our halloween dinner

 I got my halloween menu from pinterest: finger hot dogs (it's hard to see the nail bed in the picture below), Bone breadsticks, pumpkin fruit salad, and Mummy pumpkin truffles for dessert. The kids love it all.

After dinner we had FHE and then had a halloween dance party. We all had a great time.

 These were so yummy! I'll be making more next year.

Phoenix Temple Tour

On Oct. 17th we drove to Glendale to walk through the new Phoenix temple. It's so exciting that this is the second temple in the same year that the kids had this opportunity.

 The temple is beautiful. I loved the oval baptismal font and celestial room. It's smaller than the Gilbert temple. It's kind of off the beaten path. You can't see it from the freeway. It's close to some homes and a water park. We had to park at the water park and they shuttled us to the temple.

Me and my love

Macie loves Jesus. She has a picture of Him in her room and she kisses his picture every night before bed. If I don't do it, she grunts and points to His picture.

 Our family picture. Macie was difficult to manage throughout the temple, wanting to walk and check out places we weren't allowed to go...like the baptismal font full of water.

Fall Break: Part II

 After the cruise we got together with our friends. There were also about 16 kids too playing and having a lot of fun.

 We enjoyed an afternoon at Huntington Beach. Jordyn enjoyed playing a mermaid for 10 minutes.

Chasing the waves, finding shells, and digging in the sand consumed you guys for hours.

 

 So right after, I mean RIGHT AFTER, we got off the cruise. We drove to Knott's Berry Farm. We surprised the kids with that and meeting the lamonts, gammie, and uncle ryan. Jeff dropped us off, took Macie home to rest, and met us back at the park later.

 After the park, as if we weren't tired enough, we went out to dinner for more fun. Jonas and Levi being silly, I mean, scary.

 The Rylisen's (ryan and allisen) were nice and gave the tickets lots of tokens to play all sorts of games. They had so much fun.

 This is JEff's first selfie. Him and Jordyn on the swings at Knott's.

 Macie and Levi spent some time at Camp Snoopy. Macie loved this ride. She was so happy and giddy and cried as soon as it was over. The worker let us stay on the bus a few more times.

 Macie spending some quality with Finn and taking care of him.

 The log ride with Uncle Ryan. It broke down right when we got there so we waited awhile. The kids also enjoyed big foot rapids and ghostrider.

 Sydney posing

 All the kids posing

 Montezuma's Revenge was the very first ride they rode on together. They were so excited and hyper.

 This ride was fun to take with all the girls.

 This was when they first realized they actually saw each other. They couldn't believe. They were in shock... an elated shock.

 bear hug with levi and jonas

 The kids met some friends right before they saw rowan and jonas.

 Here were the shots when we first told the kids we were going to Knott's Berry Farm. They couldn't believe it! They thought we were going home especially since we just got off the cruise ship.

 They still didn't even know we were gonna meet up with the Lamonts and Gammie and Uncle Ryan.

The next day I was so tired, I woke up with a migraine and threw up. All of us were utterly exhausted from a crazy week.

Fall Break: Part I

 All these pictures are mixed up. We went on a our first family cruise. It was 4 days and we left out of Long Beach and our ports were Catalina and Ensenada. The Gers went with us too and there room was right across our room.

We had lots of fun. We went to a class to learn how to make towel animals. We also played Bingo.

 We got off at Ensenada and drove to the blow hole. Sydney fell asleep on my shoulder on the way back.

 Here's the blowhole. The tour guide said there's 3 in the world: Hawaii, Ensenada, and Australia. We've been to 2 of the 3.

 Ensenada was an eye opener for the kids. They didn't understand why kids were out of school and trying to sell stuff with their parents.

 In our state room they loved the bunk beds and towel animals. To give us a little more space the girls slept in the bunk beds in the Gers room one night and then next night Levi would get to sleep in the Gers room. They were so exhausted by the end of the day, the second their heads hit the pillow, they were out.

 This picture was taken before we boarded the ship. All of us so excited.

 The kids with their cousins: Jake and Drew. We hung out with them a lot.

 Getting on the ship was amazing to the kids. Levi couldn't believe how big it was. They were all mesmerized by the enormity and all the things inside the ship.

 Just a pretty view.

 Checking the ship out before we could go to our rooms.

We enjoyed the jacuzzi, pools, and water slides.

 We loved getting fresh air and seeing the view and the birds. We didn't see any dolphins.

 We soaked up some sun while at the pool area.

 The kids had fun being on the lido deck and dancing.

 We drank hot chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This picture we were up really early at Ensenada. I had just ran 5 miles on the treadmill which was a weird feeling on a moving ship.

 Macie crashed in the backpack in Ensenada while we were walking around. When she woke up on the shuttle she was beside herself and we did everything we could to calm her down with everyone else having to endure a crying baby.

 She also liked walking around on the boat too. One time we took advantage of the free day care so Jeff and I could enjoy a few hours of relaxing.

 In the street by the blow hole. Levi is wear a Nacho Libre mask. They each got one souvenir. Levi picked that, Jordyn got a mexican dress, and Sydney chose a chair hammock that is currently in her room.

 A little bit of relaxing in Great Grandma Marianne's room before our next thing to do. Macie took naps during the day and slept well at night, except for the very last night :/

 All of us enjoying cooler weather than Arizona.

 Lot of fun on the water slides. The water was freezing but it didn't stop the kids.

 

It was a great vacation! The kids tried all the fancy food at night: lobster, escargot, braised rabbit, and frog legs. Their favorite was the all you can eat ice cream. The kids loved being in another country and we had the best time--so many memories.