Pumpkin Festival

Cole loves to look at this picture, not because his loving mom is holding him, but because he sees that he is holding his cup of pumpkin ice cream. He gets so excited and says, "Ice cream!"

Saydria debating on whether to wear or carry her coat. It was a little chilly, but sunny enough to keep us pretty warm.

Kai watching a movie on the way to the pumpkin festival. It works people.

Kai loving his pumpkin ice cream. It was very good! Brayden just wanted to snuggle next to Kai and show you all that he is a very loving brother. :)

Sushi for dessert!

I made some sushi that Kevin will eat! :) It's made from rice crispy treats, swedish fish, fruit by the foot, fruity twizzlers and I also filled some of the "sushi" with twix and some with minty three muskateers. We ended up making a ton because we took it to our ward activity this evening and it was really kinda fun to make!

Field Trip

Here's some pics from Saydria's field trip to the pigeon roost farm. It's a fun place to visit. We've gone there with just our little family and the kids have gone there each year with their classes as well. This year, I took Kai and Cole to Aunt Sarah's to play while I spent the day with Saydria playing. I had to remember to take some pics of her though! This is Saydria with her friend Eli on the left, from her Kindergarten class last year. They hug every time they see each other, it's so cute. And Seth is on the right. He goes to our church and he's a really nice friend of hers as well. The three of them were going through this hay maze together and Eli's dad kept taking pics of them, so I thought I should, too. :)
Feeding a goat.
Saydria loved these rocking horses! She kept telling me she wanted to stay on them the rest of the day. I'm thinking she may need a trip to Idaho! :)
Petting a camel.
I had such a fun time with you Saydria! Running through the corn maze and getting lost and spooking ourselves in the enchanted forest also! You are a super sweet little girl! I love you to bits and pieces!

Brayden's latest adventure...

Brayden fell off the trampoline...he was swinging off the bars that hold the net...so lesson learned. He's been told time and time again not to do it. This is why. It happened on a Tuesday evening and we iced it and he was gaining more movement in it and he didn't seem to have much pain from it. He even shot a basket with his friend Tyler that same evening! (It hurt him a little though.) It wasn't swollen and we decided to see how it was in the morning. By morning, he said he was fine but we told him we'd take him to the doctor anyway just to be sure. He said he wanted to wait until after school so that he could get perfect attendance. Nice. After school we took him to the doctor and I've never seen a little boy be so excited about getting a cast.
We took him to his 1 week orthopedic appointmet. The doctor said it was healing well and they could shorten the cast so that he could move his elbow. Oh, I had to take him out of school 30 minutes early, you know what that means? No perfect attendance award. :( He's okay, no need to call.
Here's his new shortened cast. He's sitting in the dining room texting Uncle Trent about elves and hobbits. He will get this cast removed on November 5...missing another 30 minutes of school, so no perfect attendance next quarter either! (He's never been concerned about this perfect attendance thing in the past, I think it's just one more award to collect and so it's just fun!)

If I Were President...

If I were President, the first thing I would do is "get my paperwork done".
If I were President, I would eat "ice cream".
If I were President, I would travel to "West Virginia".
If I were President, I would have "a pet cat named Bubblegum".
If I were President, I would pass a law that says "no school on Fridays".
If I were President, I would "help people".
by Saydria Christensen, 1st grader.
(She obviously did this for school and I wish I could scan the pics she drew from her little book. For the page where she said she would help people, she drew a person with a cast on their leg and a bubble box saying "awww!" it's cute. The front cover of her book is a wonderful transformation of a drab Oval Office into a blue throne complete with red and purple desk and crown on Miss President. Princessy, yet chic.)

Bites of watermelon

Cole Kai
Brayden and Saydria were at friends' houses so they missed out on the photo op...bummer, huh? Nothing like a close-up when eating watermelon.

Hocking Hills

This was from our trip to Hocking Hills. It was a quick day trip since they were booked up for over-nighters. We hiked around 4 miles that day and found some fun caves and trickling waterfalls. (We hear the waterfalls are usually pretty awesome, but we had been without water for about a month.) This was a rock that we passed on the hike and the kids loved climbing the vine and sliding down...they had dirty bums! I had them wear their trunks/swimsuit just in case we found some great waterpools...and we did! Kai, Brayden and Saydria in Old Man's Cave. This wasn't much of a cave, but it was a huge space and the view looking out from the cave was beautiful.
Cole had a good time in the pack most of the time. He hiked a little and played in the water also, but had a fun time playing with Kevin's head and watching the kids act silly every time we came to a bridge. (We pretended there were trolls living under them and we kept trying to wake them up!)
Cole and Kevin all smiles. Kai is ready to keep moving!!