Halloween 2009!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Oh, wait, did you say it's Thanksgiving in a week? Woops, I guess I'm a bit behind....

ANYWAY, we had a great Halloween three weeks ago. :) The above picture is the only family picture we got, and one of the only pictures I got of Benjamin in the two nights that we dressed up. (And he didn't really like being picked up like that - I guess it wasn't respectable for a police officer to be picked up by his mom...) But luckily my friend Melody snapped these two pictures for me at the ward Trunk-or-Treat party on the 30th. Ben was a policeman, Eliza was Little Red Riding Hood, I was a witch, and Jed was.... a doctor. Or we can pretend that was his costume. He came straight from work. :) This will be the closest he comes to ever dressing up, so we'll take what we can get. :) My awesome witch's hat came from a Halloween package my mom sent us. And the cool black cape came from my mother-in-law who sewed it just to complete my witch's costume. So, thank you so much you two!!! :)

Here is Benjamin with a few friends, pausing long enough for a quick picture. He was a policeman riding a motorcycle. He had a cute "POLICE" sign on the back of his shirt too. He had a lot of fun zooming around on his motorcycle.

Eliza was an adorable Little Red Riding Hood. She had a cute little red cape with a checkered red&white skirt and white tights. The red shoes and red bow finished it off just right. She was a cutie. Here she is in the car on the way home from the Trunk-or-Treat party. She had a BLAST devouring candy after candy...

Jed and Benjamin drove home in Jed's car, and we both got stopped in front of a train for 20 or so minutes. We sat next to each other, me in one lane and Jed in the other, and we talked to each other through the windows. (Or at least Jed and I talked to each other and the kids, while they opened and ate candy as fast as they could.) It was fun! :)

The night before we had a family activity of decorating sugar cookies. This is the only picture that worked out. But Ben was enjoying himself too... in all the other fuzzy pictures he is holding a half eaten cookie and has crumbs all around his smile. :)

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Here we are on Halloween Night at our friends house after the trick-or-treating. Ben is not in the pictures because he was in the basement running around with all the other kids. :)

Eliza was so funny while we were trick-or-treating. She couldn't keep up that well, so we held her between houses and let her walk up the driveways herself. She didn't mind being held, but she DID mind if anyone so much as touched her candy basket! When I held her, I kept thinking that candy basket must be too heavy, so I would just support the bottom of it with my hand. Oh no, she would feel the difference and would quickly spot my hand touching her basket. She would tell me in no uncertain terms that it was HER candy and no touching! It was hilarious how protective she was! She wanted to carry it all by herself. :)

Benjamin had a great time walking from house to house. He was ENTHRALLED by some of the moving Halloween decorations. I had to wait for him patiently at many houses because he just couldn't tear himself away. On a few houses, he walked right past the candy to go up close to the decorations. When he did that once, he didn't realize until we were walking on to the next house that he hadn't got any candy at the last one. He was really worried at first that he might miss out on that candy! Such a funny guy!

Fall Activities

We went to the Henry Ford 'Greenfield Village' on October 21, on one of the last nice days of the year. It was so fun! This place is a blast. It's a restored village covering 90 acres that is set in early American times. We rode in a Model T car (above), got a train ride (below), went around on the carousel, walked along the streets and had lunch on a picnic table.

Here we are on the real steam locomotive train that goes around the entire village.

I love how Ben looks so GQ in this picture. :)

Here are the girlfriends that I went with. We all smashed together on one row of the train. It's more fun that way. :)

Eliza is saying "HI!"' to the horses just beyond the gate. She loves animals.

Little cutie.

The next evening we went as a family to the annual

AUTUMN FAMILY PARTY for the residents/med students, held at a local farm. Hay rides, pizza party, real pigs and goats... It can't get better than that, especially with my hubby with me!

The kids got rides in these little cows, pulled by a tractor in the front. Benjamin loved it, and Eliza would have if she wasn't so bundled up. She could hardly move around, so it was hard for her to enjoy the experience whilst falling off the seat and slumping to the floor...

Luckily, she got a second chance at enjoying the ride by sitting on Daddy's lap instead of Benjamin's. :)

Benjamin thought he was the luckiest guy ever to get to ride it a second time.

Don't ask me how Jed managed to smash himself into that little cow. What a great Daddy he is!

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Ryan and Michel came to visit us for a few days in mid October. It was SO FUN to spend time together! They were our first visitors in over a year, and we were pretty excited to have them.
We carved pumpkins together on Saturday afternoon. I promise we were enjoying ourselves - I think I just forgot the prompt SAY CHEESE! when I took the above picture! =) It was funny how it turned out to be just me and Jed carving pumpkins, with Benjamin nowhere to be found. :) Benjamin really wanted the artsy kind of jack-o-lanterns from the carving booklet, so he chose the spider for him and Daddy to carve and wanted me to carve the witch stirring her bubbly cauldron.

They took longer than just a spooky face, and he was long gone, playing elsewhere, before we had really even made headway on our jack-o-lanterns. It was pretty funny. Michel and Ryan stuck it out with us, though. :) Actually, I really like carving pumpkins, and it was fun! :)


Michel spoiled us and bought some fun toys for the kids. This pink baby doll stroller for Eliza was definitely a hit. She loves it. We found her like this one afternoon - her baby is laying on the blanket next to the stroller, and she is reading a book to her. She was so cute all settled in her doll stroller with a book.

Canoe Trip

Jed, Benjamin and I got to go on a canoe trip down the Huron River! A man in our area lives on the Huron River and let us borrow his canoe. We strapped it on to the top of Jed's Honda and drove it up river only about 5 minutes. Then we floated down the river and fished as we paddled. Surprisingly, it took us 2 hours to get back to his backyard. The river goes back and forth in multiple tight S curves.
Jed had bought Benjamin a brand new fishing pole the month before and was excited to use it with him. It just happened to be a really nice day on the 20th of October, amid many chilly days. The trees along the river were so pretty with all the autumn colors. It was perfect timing. Jed was able to get an afternoon off, and we had a very fun outing together!