Trunk or Treat!!

After the Halloween festivities at Disneyland we decided to keep it more low key on Halloween day.
So, we headed out to the Trunk or Treat at church and Ellie got to wear her princess outfit again and Silas, finally, got to utilize his pirate costume!

We had to decorate our car so we just strung up some pumpkin lights and added some orange/black balloons and called it good. There were tons of people and it was a bit chaotic. After the trunk or treat there was a ward dance which we headed to for a bit. The older kids were popping balloons and Ellie nor Silas found this entertaining.

We headed home with our bags full of candy and settled in for another successful Halloween!

2013 Family Pictures by Cory Kendra

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

As I was making Thanksgiving dinner I looked up to see this........

Thankful.

California here we come!!

We decided to head out on a little trek to California.....why not, right?  Traveling with kids is always a daunting task but we promised ourselves when we first decided to have kids that we wouldn't let hard things deter us from having fun together as a family.

Soooooo....here we are, California bound and headed to Disneyland for the Halloween festivities.

We took Ellie to the American Girl Doll Store for her first foray into overpriced toys and she LOVED it!!

 She picked out a doll that looked just like her and then we headed for lunch! it was more fun than it looked :)

Finally it was Disneyland day.....since it was Halloween time we decided to have Ellie go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and get dolled up. The Princess outfit would be her Halloween costume and she thought this was a great idea. You enter the park and head to the Boutique where your fairy godmother helps you pick out a dress, fixes your hair, and gets you super glammed up.

Ellie chose to go with the Princess Aurora dress....since it was pink and went with the traditional princess hair and tiara. After the glam session they take you to the Princess court so you can meet all of the Disney princesses and take pictures. Here is one of her official Princess Ellie pics!

Meanwhile, Dada generously rode the train with Silas until he fell asleep. Poor guy!

Our final task for this trip was to get family pictures taken.....we contacted the photographer and arranged to meet at the temple. She and Justin both called in advance and made sure the gates would be open and we were ok to proceed. After getting the green light we agreed to meet! We pulled up and the gates were locked!!

The photographer (Corey Kendra Photography) found someone who was on the property that was able to get the gates open for us. We had the whole grounds to ourselves and it was so beautiful and peaceful.

Here is a picture of Ellie that Justin took while we were waiting to get it all sorted out!

 A trip to Anaheim, for me at least, wouldn't be complete without a trip to Bubba Gumps!

It was a whirlwind trip but we had a blast and we can't wait to see our family pictures!!

Until next time California!!

More selfies :)

Selfies

One of Ellie's favorite things to do with her iGuy is take pictures of herself making faces
 Hilarious stuff!

This girl!

Hair styling

Ellie has all this fake hair styling equipment she loves to play with and she found a willing customer for her salon

Unfortunately he doesn't have much hair to work with :)

Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! -- Durango, CO

We made the trek up to Durango for a new family experience the - Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown Train Ride. Each ticket allows the rider to ride the Durango and Silverton train up to a pumpkin patch area where there will be games and pumpkins galore! On the train ride the Great Pumpkin story is read and snacks are served!! 

As I said, this was our first time, so we didn't really know what to expect - and we just LOVED it!

Hotel sleeping

It's train day!

 While we waited at the train depot we took a few pics

"Hey, there goes snoopy!"

Here we are on the train....

 Ellie and dada/Silas and dada

We finally pulled away from the train depot and snacks were served. 

Donut holes with hot apple cider! Yummy!

Gorgeous views

Over the river!

 Here we are!!

After we unloaded all of our junk off the train (we found out you can't leave it on there because the train goes back to pick up the next group of people -- total bummer) we hit up some games!

Each game section was also a trick or treating spot!

 1 Cat tattoo please!

 What would a kid friendly place be without a bouncy house??

 So beautiful here.....

 Pumpkin picking time!

 So many choices.....

 Winding it up for the day.....

 Dada and Silas waiting for our train

 They had food vendors set up right by a beautiful little pond. So, we plopped down and ate and basked in the beauty all around us. 

Dada and Silas

Would we return? Definitely! This was a really fantastic experience that I am glad we had and I know that we will make it an annual tradition. It will be better in the upcoming years when Silas can actually participate a little more but he enjoyed taking in the sights. We definitely would not pack as much stuff.....it got hot really quickly and we shed all of our layers which left us with a ton of stuff to get on/off the train (along with a stroller, a pumpkin and our complimentary mugs).  I know Ellie had a blast and she was absolutely tuckered out after the day.

We cannot wait to come back again!