Halloween 2008...finally

I'm still waiting on the pictures taken at our Trunk or Treat, they'll probably be better pictures. It was hectic, so I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have like to. But, here they are anyway.

Jordyn doesn't look very excited in her pictures, but that's probably because she's not big on crowds of people, there were lots of families there. The other princess with her at the table is her friend, Caroline. That's dad with them at the refreshment table, with some random people in the background. Sorry they aren't anything special at this point, I'm hoping the ones that the Primary took will be better!

School Pictures

Ariel and Tori's school pictures for fall 2008. 

Ariel: age 15 years, 3 months; grade: 10

Tori: age 13 years, 9 months; grade: 8

Kind of like 'day' and 'night', aren't they? 

Both gorgeous in their own, distinct ways.

Day Two of the Camping Adventure

Friday, 7:15am. Off to the bathrooms, girls first, for potty and getting dressed where it's warm! Back to the camper, where the boys have gotten dressed AND put all of the beds and blankets back into couches and out of the way...how sweet are they!? Breakfast.

Ariel and Tori tend to whine just a little bit about the cold and cramped conditions. Don told them that they would look back on this and laugh someday. Ariel gave him a dirty look and grumped, 'I'd laugh about it, except...it's REALLY HAPPENING!!' Boy, we had a good laugh to start out the day (even Ariel appreciated that it was funny).

8:10: On the road again...just can't wait...oh, sorry, I won't sing for you, promise!

9:30: We found Hershey, PA!! But, where on EARTH is Chocolate World anyway!? We had a small detour while we figured out where we were. It was actually fun as we ended up in downtown Hershey. We got to see the streetlights and Chocolate Ave.! 

Lots of pictures with the kids' cameras! We can't wait to see what they thought was so cool! It'll be a while, there are lots of disposable cameras to develop. They were really funny with the cameras. We bought way too much candy...but how can you NOT!? The entire place smells like chocolate! Everywhere you look...chocolate...it's almost obscene!

Just a sampling of our wanderings thru' the candy shop.

Our 'official' vacation photo while on the chocolate tour.

Oh, and let's not forget that Don managed to catch Ariel and Tori both getting a BIG KISS while they were in Hershey!! LOL

Picking out the 'perfect' gifts took the kids about 20 minutes...SO much to choose from!

11:45am: Leaving Hershey...sure seemed like more than just 2 hours! Whew!! Glad we went in the 'off' season!! Kids have had way too much sugar and need activity to get their energy out!! Actually, they are doing really well, to be honest. 

12:35: Ok...trying to explain 9/11 to the little ones is tough! Since we're visiting the site of the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, we thought we ought to at least try to explain it. The innocence of Children is wonderful! They just don't understand why there are 'bad guys' who would want to hurt people that they don't even know, or why people would die by crashing the plane into a filed instead of letting the 'bad guys' crash it into Washington D.C.

1:15: Stopped for lunch (much more fast food than I figured on with a camping vacation!)

2:05: On the road again...there is some incredible scenery around here! Absolutely beautiful!

2:30: Opps, missed an exit. Good thing we're running ahead of schedule today! The next exit is actually near Shanksville. We were just going to exit early to save the tolls, but this works too!

We took lots of pictures while we were there, this is just a sampling. The visit was very cold and windy! The wind was really blowing and it was about 47 degrees! It's a very impressive site, and reflective. The volunteer who told the story for us was very good. It seemed to both Don and me that he was directing his comments right at DJ. The kids were well behaved at the memorial and listened really well to the guy speaking. The Stirks made good time driving over to pick Ariel up for her visit. 

Ariel and Jessica...together again!!

4:20: Leaving Flight 93 Memorial.

5:45: The little ones are fighting sleep now...only about 20 minutes to camp, I guess. I put in a movie due to the non-stop chatter and repeated questions and answers and statements (turns out they were trying to keep themselves awake, I guess!). We're planning a campfire tonight with hot dogs, some applesauce cups and homemade banana bread that I brought with us. Then, S'mores before bed, a trip to the bathroom (gotta wash off the s'mores!).

6:30pm: Campfire was a rough start, good thing mom brought so much paper! Dinner as planned, with lemon aid that we brought with us. Don cooked for Tracy while she set up the rest of the meal in the camper (he's a pretty good cook!). Showers were...interesting, but at least everyone is clean! Kids are way too excited about camping! LOL Everything's an adventure to them, so it's actually fun to watch.

I think that things are going better than we expected, actually. There are times that we (as parents) may feel slightly overwhelmed and frustrated, but it's out 1st ever vacation as a family...I think it's sort of expected that we have a few 'glitches'. The kids have been pretty well behaved, they have been stuck in the van a LOT so far. I'm really hoping that there won't be rain tomorrow as we're supposed to be walking all day in DC! If it's too bad, maybe we'll go back to Hershey and see their 3-D movie and see what other indoor attractions we can find.

Day One of the Camping Adventure

Thursday, October 23, 2008:

Up at 6am: Ariel and mom do the early morning seminary routine. Even though the kids will be out of school for 2 days, Ariel felt no desire to miss a day of seminary since we weren't leaving that early. Maybe seeing a 'certain boy' one last time was a motivating factor...but maybe not (yeah, right!).

Back from seminary at 7:30 and wake up the rest of the family. A last minute packing scramble, breakfasts and triple checks on everything mom can think of. The excitement keeps the 2 youngest going...and going...and going (focus is NOT their strong suit this morning!).

8:30am: A prayer before we hit the road, get some air in a few

 tires and top off the gas tank. Grab some drinks and a 'breakfast' for mom and dad (if you want to call it that!). And we're off!!

9:45am: Traffic jam...what on EARTH is going on up there!?!?

10am: Police lights ahead. We can't see any cars going up the hill ahead of us...it seems everyone is being forced to exit here.

10:05: We exit the toll way (NOT by choice!), we still don't know why. Must detour...and save some tolls. 

Hmmm....detoured onto a road with one lane closed and a 55mph 

speed limit...this is not going to help us keep to our time schedule at this rate!

The trees in Pennsylvania are incredible! We're told that we're a week late for the 'best' foliage...absolutely beautiful!

12:30pm: Our 1st stop! Gassed up, got lunch and used the potty. The kids did REALLY well helping get our lunches out to the car. I think that this is the best rest stop I can remember having with the kids with us! It's frustrating how many lane restrictions we've come across that slow us down. We are currently 1 1/2 hours behind our schedule. 

Another 1 1/2 hours left of talk radio (Glenn Beck followed by Rush Limbaugh-Don's favorites). Not sure if he has more talk shows lined up or not (this is me rolling my eyes, everyone!). 

2:30pm: Yet MORE construction in PA...I'm beginning to think that their state tree is those orange construction cones! Jr is trying to read and is spelling out words that she doesn't know and DJ is helping her by telling her what they are.

3:15: In our discussions about when we'll get there and how long 'til we're there, Jr says, 'When we get to our Website...' (meaning our 'campsite', of course). Huh, does that tell anyone what kind of a world we live in!? LOL

3:30pm: We're on to our 2nd movie as the poor little ones are going crazy!

5pm: Stopped for dinner and fuel. Stupid fuel pumps!! 2 different ones stopped at $1.67! We finally got fueled up and on the road...again. Some confusing intersections about 50 miles outside of Maryland. Girls are perfectly content with their i-Pods, reading and texting. DJ & Jr barely stop talking (to whomever is listening...or not listening), and Jr continues to refer to our destination as 'our website' (Don and I get quite a giggle out of this!).

6pm: I got some pictures of the kids in the car. Ariel was avoiding the camera as much as possible, but we had a good time tricking her into looking forward. I held the camera ready and told Don to get her attention...so, he says, loudly, 'Look! We're in Maryland!' Of course she looked up...and we weren't, but I got the picture anyway! LOL

8pm: Camper is set up. Kids waited in the van while Don and I put it up. They get a quick tour of the camper all set up, and then it's off to Wal Mart for food and other things we'll need while we're roughing it. Back to the campsite for PJ's, a snack and bedtime. Our TV/DVD player didn't like our 1st four choices for a movie...but we only needed it as a nightlight anyway. 

9pm: Much whispering amongst the oldest 4 in the family...giggling ensued and blame was cast back and forth (across the camper) as to who started it..until Jr announced loudly, 'Quiet! I'm trying to sleep!' Of course, that just caused more giggling...and we finally settled down for the night. 

Ok...apparently the king size bed that Don and I shared reaches far enough away from the main body of the camper to make it rather chilly on the outside. My 'brilliant' plan to put Don on the side toward the kids (and thus avoid having to get up myself in the middle of the night) seems to have backfired on me!!

Post Vacation

Hey there! We're home again, and I have a few minutes to at least outline what's been going on around here.

This past weekend, we went on our first ever family vacation (with all 6 of us). We borrowed a pop-up camper (which we are probably going to buy) and headed out on Thursday morning. Out of Indiana, across Ohio, through Pennsylvania, across Maryland and into West Virginia. All 5 states in one day! We set up camp at the Falling Waters Campsite, made a quick run to Wal Mart for a few supplies we would need for camping (not our last trip to the store while we were 'roughing it'), and settled in for the night. 

Friday, we went to Hershey, Pennsylvania and Chocolate World. We enjoyed our tour and learning about how chocolate is made and did some 'market research' for them (ok, so we each ate a Jolly Rancher and told them how we liked it). Then, we bought far too much chocolate (it's REALLY  hard to resist when everywhere you look there's chocolate, everything you see refers to chocolate, and the entire building SMELLS like chocolate! Then, we let each of the kids pick out something from the gift stores .

After Hershey, we headed out for Shanksville, PA, the site of the crash of Flight 93 on 9/11. The memorial has grown quite a bit since Don and I visited it a few years ago. DJ and Jr weren't exactly excited about this visit, who can blame them...it's not something that a 5 or 7 year old would really understand. Ariel's bestest friend, Jessica Stirk (and her mom), met us there so that Ariel could spend the weekend with Jessica (they moved in June and the 2 of them have missed each other terribly). The rest of us went back to camp for the night.

Saturday we headed out for Washington D.C. A stop for umbrellas, as the forecast called for rain, and we were off and driving (again!). We walked for about 3 hours before the rain became just too much to deal with even with umbrellas. Poor Jr's little legs were totally tired out and just couldn't take any more, and we headed back to the van to drive back to camp. The rain finally let up and the kids played outside for a few hours (getting absolutely filthy...but, hey, that's camping!). Dinner at the campfire and a movie before bed (not much else to do when it gets dark so early). 

Sunday we drove to Jessica's church building to pick up Ariel. Then, a LONG drive home. It rained like crazy at times, but we made it home around 9:30-ish.

Our vacation went really well, and Don and I enjoyed it more than I think we thought we would. I'll be blogging about the trip in the days to come, and including pictures as well.

Ariel's Stake Halloween Dance

Tonight Ariel had a Halloween dance. She went as an angel. We thought she looked pretty much the part! She went to visit her friend in the hospital before she went to the dance (while she was dressed up), and had quite a few comments and a litle girl went 'crazy' for her! It was adorable! We made sure to stay away from the geriatric unit...we were afraid that the site of an angel might scare some of them too much! LOL

Her 'Angel Pose'...

Good Night All!

Family Night at School

DJ and Jr's school has a 'family night' every fall, and we try to attend. This year, the games were better than usual, and the kids had a really good time. I should have taken our camera with us to get some action shots, maybe I'll remember before they're out of elementary! Each year, they take a family picture for every family there (at no charge), it's really nice to have them each year since we're so bad at doing family pictures. So...regardless of the fact that I absolutely hate being in pictures (I've gained back most of what I lost earlier this year), I'm posting it 'cuz it's a recent family picture at least. 

Please forgive Jr for not smiling...there was a stranger there telling her what to do, and she's very much not ok with strangers (we'll forget the fact that mommy was right there telling her to smile as well, oh well, maybe she'll grow out of this phase before 1st grade!).