Jack O'Lanterns

Monday night we carved pumpkins together as a family. We chose to do Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie.

 Trent even got to use power tools.

 I did Mr. Oogie Boogie (From Nightmare Before Christmas)

Pretty cool, right?

Fall Fest

Tucker's school had their Fall Fest last week. Henry and Charlotte had soccer practice, so Tucker, Paisley and I got to have a fun little evening together. We had pizza and cookies, and the bouncy slide was the favorite for the kids. Tucker got a spider painted on his cheek and Paisley got a sparkly mask.

Pumpkin Patch FHE

We had so much with last week with Blake, Andrea, and the three little cousins! We enjoyed the cow train, barn animals, corn maze and hay maze, tricycles, playground, bounce house, and other games!

Disneyland (last Tues and Wed)

So we got to the park about 5 minutes after it opened (I was so sure I could make it 15 minutes before opening). It was not very busy so we went straight to Pirates of the Caribbean and got right on. Might not have been the best first impression to make on Henry, since it was dark and a little scary. Then we began our quest for fast passes and more fast rides. We went to Big Thunder Mountain (Henry had to wait, and I got the switch pass), the day continued on with us collecting fast passes on riding rides.

 

The Jedi training show was fun to watch (we did not make it in time to have Tucker participate). We squeezed everything we could in before 6 (they closed early for the Mickey's Trick or Treat party) then we headed across to California Adventure for a couple more small rides (Tuck and Roll's bumper cars and the Monster's Inc ride). before heading back to the hotel where we all promptly crashed.

Wednesday morning we headed back to Disneyland a few minutes after opening again, this day was much more crowded (but I'm sure nothing like on weekends or peak hours- which is important as Trent hates to wait for anything and isn't particularly fond of people in general :) ) We went on just a few rides there before heading to California Adventure for the rest of the day

On the rocking car ferris wheel at night.

. It was lots of fun for everyone, probably a little too much waiting for Henry (at least he napped in the stroller both days) and probably a little scary for Charlotte a few times.

Some favorites: Tucker loved basically everything. I think he is saying Space Mountain was his favorite, but after almost every ride he would say "That was awesome!" and continue to give me a play by play.
I think Splash Mountain was the  favorite for Charlotte and me.
Henry liked the Buzz lightyear ride the best ("shooting the bad robot") but still would have rather been at the beach.

Waiting for the Matterhorn

Buzz Lightyear line

Henry HAD to drive this car.

The Disneyland train

Splash Mountain

We did miss a few things that I would have liked to try. You really can't squeeze everything in! I have to say, Charlotte never complains, what a doll!

California (2nd day)

We woke up to a cool, foggy morning. Ate, checked out of our hotel and headed to the beach. We were close to Balboa island where we had the bonfire the night before, so we just parked around there and headed toward the ocean. In hindsight, we probably should've headed over by Huntington or closer to Newport pier, because our spot had a pretty steep slope down to the water, but we had a lot of fun and it wasn't crowded.
It was cooler than the other days we were there and we weren't really planning on getting wet, but some of the stronger waves got us while we were dipping our feet in

. Henry was in heaven. He didn't care much for the water, but loved shoveling sand into his dump truck. We also flew our kite.

Then we were all wet and cold and hungry and Trent was ready to do some body surfing. He was so cute and grinning like a little kid. He always says he doesn't see why I like the ocean so much, but clearly he does too! Goes to show he can have fun without motorized vehicles!

After the beach we got cleaned up, grabbed Sarah and Gabe and lunch and headed to the Balboa fun zone where we rode the ferris wheel, then watched Trent bounce on the trampoline bungee thing. It was a fun day.