Fall Break

I think 3/4 of the neighborhood left to go to Disneyland over the break. We stayed here. We still had a ton of fun, though. We went to the Children's Museum with the cousins (and our matching shirts...)! I love the picture of Eli carrying the grocery bags that seem to be filled with rocks, while Kendall pushes the cart. It demonstrates perfectly what their relationship is like. Haha.

We bought a trailer recently, mostly because even though our minivan is big, it's filled with kids, which doesn't leave much room for tents, cots, sleeping bags, and all the crap that comes with camping in the wild.
We went north 3 hours to Flagstaff. It's beautiful up there with the mountains and evergreen. And the weather during the day was amazing! It was nice to get out of the heat for a weekend.
We had a great time hiking, exploring, then hanging out around the campfire while cooking over it. We totally should have checked the weather, though, because the temperature got down to 26 degrees at night. It was cold! I barely slept because I was so cold. Surprisingly the kids slept pretty great. Maybe their brains shut off from the cold.

Taylor's best friend, Mira, came over and spent a whole day, a night, and part of the next day at our house. We did come crafts, hung out in the blacked-out playroom, played laser tag, got ice cream at cold stone, went to the playground, and swam at night. Meanwhile, her mom was at her house with her dying mother. She passed early that morning. I'm glad Mira was with us when it happened.

We also went to UBounce and Urban Jungle. I realized there that Alexis is not a little baby anymore. She doesn't just sit on my lap, content to hang out with me. Nope. She wants to be free and check stuff out. She's a toddler! She can't quite keep up with her siblings, but that day is not too far off, I'm afraid.

The State Fair was in town, and as trashy and expensive as they are, they're also kind of fun. Can you believe that some rides cost us 12 tickets??? Oh, and they don't actually give you tickets anymore. They scan a card that has the tickets on it. My favorite part of the fair? The fried cookie dough. Billy didn't get to try it before Logan dropped it on the ground, and I kind of keep rubbing it in because it was soooo good.

We also spent a whole lot of time in the pool. The weather was perfect for it. I have a feeling that won't last. Of course we could heat up the pool, but really, how much longer can we take advantage of the pool without freezing out butts out coming out? And that stuff takes planning, because it takes time to heat up a pool that large. And we kind of like to just up and go. Eh, at least there's the spa.