Pumpkin Patch

We actually got our pumpkins about a week ago from a Nursery in town (the deal was $16 for as many pumpkins as you could hold: I held 7 and Caleb held 8 - not too shabby). We still wanted to have a pumpkin patch experience, so we headed over to Bates Nut Farm yesterday afternoon. We did the tractor ride on hay bales and the straw maze (where the kids had to find 8 different mailboxes and stamp their papers at each one - they loved it) and the petting zoo and ended the trip with a stop in at the treat shop there where the kids picked 5 treats from the candy barrels. Very fun.

Cruisin'

Sean and I can now say that we have cruised the high seas (well maybe not the high seas, but we have gone a cruisin')...and we LOVED it! We went on a cruise with my dad and Andrea and also Kyra and her friend, Kayla (rewards for good grades...lucky girls). It was all sorts of fun! It was a five day cruise. We went to Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The ports were great, but also being at sea was awesome. There is no shortage of things to do on the boat, and it is just so relaxing to just sit and watch the ocean. We went to La Bufedora in Ensenada (one of 4 blowholes in the world). It had some pretty good bursts while we were there. We also rode horses along the coast, did a little shopping, ate some tasty fish tacos and made it back to the boat in plenty of time.

We woke up early as we pulled into Cabo to watch the sunrise. It was breathtaking, and the Cabo port is also very pretty.


While we were in Cabo we went ziplining. AWESOME! It was a series of 8 ziplines that were anywhere from a couple hundred feet long to as much as a half a mile long and up to 800 feet up. We got going to speeds of up to 50+ miles per hour. On some of them Sean and I got to ride tandem. The vegetation was beautiful, and just being that high in the air and zipping through the sky was a pretty cool feeling.

Then we stopped by a glass blowing factory. We watched the artist dip his stick into liquid glass from a 1500 degree stove. When he pulled it out it would start to harden into a pliable state which is when the artist would cut and mold. We watched him make a colorful fish right there in front of us that started with nothing but some liquid glass. It was quite impressive. We headed in some glass bottom boats over to Lover's Beach (well, actually the beach right next to Lover's Beach) and snorkeled. We saw lots of different kinds of fish in a variety of colors. It was actually better snorkeling than when we went in Hawaii. We picked up a couple of presents for the kids before we got back on the boat. While we were on the ship for the rest of the time we had lots of activities to keep us busy: miniature golf, climbing the 3 story rock wall, working out in the gym (pretty good assortment of machines) and jogging on the track on the top story, playing pool, playing board games, karaoke nights (I sang twice which was fun), little trivia games, swimming, jacuzzi-ing, nightly comedy/performance shows, ice sculpting demonstrations, dancing, checking out the art exhibit, eating, eating, eating and more eating.

We ate in the dining room every night, so we got to dress up for the formal night and the causal formal night (which I always get excited to do). It was lots of fun, and beautiful!! It was great to be there with Dad and Andrea (they have become expert cruisers so they showed us how it was done...HE HE HE) and Kyra and Kayla (those girls ROCK). I was happy to get back to the kids, but it was a great way for Sean and I to spend out 8th anniversary.

Miramar Airshow

Yesterday we went to the Miramar Airshow. I've always enjoyed going to this airshow (we used to go as a family when I was younger). It's fun to get all sorts of food and blankets packed up and then go and spend the day on the base and watch the awesome airplanes do their tricks. Yesterdays trip wasn't as relaxing as other airshow events for the following reasons:
*It took almost 4 hours to get from our house to where we parked our car (it should usually take about an hour - the traffic was HORRIBLE)
*Both Caelan and Ben threw up
*Megan had an accident (and there are only port-a-pottys)
*Nathan spent the first few hours crying (he's been sick, and he was just exhausted but was fighting off the nap)

Despite how bad it sounds, it was actually a fairly fun day. We went with my dad and Andrea and all the boys, and then we met up with Erin and David and Jennifer Mason. The kids were mostly good and had fun (minus their couple of incidences), and the fun air stuff was awesome. I always love the Blue Angels. It's amazing how close together they fly. The firework show was great (Nathan was completely mesmorized) and then I always love the Wall of Fire (very cool). You can feel the heat from it all the way to our seats.

The Happiest Place On Earth

Well, I made a deal with Caelan at the beginning of the summer that if she would read 100 books (all by herself) then she could go to Disneyland. She finished her 100th book on Wednesday. Thursday was Sean's birthday (so he could get into Disneyland for free) and so we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. It was a perfect day to go (bad economy, weekday in October = very few crowds). The lines were so short. We got to go on everything we wanted and the kids had a blast. Caelan and Ben loved all the rides from the roller coasters to Peter Pan and the Carousel. Megan's favorite was the teacups. They have a great Halloween firework show, and tI love the way that they deck out the Haunted Mansion "Nightmare Before Christmas" style. It was great. We had a blast and were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got home. Good day!