win a sweet prize. Thanks for your help!

Adult #1 Seahawks

Adult #2 I see a skull and two pumpkin heads holding hands. Not sure what to call it

 Adult #3 Creepy face

 Adult #4 Barfing pumpkin

 Adult #5 Dachshund (Molly) 

 Adult #6 Turkey

Now on to the child category:

 Child #1 Superman Bat? What do you think?

 Child #2 Spooky Bat

 Child #3 Vampire

 Child #4 Crazy Face

 Child #5 Monster Face (eyes)

 Child #6 Screaming pumpkin

 Child #7 Happy Face

 Child #8 Spooky Face

 Child #9 Classic Face

Please leave a comment or send me an email with your votes. Voting will end on October 30th at 7 p.m. so I can determine the winner before Halloween. Thank you!

Maris Farms

We went to Maris Farms with friends and family and it was awesome! We paid $7 admission and then were able to do EVERYTHING! Randy even had a blast. They had a fun playground for the kids to play on.

 The cow train was fun for the kids. They even had seatbelts

 We had Tripp hold Baine so he wouldn't jump out.

 More playground fun

 Baine kept attacking these poor goats. As you can see, Randy is yanking him away. 

 Throwing games 

 Pedal tractors were fun for all ages. There were also smaller tractors for the little kids 

 Mineshaft slide was awesome. The slide was super big and long and went underground. 

 These roller tubes were sweet too. I guess we know what a hamster feels like now.

 Randy was even doing somersaults/flips inside to propel it forward

The kiddos got a little crazy with them.

The jump pillow was a favorite. Randy jumped so much with the kids that sweat was pouring down his face.

And the corn maze. Which I think we went through in record time.

This ginormous corn pit/room was sweet. So much better than a sandbox! I am still finding kernels of corn around my house.

We also saw live pig races, which were super fun to watch and cheer for. The kids and I also went through the speleo cave. Click here to see pics of it. On the outside it said you had to be under 5'10" and 180 lbs to try the challenge. So I thought, "what the heck? I'll give it a try." I started crawling on my hands and knees and soon had to start sliding on my tummy. I went up, down, and through several small holes. It was a small trailer but felt like it went on forever! I was ready to get out. I had to keep my body curved almost the whole time to get through. I was a little sweaty when I was done, but glad that I had accomplished it. It was fun, even though it was tiring. This was a great pumpkin patch to visit and super fun. We will definitely be visiting it again next year. 

My little rugrats

Since I only have Raidon and Baine at home, I've been able to focus more of my attention on them. And I have found out that these little dudes are crazy!

Raidon is in love with minions right now. I found this yellow shirt at Walmart on clearance for $1 so I decided to get it and make a minion shirt for Raidy. He loves it!

 Raidy falls asleep everywhere. Here are just a few examples. Can you see the two cars he is still holding while completely passed out?

 He also fell asleep on our couch one afternoon eating chips. When Randy went to wake him up so we could leave the house, his hand went straight to his mouth and started chewing air. He woke up doing what he was doing when he fell asleep -eating chips. So silly!

 And this one is from tonight. We went upstairs to put the big boys in the shower and when I went downstairs, this is what I found:

 Caught passed out sneaking some cereal! That is pure exhaustion right there. I'm not sure how anyone could fall asleep on a hardwood floor.

This was me trying to watch conference. Rotten little distractions!

And I love this pic of Kai. Do you see a cereal mess trend here? 

 And then Baine returned to the scene of the crime. It wasn't just Kai making this huge mess!

 This pic was taken after we went to a pumpkin patch with family. Hopefully I will be able to post those pics soon.

September update

Here is a quick recap of September. It seems like I am always playing catch up on this blog.

This little hooligan started 2nd grade

 And my Deko-son started Kindergarten :( So sad when they go to school. I told Randy that Tripp was my best friend and then he had to go to school. So Deko became my best friend, and now he is in school too. I guess Raidon is next.

 This face is perfect for how he feels about school. The first week, he wouldn't get on the bus and I had to carry him onto it. Then he would try to run off the bus and the driver had to stick her arm out so he wouldn't escape. She drove off a few times with him laying in the middle aisle. Such a stinker!

 We all went to school to drop him off on his first day.

 Baine loved the ladybug chairs

 I didn't want to leave him. I wasn't ready. Randy and the little boys were waiting for me to leave in the hall. When he got home after his first day I asked him how it went. He said he cried a little bit because he was away from me for sooo long! I love my sweet boy!

We also went to Braden and Kyle's cross country meet. We didn't get there in time to see Kyle run due to helping out with an eagle scout project, but we were able to support Braden. You will have to click on the pic to make it bigger to see it -their bellies say B dawg. We found out that red lipstick is hard to get off. They were all branded for about a week until it came off completely.

Wool Riders

A friend of mine got us free tickets to go to the fair and the only thing my boys wanted to do was ride the sheep! We were a little worried that Deklan would back out when it came to his turn, but he did awesome! Randy said that Tripp and Deklan were dancing to the music and headbutting each other with their helmets while they were waiting for their turn

 Tripp had a little wild sheep. It takes the announcer awhile to open the gate because his sheep kept squishing Tripp's leg on the side of the pen. So he wasn't able to get centered on the sheep before the gate opened. Here is Tripp's ride:

And the announcer calls him Tripp, but this is actually Deklan. Right after Tripp rode his sheep the announcer offered $100 to the first kid who could ride the sheep to the other side of the pen. Needless to say, Deko's sheep had other plans.

It was fun to watch!

Wonder Woman Triathlon

Somehow Jenny convinced me to do a triathlon with her, and I'm glad she did. This is a picture of the area in front of the Y where we kept our bikes. And yes, that is a man dressed as a cheerleader on the left side. He even had pompoms while cheering on the side of the road.

  

Jenny got in the pool right before me and she got out of the pool when I had a lane and a half to go or 75 more yards. She is super fast. I passed one lady in the swim part and 2 ladies passed me. I felt like I was going faster than I had in my practices. I didn't eat anything before the race and after I got out of the pool, I was super dizzy. There were metal bleachers by the pool that I had to sit on for a few minutes so I wouldn't pass out walking to my bike. I have never felt that dizzy before in my life! Once I got to my bike, I downed a protein bar and drank a lot of water while putting on my bike shorts, shoes, camel-back, and helmet. Then I jumped on my bike and was off.

(Here is a pic of Jenny and I before I knew what I was getting myself into.)

 

On the bike ride, I continued to drink water and ate another granola bar. I was surprised at how many people I passed on the bike. I lost count after 15. I felt like I was doing well. I even passed a road sign that had a radar on it and it picked me up. It said I was going 15 mph. I thought that was cool to see. I had done all my training on a mountain bike and my friend lent me her hybrid bike for the race. When we arrived at Jenny's house the night before the race, we noticed the back tire was completely flat. So Randy and Brian had to run to the store for a new tube and get it repaired before the race in the morning. I was a bit nervous that it would go flat again, but I had no troubles.

(Showing off our number "tats" right before the swim.)

Once I finished the bike part, I put my bike and helmet away and took off my camel-back and then headed out for the final run part. When I started the run, my legs felt like lead. They felt so heavy! After about a mile, I got used to it. I think I passed about 10 ladies on the run. Brian, Randy, and all the crazy boys kept going to different spots throughout the race to stop and cheer us on. It was so fun to see them each time and I always knew when they were near because I could hear Titon's and Diesol's squeals for miles :)

(happily exhausted at the finish line)

Somehow I managed to kick it in the last 100 yards of the race and finished strong despite being totally exhausted. I finished 19th out of 60 women in 1 hour and 41 mins. It was so incredibly fun being part of this Relief Society triathlon and I can't wait to beat my time next year. We couldn't have done it without our amazing support team! We took this after eating at Shari's.

 Any ladies ready to join me next September?