My parents visit!

My parents came to visit!

We had a full 3 days with them and we were so thankful to have time with them.

Our first stop was to Somis Nut House.  I knew my parents would love this place when I first discovered it and I was right.  We filled a basket full of goodies and my parents even went back later to get more.

That night, we had a tasting party and tried all of the goodies.

We did quite a bit of shopping and Grandpa bought the boys a drone.  It was pretty fun learning how to fly it.

While we were at the park, Colin climbed up a tree and my dad decided that it looked like fun.  It's not every day you see your dad in a tree!  It made Alison very nervous and she was instructing him to get down.

The next day, we went to the beach.

My dad has a gift for making up games on the spot.  I would never think to play hopscotch on the beach.

They also ran races.

And they explored the rocks.

It was actually pretty cold, so the girls stayed huddled up in the cozy chairs.

On our final day together, we went to the Reagan Library.  It was a fascinating drive there, as everything around the library had been burned just a few weeks ago.  They have an Egyptian exhibit now, so we were excited to be able to go.

I have a dozen pictures of Colin posing like this...

With Air Force One:

Taking a horse ride with Reagan :)

Alison was excited to be as tall as grandpa when she stood at the podium.

During our full day, Eli decided he was going to write a comic book.  He took his work with him everywhere we went.

That night, he sold a copy to grandpa.

We had a great visit and can't wait until Grandma and Grandpa can come back!

DoJo Boom

A friend invited us to Dojo Boom a few weeks ago.  We've been to trampoline parks before, but non like this.  I was excited to discover that they have a homeschool package.  PE, check!  For the price of 1 ticket, we can go 5 days a week (which we won't, but we could), for up to 5 hours.  Someone is doing a really good marketing job at this place.  Obviously they're trying to get more business during regular school hours, but that's when we would go anyway, so it works out perfectly for us!  They have all the equipment Alison needs to work on all her tricks too.

Trip to Yuma

Ben was asked to preach at Yuma OPC, so we made a weekend trip of it.  Getting there on a Friday was a little nuts and being back was a little weird, but it was good to see friends!

Ben and I went to get a late night taco...because that's what you do when you're in Yuma.  We never went out this late when we lived there, but apparently that's the time to go.  This taco stand was busy!

Surprise, surprise.  Saturday we went to Chili Peppers!

 We also stocked up a freezer bag to bring some home.  They just don't make burritos like they do in Yuma.

The girls also did a little shopping that day.  Bath and Body works is all the rage now.  And very, very soon, I will be the short one of this crew.

 Sunday, we went to church and it was amazing to see how the church has grown in the last year.

My favorite view ever:

 

The church had a fellowship meal at Castle park after church.  It was a perfect time to catch up with many friends.

 

I love how much these boys love each other.

I was surprised how much I forgot about Yuma.  My brain hurt trying to remember how to get places, and Yuma is not a hard place to navigate.  This last move has made me think a lot, "We've moved too much."  There are now too many states and running through my head when I try to think where something is.  This trip also made me think a lot, "I can't believe I lived this."  It made me really proud of us, as it's not an easy place.  But we not only survived, I think these pictures are proof that we thrived.

Halloween

We met our friends, the Bradley's, at the pumpkin "patch" on Monday.  We went to the same farm that we pick berries at, so I thought for sure we'd be able to do the same with pumpkins, but I was wrong.  For some reason, it's just not as exciting to pick out a pumpkin from a pile of them.  BUT I realized while we were there that Colin doesn't even remember going to a pumpkin patch!!!  They didn't have anything like this in Yuma, so I was thankful to at least have a farm to go to.

Colin and Finnley

Colin stole Ben's running hat and wore it the entire week :)

Eli and Elias

Alison and Noelle

Just days later, this farm that is only 10 minutes away, was in the danger zone for the fire.  I've yet to hear how it fared, but fingers crossed it's okay because it's one of our favorite places.

Halloween day, I wasn't sure they were even going to let kids go trick-or-treating because of the smoke.  Classes had been cancelled that day and most Halloween events has cancelled as well. 

Colin helped me cook two pots of chili in the afternoon.

The Bradley's came over for dinner and the kids played some games.

Alison made a "knock down the ghosts" game:

Darth Vader, a Marine, Slumber Party girl and a beanie boo.

 We went outside a little after 6 to start trick-or-treating.  The streets were basically empty, but the husbands took the kids to some houses and Ali and I parked ourselves on the corner of the street to give out as much candy as we could.  In just a few minutes, we saw a giant smoke cloud and Ali's phone was going bananas with neighbors calling to tell her that it was right behind their house and firetrucks were going by.  She called Adam (also a firefighter) and sure enough, the fire was just over the hill in front of our house.  He was calm, so the rest of us stayed calm and the kids finished trick-or-treating.  I bought a massive amount of candy, basing it off of life in Yuma, and only gave out a few pieces.  Apparently everyone else in the neighborhood did the same thing and dumped their candy on the kids.  One man, literally put an ENTIRE bag of snickers in Eli's basket.  I have never seen so much candy in my life.

The kids said it was their favorite Halloween ever.  It's all about the candy.  Give a kid a full size candy bar for Halloween and their life is complete.

Our first wild fire season

I have lots of catching up to do...but this is why:

October and November are wild fire season here and we are learning the ropes of what that means for life around here.  

I was still unpacking from our long weekend trip when I heard the news that a wild fire broke out.  Before Ben left for work, I asked him what our plan was in this situation and he said, "That's easy.  We'll just go to base."  He left for work and just a few minutes later, he called and said, "Just kidding.  A new fire just broke out even closer to us and all the smoke is going towards base."  The winds were intense and blowing away from us, but if it changed direction, we would be in trouble.  So, we paused our day and started re-packing.  I told the kids that we needed to gather irreplaceable items and they could each decide what that was to them.  It took Eli all of 1 minute to gather his things; his backpack full of Legos, his blankie and his current favorite stuffed animal.

Alison, on the other hand, requested her entire baby box to be loaded up.

I packed up our important documents and some emergency items.  I won't lie, I was stressed that day.  It takes a lot of mental energy to analyze what is really important to try and save and what is not worth making room for.  And what do I do when I'm stressed?  I organize.  If our house was going to burn down, it was going to burn down in an orderly fashion.  We haven't been able to see the boys' floor for awhile (it's usually full of Legos), so they were excited.

Somehow we even did school that day and went to piano lessons.  Our teacher's husband is a firefighter and he assured us it was safe to continue on with the day (although my friend confessed she was thankful he was not working that day).

We are safe and ready to evacuate if we need to.  Yet another fire broke out on Halloween and the air quality is becoming a concern.  Schools have been closed most of the week; even Alison's homeschool class was cancelled.  

I'm thankful that we have friends who are firefighters and are willing to give us the lowdown on these situations.  I was reminded that they are trained for this season and aren't surprised when fires erupt.  I was also told to stay away from the news channels, as they love to dramatize these events.   I've also learned that our little pocket of town seems to do well in the fire season.  We have the least amount of smoke in all the surrounding areas and the fires have gone around us.

It was a stressful week, of living on the edge.  Ben has to travel this week and there are still fires going...so we're going to be doing puzzles and watching movies and trying to relax.