October Catch-Up

  I love Fall so much. I always have but since living somewhere with such prominate seasons as Idaho, I've fallen in love with it even more. While the cooling of the weather is nice, the spirit of the season is what I adore. I love watching people get bundled up and take walks with thier families, or go to pumpkin patches just to look at all the pumpkins, or decorate thier homes in warm colors and fabrics that are absent the first 9 months of the year. I just love it. 

  I've missed my chilly Rexburg and all the fun traditions Chad and I built around the towns activities and everything it had to offer. But it didn't stop us from having a blast this year and rediscovering what we loved about falls in the desert. We went to at least 5 different pumpkin patches last month and never bought a single pumpkin until the day AFTER Halloween. Liam just loved "going out" to see pumpkins, I didn't want to take away that excitement by having them at home where they would loose their novelty.... also, I didnt want to carve pumpkins this year. 

   (Side note: We were given two pumpkins at the beginning of the month and I set them proudly on my front porch until we had time to carve them, the next day I want outside to see my round, orange pumpkins and was shocked to find a melty sloppy rotting mess of what used to be our pumpkins. Arizona ruined Fall! Luckily, I have an adorable son who reminded me to put on my big girl pants and get over it, but thats why I opted out of carving this year...to painful....too soon.)

   We did however have an amazing experience at Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek! It's the first time Chad and I had been back to that magical place since the first Halloween after we had been married so it brought back lots of memories. It's a lot more expensive than we remembered but we went on 1/2 off night and Liam was too little for most of the rides that cost extra so we were in good shape. 

   Liam was very....volatile that night but we tried to make the most of the night since it was a one shot deal. He either loved a ride or absolutely hated the ride so we learned quickly to laugh through the rides he hated and snap snap snapped pictures of what he loved. The Bee ride, he loved...

 The goats he loved

 And the carousal was his favorite!

 Of course we said hello to each and every pumpkin on our way out, after Grandma gave him not one, but TWO suckers at once for the way home.

 "Sugar smile"

 Right by the exit was a little bon fire with free marshmallows for roasting. It seemed so familiar so after looking around a little Chad and I both realized (at the same time) this was the bon fire pit we had sat around as singles, playing guitar and singing, talking for hours the first night we really fell for each other. We each have slightly different accounts of the story (as we do every story involving our courtship) but one things for sure, that fire was so special to us and it was too cool to have Liam sit there with us as we reminisced about the night we fell in love.

 NEXT UP was our Ward Halloween night. 

It was fun.

That's pretty much all I have to say about it since we have zero friends in our ward seeing as most of them are the parents or grandparents of my friends in high school. I mean, its a great ward with great people, we just didn't stay long. It was a nice dress rehearsal for little man though. Liams costume took all day to put together but I'm proud to announce...completely free! We had everything we needed to put it together...plus by sister hoards spray paint and my dad works at a school with boxes galore so with a few sponsors, we didn't have to pay a dime!

 Lots of fun games and lots of candy.

 He wouldn't be complete without a sucker sticking out the side of his mouth.

 Tossing bean bags like his old man. (if he was tossing like me, they'd be in the hole) ;)

 And of course, we struggled to get him off the "train" ride.

 LASTLY, Halloween night! It was nuts, I had to work all day so as soon as I got home, I got into warmer clothes (trying slightly to match my duck dynasty husband) and we booked it over to my parents neighborhood where we would sit around a bon fire are take the kids on my dads golf cart from house to house. Or at least that was the dream....

 It ended up being a night of us chasing the kids away from the fire in fear of their cardboard-spraypainted-flameable-fabric-covered costumes going up in flames, only taking them to 5 houses and hiding excessive amounts of candy the whole night.

 But it was so worth it! Look at that little conductor!

 Once he figured out that the words "trick or treat" would give him sweets, he practiced the phrase none stop all night, interrupted by a few out burst of "Hawaween!" <<< adorable

 He Had a chocolate mustache before we even started trick or treating so we played it off as a conductors scruff since there was no point in trying to get him clean.

Stratton was the coolest rescue bot you've ever seen! His costume only slightly prohibited him from reaching his mouth...blessing in disguise?

 Millie was an adorable Gumball machine who Chad stepped on...

 Liam finally got confident enough to go to the door on his own but by the time he knew what he was doing, mom and dad were tired of taking him around so after 5 houses the Merrells dropped the mic.

Halloween is always fun....until the sugar sinks in. The Sunday after, my Primary was OUT OF CONTROL, we sang 5 wiggle songs just to get them to sit still. But they were all smiles and couldnt stop talking about what candy they were going to eat when they broke their fast. Poor parents, let the candy hiding and negotiating begin!

Til next year, good riddance Halloween!