Misc. Summer Fun

Here's a catch-up post covering some of the things we did this past summer.

We saw a firetruck and ambulance at the State Emergency Preparedness Fair:



We also got to see a firetruck at a local firehouse when we went to their "Reading with a Fireman" day and got a demo from a fireman:



We saw a demonstration of some Native American dancing outside a local museum:



We watched some fireworks on two different occasions in July (the 4th and 24th-aka Pioneer Day), and did some running around:



And we even played on some riding lawnmowers at Lowe's:



That's just a small snippet of some of the things we did this past summer. I'll post more about a couple of our other activities later. So even though I've been too tired and lazy to update the blog lately, we weren't completely lazy this summer.

Curls, Curls, Curls (and nipples)

We've let Mason's hair get a little long because we just can't bare to cut off his curls:



And Mason loves pointing out his nipples. It's something all of our kids have had fun doing (along with their belly buttons, or "belly belly" as Mason says).

A Reverent Moment

Mason is by far the most active of our children. We thought Jefferson was a non-stop toddler, but Mason has put him to shame. But the biggest surprises with Mason are the obedient and reverent moments he has. He is always quick to be "helpful" and has learned the earliest of the three to fold his arms when it's time for a prayer (even if he doesn't make it through the whole prayer). We've been making a big effort to have family prayer every night before the kids go to bed and Mason (and Jackson) often does better than Jefferson. Such a sweetheart. A couple of weeks ago we got home from somewhere past the kid's bedtime and were rushing to get them to bed. We were about to forego having family prayer just because Nate and I were exhausted, but Mason wouldn't have it. He said as best as he could "prayer" and sat down on the floor with his arms folded. Sure, we could say that he was just trying to prolong going to bed, but I think he's also helping us remember the importance of having family prayer.

A picture of the moment captured by my cell phone camera:

Halloween Time!

We had lots of fun for Halloween this year. We started off the season the week before Halloween by finally going to the pumpkin patch.



Then, the Saturday before we went to our local rec center for their halloween party. The boys got to go "trick-or-treating" around the track and then go through a hay bale maze. Mason took no time figuring out what was going on and quickly raced to the next person handing out candy as we went around the track. Afterwards, we headed to a diner for dinner. I was a little embarrassed as we walked in and found the place to be full of junior high and high school cheerleaders, since I was dressed like this:



Our Halloween festivities continued when we carved our pumpkins the evening before Halloween. Jefferson was big into doing as much as he could, Mason liked getting his hands in the innards, and Jackson just liked watching the process (he was done touching the pumpkins after sticking his hand inside once, as seen on his face in the picture below).



A sister in my ward has been doing a few sewing classes the last couple of months and at the beginning of October she did one to make "Trick-or-Treat" bags. I went and made these (yes, there are five- I only had intended to make 4, but I had enough leftover fabric to make one more, so I figured I might as well make another):



Halloween came and Jefferson and Jackson went off to school in their costumes (or costume #1 for Jackson):



That evening we all got ready for trick-or-treating (now Jackson is in costume #2):



The kids collected lots of candy and had lots of fun. Jackson and Mason were both nervous to go up to the houses that had "scary" decorations, but the lure of candy was enough for Mason that he still made it to the door, despite fussing a little all the way up and back. The weather forecast had said it would be a nice night, and it was, except for the rain that had been left out of the forecast. It was still warmer than last year, even with being slightly wet, so all was good. After dropping Jackson and Mason off (I was tired of pushing the stroller around), Jefferson and I went back out to hit a few more homes.