Halloween!

I don't know how the rest of the moms I know manage to take such great pictures of their kids in Halloween costumes.  I usually forget to take pictures at all, so it was great to have John's phone at the ready to capture our group halfway through the trick-or-treating.  (Of course, I also planted us directly in front of the setting sun.  Sorry if you feel blinded.)

From oldest to youngest, we have John, the Bad Doctor (he's our supervillain); me, Witchtastic (and I really wish you could see more of my awesome black-and-orange tights); Olivia, The Speedy Paintbrush; Naomi, aka Magnificent Mimi; Bella, aka Fireballa; and the small and daring Mad Madame Maddie.

 My mom and dad joined us for the whole week of Halloween.  However, my dad is the world's biggest Halloween Humbug, so he didn't come along for the trick-or-treating.  (He stayed home and handed out glowsticks to the two trick-or-treaters who bumbled along to our house.)

 We posed heroically.

 We dashed heroically out of scary houses (accompanied by Mario and Rainbow Dash).

 We posed heroically again.

 We delighted heroically in the enormous piles of candy we were heroically gathering.

 And we talked, heroically and at length, about our superpowers.  The Speedy Paintbrush can wield a magic paintbrush and make her paintings come to life.  Magnificent Mimi scores well on spelling tests and saves people from falling rocks.  Fireballa throws balls of fire at bad guys, and then she runs really fast.  Mad Madame Maddie mostly just runs down the halls of houses yelling her name.  (I'm sure that terrifies supervillains.  The Bad Doctor regularly finds himself stymied.)

P.S.  My sister also escaped Provo with her darling boyfriend, and the two of them were the champions of the extended trick-or-treating that my two older girls accomplished.  I have Annie and Shaylor to thank for the sugar high we've all been riding the past few days.  I

Drive-In (Can you believe we have one?)

My  brother Pete came for the weekend, and we started our celebrations by heading to the drive-in theater here in Roosevelt to see "Brave."  John sacrificed and stayed home so Maddie wouldn't have to be awake until 11:00 p.m., but the rest of us got our Mango Kookaburra licorice, a bag of chocolate covered cinnamon bears (AMAZING!), and some homemade kettle corn, and partied it up.  (Well, we partied it up until our movie was over, but we didn't stay for the double feather of "The Avengers".  I'm not a brave enough soul to keep three little kids up 'til 1:30 to see a violent superhero movie.  I don't think they'd ever sleep again.)

Flip-flops, Forts, Friends, and Fun

Is there anything better than a visit from some best friends (or cousins, as Mimi insists these girls are)?  I submit that there is not.  We snagged the Soelberg ladies for the last couple days of their spring break, and it was a delight from beginning to end.  

We began with some crafting--state love canvasses inspired by so many from around the web.  We both made Indiana (that wiggly-pointy part at the bottom left was a little bit tricky, doncha know), and then I added some Ohio and Utah love.  (Gotta represent!)  I'll probably have to add a little heart in the Roosevelt area of Utah soon, but I'm not doing it until I've actually lived there.

 Then we continued with some shopping--the 30% discount offered at Old Navy and Gap because of their "Give and Get" campaign was irresistible and called for a trip to the outlets. . . 

 . . . where we scored some matching flip-flops.  (The little sizes have straps behind the heels and Bella was genuinely distressed that her "fwips" didn't make the right noise.  And click on the picture to see how Bella--in the black leggings--likes to split her toes with the flip-flop strap.)

 Then the girly-girls slept in forts, made by John between the boxspring and mattress of the girls' bed (AWESOME!). . .

 . . . and me, by tying the fort sheet onto the kid chairs (lame).  You can see which fort made it through the night.

It was sad, as it always is, to let our friends head back to the wilds of Bloomington.  Bella nearly had a meltdown when she realized she was not going to be able to climb back into Sara's car and go home with her.  (Are you sure you don't want to come pick her up, Sara?  I think you need just a little more chaos in your life.)

I'm thinking there has to be an opening for a fantastic MBA somewhere in Roosevelt so we can continue our spring break tradition.  I'll be on the lookout.  Okay, Joe?

Thanksgiving!

We had yet another Soelberg-Wells combination Thanksgiving this year, and I think it may just have been the best yet.  Let me count out the ways that I am thankful for these delightful friends who feast with us again and again.  

1.  Craftiness!  Sara and I love to make Thanksgiving weekend into Craft-aholic Central, and this year, we made these creations out of scrapbook paper and posterboard.  (Tip for those who might want to make some for themselves:  We used a Cricut to cut out the gazillions of little shapes (wonky hearts on the "George" cartridge), and 59-cent posterboard to make the base cones instead of the $8.00 paper-mache Christmas trees originally called for.)

 2.  Billions of little girls.  (This picture is even missing the smallest one.)  It's like heaven for my girls when Libby and Jenna arrive, and the visit is full of giggles, dress-ups, reading parties (I'm not kidding), clothes-sharing, dancing, and zippie pajamas.  And you see that darling Jenna girl up with Mimi?  That little girl is so incredibly kind to annoying, destructive Bella.  It nearly brought me to tears to see her include a not-so-fun two-year old in all the fun activities.  I will love her forever.

 3.  Joe.  Being Maddie's hair twin, we would love him regardless, but any guy who will watch five little girls (John was on call--as always) so Sara and I could Black-Friday it up is fantastic.  Thanks again, Joe!

 4.  And speaking of Black Friday, I'm grateful for Menard's.  Menard's, of all places.  I don't even think I've ever checked the Menard's ad for Black Friday specials before this year, but I'm apparently the only one who hadn't gotten the memo.  This year, when we showed up 30 minutes early (with Maddies in the front carrier, deep in the depths of my parka), the line to get into Menard's stretched across the front of the store and up to the back of the parking lot.  Our buddies in line included a darling woman who had been shopping since midnight and the foulest-mouthed long-haired lady I've ever met.  She dropped the f-bomb more often than I use hand gestures, and that's saying something.  Also, unpictured is our annual trip to Jo-Ann fabric for $1.29/yard flannel.  My stash is restocked, thank heavens.  I get twitchy when it gets a little low.

 5. Tangled.  Have you all seen it?  It's maybe my new favorite Disney princess movie.  I loved it.

 6.  (On that same note) Wonderland Cinema in Niles.  I love our little theatre just 15 minutes away with $2.50 matinee tickets (but we went during "prime time", so we had to pay a full $5.00) and $1.25 popcorn.  Amazing.  It's possible for us to go to movies on opening day.  And could we resist hitting a movie about a girl with long-long hair when we had our resident Rapunzel (Libby-girl) in town for a visit?  Look at those darling girls.

7.  Edible name tags.  This is a pilgrim hat, even though it's not immediately obvious.  The making of them involved four little girls and two moms elbow deep in melted chocolate, a container of mini M&Ms studding the outsides ("I don't want just one buckle, Mom.  I want mine to be polka-dots!"), and seven chocolate footprints made by one desperate two-year old.  But they turned out pretty cute, I think.

 8.  A delicious feast with fantastic friends.  I wish I'd taken a picture of all the food, and not just Sara's amazing rolls, but it may have been our best yet.  The stuffing was perfect (even following a near-fiasco), the gravy was not crazy salty (I've learned my lesson), and the pie was plentiful.

9.  Sara's pictures which I stole from her blog.  Thank you, Sara, for always having your camera at the ready. I was embarrassed to see that I had taken two pictures the entire visit.

What are we going to do next year when the Soelbergs don't live just 4 hours away?

The U.P.

Subtitled:  Best Vacation Yet

or

Why Didn't We Do This Earlier?

After blessing Maddie last month, we got down to the real business of the visit, which was to head up north and see Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  My grandpa has been talking about doing this since he first visited us in our apartment in Toledo, and I honestly wish we would have done it sooner.  It was gorgeous.  I think (with all the arrogance of a first-time visitor) that September has to be the best time to go, for these reasons:  1) it's off season, so all the accommodations were much cheaper, 2) the leaves were turning, and the color was gorgeous, and 3) it was just warm enough and just cool enough.  Perfect.

I don't have the patience to create a narrative from these pictures, so I am simply going to caption them.  

Waiting for the ferry to Mackinac Island.  Windy.  Maddie was treated as luggage, just like any other respectable one-month old.

I wish this picture really showed how funny this hoodie is.  It's one John picked up in Bolivia, and it's darling with the hood down.  With the too-short hood up, her shoulders are permanently raised, and she looks like a dwarf.  Or an Incan midget.

Mackinac Island has no cars.  It's awesome, and the biking was SO much fun.  It's not perfectly clear from this picture, but my parents are on a tandem bike with a trailer rolling behind them.  Awesome, eh?  All the bikes on the island have those cute front baskets functioning kind of like the trunk on a car.  

Little Grandpa loved to tease me about my "Red Baron" scarf.

On one side of the island, there was a big rocky beach with hundreds of stacked rock cairns.  Mimi decided we needed to stop and stack our own cairns.  It's still the part of the vacation she talks about most.

I love Little Grandpa.  It was so fun to have him along.

After Mackinac Island, we drove up through the U.P. to get to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, and ride the Agawa Canyon train.  My dad and my grandpa both love trains, so it was a perfect fit into our vacation.  Canada may have even been more beautiful than Michigan, and that's saying something.  

Bella wanted to walk under her own power up all 323 stairs to the top of Lookout Point in Agawa Canyon.  That would have taken forever, but she protested her "sack of potatoes" fate anyway.

Don't I have beautiful daughters?

On our way back down, we visited Petoskey, Michigan, famous for Petoskey Stones (which we didn't find) and beautiful beaches (which we found and admired).  We did some hiking in Petoskey State Park.  At least some of us did.

Mimi was carried to the top of "Old Baldy" inside Big Grandpa's sweatshirt.  She loved it.

Ahh.  I loved it.

We Blessed Her.

When you live 2000 miles from family, you learn to take advantage of the times they come to visit.  When my dad, my mom, my grandpa (my girls call him "Little Grandpa" since it's confusing to have two Grandpa Andersons), and my brother came to visit (purpose: one week in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan), we had to sign Madeline up for her blessing day.  

And then take 4 generation pictures afterward.  

Because of that crazy thing in the coral dress, these pictures were particular difficult.  We love her anyway.

It was so fun to see the Soelbergs, who came up from Bloomington, just to be with us too, but they had to leave in a crazy rush before we really got to enjoy them.  Sorry, guys!

And this is my girl.  A month ago.  I already miss that tiny baby.

She doesn't really fit in that dolly carseat anymore, but when she did. . . it was the most perfect portable baby seat ever.  

When Uncle Pete Comes to Visit. . .

. . . we:

1) promise a trip to the big, fun neighborhood pool, but arrive after closing.

2) have so much fun anyway, even in just our little tiny kiddie pool because Uncle Pete makes everything more fun.

3) discover that three little girls and one 6'3" uncle fit perfectly in the world's smallest pool.

4) love that there is someone much more willing than mommy to snuggle, hold, and carry the (sometimes grouchy) two-year old.

When Baby Quinn comes to visit. . .

. . . we:

1) are delighted to see him.

 2) take him to see our favorite turtle statue.

 (which we also allow Uncle Dave to see.)

3) show him how to pet those turtles who wander around and around and around right at the edge of their fence.  (Do you wonder if they put two or three of the tortoises on fence patrol every day?  "You, you, and you, check to see if this is our lucky day.  Maybe today those dang zookeepers have forgotten to complete the full circle of wire fencing.  If so, jailbreak!")

4) take his picture (so photogenic!)

 5) visit Touchdown Jesus (Yes, Lauren always dresses that cute.)

6) watch him as he dashes again and again to the highest set of stairs he can find.  (He crawls up, but he tries to walk down.  Highly dangerous for someone so new to two-legged mobility.)

7) have him watch as we make Uncle Dave toss us up in the air again and again.

 and 6) hold him so tight because we never want him to go home.

We are so lucky to have had so much family visit us this summer.  Dave and Lauren, you guys are fantastic guests.  Please come again.

When Baby Ruth comes to visit. . .

. . . we:

1) take her blueberry picking (tucked into the wrap with a little bonnet on her head).

2) take her to a rainstorm/triathlon.

3) snuggle her until we can't stand it anymore.

4) laugh when she pukes on her mom's face.

and 5) sit around and talk and talk and talk.

Baby Ruth is the newest member of the Anderson family, and she brought her dad (my brother Mike) and mom (Kelly) to visit us in late July.  We had a marvelous time.