Halloween

Cole had an absolute blast this Halloween! This is the first year he has understood he was dressing up as something, that other people will be playing pretend also and that saying "trick or treat" will get him candy.

Even though he has never seen a show or any of the movies Cole is very into the Ninja Turtles.  We've had a couple ninja turtle paper masks, stickers, shirts and he got his face painted like a ninja turtle over the summer and loved it so I decided to go ahead and just order a whole costume!  I ordered it from zulily back in July (because their stuff normally takes FOREVER to get delivered) and it came in pretty quick, so Cole had plenty of time to try out the costume and decide he loved it!

When the week of Halloween finally arrived Cole was a pro at wearing his costume, mask and all!  A couple days before Halloween we headed out to Lake Arcadia to visit Storybook Forest. We debated between this and trick or treating at the zoo and we are so glad we did this!  Lake Arcadia is a state park and at one of the trailheads they set up a Halloween celebration for kids, complete with several campfires and food to cook over the fire!  Then you could walk the trail where they had scenes from SEVERAL children's stories set up along the path with actors handing out candy.  It was very well thought out, Cole particularly enjoyed Humpty Dumpty  (since he learned the whole song at kindermusik!), the swing in the yard of the Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe and the Sword in the Stone!  At one point Cole lifted his mask to let some other kids know "hey, it's just me".

After the trail you could head to a clearing where they had carnival games set up and a hayride.  The lines were sooo long we decided to skip those activities and head to dinner.

For actual Halloween Ryan was in New Orleans for a bachelor party so Stevie joined up with Cole and me for some trick or treating.  We went over to a neighbor's house for chili, grilled cheese, socializing and then trick or treating.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of all the kiddos but it was pretty adorable.  I'm really looking forward to Halloween next year with two kiddos!

Cole & Pen

While in Montana we were able to visit our friends Mike, Chelsea and Penelope.  The last time we saw all three of them they came to visit and we got almost no pictures, so this trip we made sure to get some good ones!  Just two weeks later they came to OKC for a visit!  Pen is on the verge of walking and Cole got to put his sharing skills to the test. 

We got a couple great pics of Cole and Pen being sweet and we also had a couple meltdowns over some toys.  Sharing is rough :(

We got a couple nice meals together and got to enjoy the great weather eating outside.

Trip to Montana

In October we headed to Montana for a 10 day vacation. We spent some time in Billings, Malta, Glendive, Miles City and then back to Billings.

We spent lots of time catching up with family and friends and it was great seeing everyone! It had been a little over a year since the last time we headed North so this trip was long overdue.

This was my first time to go to Malta.  It is very far North and basically in the middle of nowhere, haha.  This was the first time I recall driving somewhere and not running into at least a small town every 20 or so miles!  We went to Malta for a wedding so Cole got to try out his dancing skills again and spend some quality time with his cousin Bentley.  They hadn't seen each other since they were about 18 months but the first thing they did when they saw each other was tackle each other and start rough housing.  We also got to meet our newest neice, Kynnlee!  She is such a sweetie and I seriously considered kidnapping her :).

While in Malta we went to the dinosaur museum, it was very informative and the gal working there was extremely knowledgeable! Cole enjoyed it but I think he preferred the multicolored dino statues out front.

Trip to California

In early September we headed out to California for a wedding.  We decided to take a couple extra days and headed out to Yosemite!
We flew into Oakland and got in our rental car (minivan, they really make life easier) and headed East to Yosemite.  We didn't make it out there until after dark so we had no idea what our surroundings looked like until we got up the next morning.  Wow! Pictures just don't do these views justice!

We stayed in these soft sided cabins in the middle of a resort area.  It was a little like camping but without having to set everything up, very convenient, especially for people like us who forget how the tent sets up between every trip.

The resort area is very well set up. Walking paths, bus routes and several food and souvenir shops.  We had scheduled an open top tour of the valley floor for our first morning so we were pleasantly surprised that all we had to do was hop on a bus to get to the tour meeting spot. The open top tour was awesome!  Just look at these pictures!

We will definitely be heading back as children get older so we can do some hiking and more exploring!  The next day we headed back West for the wedding!

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and the food was wonderful! Cole had a blast dancing at the wedding!  Unfortunately, it was pretty dark at the reception so I didn't get any good pictures of him dancing, but he sure enjoyed himself!  I did, however, get a picture with the bride!  Congrats Coree!