Pumpkins!

We went to our local pumpkin farm a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. It was a lot colder than we thought it would be (colder than at our house when we left) but the boys still had a blast.

Most people around here go to Tate Farms, which has been around forever I guess, and it's big and crazy packed on Saturdays. Last year, we tried this one- Lyon Family Farms- and loved it. It's got everything the other one has, except the big trailer full of cotton to jump in but I thought that one was gross anyway. The beauty of this one is that it's a bit more spread out and not as crowded, but every bit as fun. The people that run it are really sweet too.

Ben loved this huge tube slide, he kept going up over and over.

And of course they loved this tire swing, they didn't want to get off...

These smarties used planks across the bottom to make it safer for the kids to sit in, so even Jon could go.

We enticed them away from the tire swing finally because next was the CORN.

Jon wasn't sure about it when Dave first put him in the wagon, but he loved it.

These always crack me up...

And then of course, the ride out to the pumpkin patch...

We hadn't brought winter gear, but Jon was getting cold, so I got Ben's hat and mittens from the car for him (we had just bought them that morning or we wouldn't have had anything), he looked kind of funny, but it kept him warm (even though we couldn't keep the mittens on him!)

They loved running around to find the perfect pumpkin, and each picked their favorite.

I wanted one of all of them standing, but we had a shoe mishap in the pumpkin field, but that's a story for another day...

Happy Fall everyone!!!

Arches!

How can you even put into words how amazing it is to see natural wonders like these? We were able to spend a morning in Arches on a whim. We hadn't really planned out our traveling days very well, but we had left time each day to find somewhere fun to stop. We ended up getting through Kansas and Colorado faster than we thought so we did a little extra driving and stayed overnight in Moab, visiting Arches National Park for a few hours the next morning.

We hiked up towards this arch, which was a little tricky, but the boys had a great time trying. I was telling Ben about how all this stuff was created by Heavenly Father, and we were talking about how very cool it all was.

I kind of wasn't thinking about potty breaks and suddenly we had an emergency on our hands and we weren't close to the bathrooms. Well, I hurried down to the car with Ben, having to carefully make our way down these huge rocks, when Ben decided it was quite a hassle when you have to go, and told me, "Heavenly Father shouldn't have made these so big!"

Jon was happy as can be in his backpack. One of the definite blessings on this trip that I was very grateful for was that despite his lack of sleep before the trip (and some nights on the trip) and a some strenuous activity, Dave didn't mess up his knee once, and for the most part kept awake, so he was able to do 99.9% of the driving, which was good. He prefers to drive, and I prefer him to drive too!

A friend of Dave's told us about Sand Arch, which he said not to miss, our kids would love it. He was totally right. It was a big sandbox to play in! They didn't want to leave!

Under the arch, I didn't get a good shot of the arch itself. (Dear Santa, I need a new zoom lens).

It just makes you want to dance!

It's always fun when someone offers to take a picture of all of you :)

And this one with my iPhone. I wish the kind person had been able to get the shot with my SLR (she tried, bless her heart for even offering!), because it turned out cuter but it's terrible quality!

We watched a documentary last week about the National Parks that made us want (even more) to see lots more of them with our kids. And also made me wish I knew I put that cool NP passport that we bought in the Grand Canyon.... I'll have to find it before our next trip so we don't miss out on any more stamps!

Georgetown, Colorado

We saw the signs for this town around lunchtime and stopped for some gas and a bite to eat. We remembered stopping for gas there on our last cross-country trip (a year after we were married with 3 month old Ben) and thinking at the time what a cute little place it was, all nestled in the mountains. This time, we saw this gorgeous little lake. The boys loved "skipping rocks" and exploring around it.

Jon had no fear, kept plowing right in and getting all wet.

It was a nice break from the car. Colorado was so gorgeous, especially this stretch through the mountains with all the cute little ski towns and amazing views. I loved that point of the trip because it felt like home being in the mountains again and I knew it wasn't much further! Even though there were plenty of things we could have done along the way, we were making such good time this day towards Utah that we realized if we just kept going we could make it to Moab that night and see Arches in the morning before heading up to Provo. So we did!

Kansas

So then there was Kansas. We spent a whole day driving through it, but didn't do much there besides stop for the night. We enjoyed the view though!

First in my series, "shots out of the car window", haha

Jon really liked looking out the window (when he was awake), something the older boys didn't quite embrace. Also, he learned to just sleep when he was tired. After the first day of not much of a nap, he fell asleep at least twice each day that we were driving. I have a lot of pictures like this because he is just so darn cute.

And a couple of fun (crappy iPhone) pics from the morning in our Kansas hotel. This was our first night in a hotel (first night was at the Palmer's house) and they did so great, and woke up happy as clams.

We had stayed in a hotel room with all three of them one night earlier this year, and it was not great, so we were a little worried about how they would do on the trip, with us (especially Dave) needing the sleep in order to function the next day. Thanks in part to the movie "Bedtime Stories", which they love- HOTELS were such an exciting thing for them, magical even :)

Adventures in St. Louis!

Just one

I've gotten to the point where I try to sit back and not worry so much about getting all the cute pictures, but I was almost giddy to have someone with me who not only would help me (try to) get a cute shot of all the kids, but I think she was the one to first suggest it.... which became our goal of our day: a cute shot of all the kids together. Did we accomplish our goal? Sort of. We didn't actually get everyone smiling, or looking for that matter. But the day was fun and each attempt is just cute :)

Visiting with the Palmers

Spending a day with these awesome friends the Palmers was a highlight of our trip! They moved away from us in July, and I had been planning to stop and visit them on our road trip since Nat first told me they were moving. Our plans got even more interesting when they finally found a house to buy and were getting closer to finalizing everything. It ended up that they closed on their new house the DAY BEFORE we got there. I kept asking, are you sure? Are you sure it's okay that we come? And of course, Nat (being Nat) was more concerned that WE wouldn't be comfortable because they'd be a mess of boxes! So we kept our plans and got there on a Friday night and stayed to play until Sunday morning, when we took forever leaving and probably made them late for church!

The first night, the girls were so excited to see our boys. They wanted to read them bedtime stories, and the boys just ate it up! They love all of the Palmer kids, and were so excited to go and visit. Chris is so fun to watch with them. Usually he's pretty much in his own little world around other kids, but Brielle and Brooklyn are always so sweet to him, he loves them.

The Magic House

We started Saturday bright and early (well as bright and early as it gets for the Izatts and the Palmers ;) Even though they were just beginning to unpack, I came upstairs from our lovely and comfortable guest suite to find John making a great breakfast! Actually, I came upstairs to find two pans of unattended scrambled eggs about to burn with no one in sight... Luckily I was there ;) Natalie was over at their old apartment trying to get a few last things done and moved over, and John was interrupted by some appliance guy at the door. He couldn't find the cord for the griddle.... or the toaster.... but it was a great breakfast anyway. It was pretty much hilarious and chaotic the whole time.

Anyway, we started the day off at the Magic House, which is the Children's Museum there. The kids, of course, loved every minute of it. So many fun things to do! These musical displays are always a hit with our boys.

The construction area was lots of fun for all the kids...

Jon got right in there, literally! He was diggin' up rocks in the quarry! He loves shovels.

First attempt at a picture of all the kids. You can't even see Braden, but he's back there! And Jon, this was his reaction every single time. In fact, this was his reaction to everyone during the vacation who tried to hold him or get too close!

Chris was so excited to get his turn on the "tractor".

I wish I had gotten better pictures of this crazy air-tube contraption. The kids thought it was awesome, sticking the stuff in the tubes and rerouting the air to blow it out different ways. Too much fun!

Attempt #2 at a cute pic of all the kids.... this time Nat even brought out the big guns... well, dum-dums (suckers) as a bribe... still didn't work. I just got a bunch of shots of them looking at her expectantly!

Grant's Farm
Oh well, on to Grant's Farm, named for Ulysses S. Grant and owned by Anheuser-Busch. This "farm" is actually more of a wildlife preserve, and we got to see a lot of cool animals, even buffalo and elephants! First you take a little tour of the grounds and see most of the animals, on a really fun train.
Ben with his girlfriends ;)

Actually, just this one- they were so darn cute the whole time. I missed it, but I hear that they were kissing while we were on this train. And earlier that morning they were running around holding hands at the house. So cute!

We watched a cool animal show complete with an eagle (I think it was?) and rats.

Saw giant turtles...

And fed baby goats! This was hilarious. Nat and and I stood back and positioned ourselves outside of the fence, with a good vantage point for cute pictures, and let the men take the kids in to feed bottles of milk to the baby goats. They took the kids over to the milk house for bottles, then into the barnyard where there were a LOT of baby goats running around trying to get milk. So, here's Farmer John trying to help Braden, and he's holding up the bottle and laughing hysterically at the goats in mid-air...

Then finally stops and is able to help Blaire and Braden not get eaten...

Then along comes Dave through the gate with Ben and Chris, and as soon as he gets through the little turnstile thing, he ends up with his arms full of bottles and boys and John runs over to try to help him get through since he's being climbed by all manner of "kids".

Dave ends up putting Chris back out to come and feed the goats outside of the fence, and he and Ben brave the barnyard...

I was really proud of Ben, this kind of stuff usually scares the pants off of him...

And speaking of pants, the goats liked John's... and mine at one point, through the fence!! You gotta watch your shorts there...

These girls were content to feed on the outside, and Brooklyn was so funny- she would jump around from goat to goat, giving each about 1 second before she would pull the bottle away and move on.

Then it was handwashing time, I just though this picture was so cute...

I mentioned we saw elephants, but this was the only view we really got...

It is really a beautiful place, I'm so glad we got to see it.

Where were we? Oh yes, picture attempt #4?

The architecture was pretty cool. There was a courtyard inside here, I think it was the "beer garden". We heard lots of talk of beer throughout our visit.

Such a fun day!

Gateway Arch

Before heading back for dinner, we made a quick stop at the Arch, how could we visit St. Louis without stopping there?

This was not an official attempt at a picture of all of them because Braden was done with us at that point, and I didn't make Jon sit for us, but the other kids sure were cute up on the steps...

Then Nat had the great idea to get a shot of our family, and I'm so glad she did! We got a few pictures of us throughout the trip, but this was my favorite!

We thought we might go down to see the museum, but we were too late in the day.

Which ended up being okay because it was getting late anyway!

Birthday cake!

We had to get home to celebrate Blaire's birthday, which was actually the next day, but how fun that they included us in the cake and ice cream festivities! The boys were in heaven, nothin' better than cake!

The next morning we had to say "so long" to our friends for now, but we will have to go back soon for a real visit! We had such a great time, even though it was short- as you can see from this novel of a post (sorry) we fit a lot in!

Last attempt at a group picture- not bad!

Bye friends!