october highlights

How is it November already? I'm kind of in denial that it's almost the end of the year. October was a great month. Full of Halloween festivities, school events, soccer, and lots of exploring and family fun. Here are some of our favorite moments!

 Exploring a new farm-themed park

 The Hammond's candy tour is always a good idea. We went on a random Thursday morning and had the private tour. 

 We found a library with a real airplane cockpit for the kids to play in. They were in heaven with all those buttons to play with!

 Kindergarten music concert! Adorable and so entertaining. 

 Tessa, taking an important business call. 

 I took the kids all the way to the train museum in the cold, and the thing they were most excited about was playing with a trainset like the one we have at home...

 Just three cuties!

 Another awesome new park. The slide is 30 feet tall so all Tessa could do was walk on one part of it. We had to drag Rhett away from the huge climbing tower. 

 Tessa is officially a slide fiend. She slides down on her own and then turns around to climb back up and slide down on her belly. Endless entertainment. 

 This picture doesn't quite capture it, but this was the crazy-ness of making lunch, putting dinner in the crockpot, and making treats for Young Women all at the same time. On this week my kitchen looked like this practically every day. 

 School fun run! Rhett had a blast and ran 33 laps. 

 We explored Dinosaur Ridge on a day off school. This is Rhett next to a real dinosaur footprint. 

 Trunk or Treat #2! Tessa wouldn't let go of her bucket and her prized two pieces of candy. 

 Last soccer game of the year. Rhett had an awesome season and improved so much. 

 Back to the farm park to explore a two-seater swing. Tessa is counting down the seconds until she can get on the slide. 

 King of the mountain!

 Pumpkin carving adventures. 

 Tessa has a new love of coloring. She and Rhett spend some serious time working on this piece of art together. 

 Halloween! Started the day with free scary face pancakes at Ihop. 

The girls who live next door are obsessed with Tessa, so of course we had to get a picture of the two ladybugs. 

Ready to trick or treat! Tessa went to a few houses on our street before coming home to help hand out candy. 

thanksgiving 2017

The kids and I trekked across the country for Thanksgiving this year, and it was totally worth the hour Tessa spent screaming on the flight out. We had every member of the Treasure clan except Andre and my parents. Craziness, but so fun. Rhett was in heaven with all the cousins to play with, Tessa loved seeing so many new faces, and I just loved the family time. I only wish Andre could have come with us (darn work) and we could have stayed longer!

My phone died the night before we came back (which made for a stressful morning at 4am with a dead phone and a cranky baby), so I lost most of my pictures and was only able to salvage a few. So here are the limited highlights:

 Chess club! Rhett loved visiting his cousins at the elementary school and was amazed that their school has a library inside of it. Chess club was a hoot, especially watching Rachel "teach" it to Rhett--apparently they tied.

 Capitol cousins! We trekked downtown and braved parallel parking to visit the Air and Space Museum. Rhett was scared of the big planes, but then he held hands and loved it. His favorite thing was the "Death Star"--that's what you get when you hang out with older, Star Wars-loving cousins.

 A trip to Good Stuff for a toasted marshmallow shake, obviously. Still the best after all these years.

Tessa's first Turkey Trot! Rhett and I ended up taking a leisurely walk for the kids' fun run, but he was the fastest four year old, so it was still a hit.

Thanksgiving kids table. So much fun to have all the cousins together!

We have so much to be thankful for this year, and this trip was just the icing on the cake!

Halloween 2017

Halloween is one of Rhett's favorite holidays, which has made it one of mine too. This year we got in as much celebrating as we can (which means so. much. candy), and we had the best time.

 Making/finding Halloween costumes for Rhett has been so much fun (the UPS man of 2015 will always take the cake). This year I wanted him to get involved, so we settled on a robot a while ago and made the costume together. Putting those old diaper boxes and recycling to good use! His favorite part was the turbo boosters, which he showed off to everyone while we were trick or treating.  He was very specific that he was a worker robot, the RhettBot 4. If you pushed a special sequence of buttons on the front, it would initiate the "dance" sequence or the "invisible" ability. 

 For some reason, we have never carved pumpkins in 6 years of marriage. Blasphemy, I know. I think we tried a few years ago but gave up because it was too gooey. We finally did it this year, and it was so much fun. Rhett loved it, of course, and was so proud of the happy pumpkin he had been planning for weeks. 

 Tessa was a pineapple because she is adorable. 

Andre's mom had the idea to dress up the baby cousins like grandmas when Maura was in town the weekend before Halloween. It was a process trying to photograph two tired babies, but look at them! I still can't look at the pictures without laughing. 

 Are you kidding me??

little moments: october

 The fall weather is seriously killing it

Rhett becomes a chess expert whenever he sees a board--"move the horse over there. now the pointy one"

A studious man during general conference

preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch. Rhett didn't understand the concept and kept being amazed that all his school friends were there. 

 It's always a win when we find a lake in Colorado

Starting him young with a love of those terrible, cheesy face cut-outs.

"fashion blogging" after I realized my entire outfit cost a total of $10.

King Rhett on his throne.

Somebody finally got brave enough to ride the penny horse at the grocery store--it was a big day.

Trick or Treat Street.

I caught Rhett watching Sesame Street like this one day...glamor shot

Setting the stage for the attorney oath ceremony. 

a week of fall fun

We are soaking up the season as much as we can! It's crazy that October is almost over.

Last week at story time the kids painted coffee filters, which the librarian turned into hot air balloons on the window--Rhett was so excited to find his masterpiece. 

We finally took advantage of the library's museum pass and took a trip to the Nature and Science Museum--5 kids four and under and two adults is no joke, but the boys had so much fun together. 

Halloween festivities have begun! Rhett was so excited to debut his Nick costume for the mall carnival/trick or treating. Most people knew who he was "that fox from Zootopia", but the old ladies were confused and one guy called him a businessman. You can't win them all, I guess. I still think he's super cute! 

Yearly trip to the pumpkin patch! We snuck it in right before they closed, which ended up being the perfect time to go. Rhett's favorite part was the hay maze--he did it at least five times!

Our fall tradition four years running--crazy we've been in Colorado this long!

camping weekend

We did it! We camped and we survived!
Turns out Rhett is made for the great outdoors, so I don't know why we waited so long to make this happen.
(For some reason, I'm not in any of the pictures, but I promise I was there)

We spent the day playing and hiking in Colorado Springs before heading to our campsite. It was a little more posh than we are used to (we could get wifi from our tent?), but it was perfect for kids. Rhett loved the makeshift playground and made lots of friends.

"Show me the stick, Rhett" It took him about 5 seconds before he started hunting for the best rocks and sticks to throw in the creek next to our tent. 

Rhett and camping...true love.

After a little bocce ball and some exploring, we settled in for Andre's newest love--campsite cooking. We broke in our Dutch oven for some delicious cobbler. It's also when we met Shelby, Rhett's camping girlfriend, who played with him and then came back with her Elsa car to take him for a spin. A match made in heaven. We curled up by the fire and told "ghost" stories until Rhett fell asleep in Andre's lap--a rare occasion.

It got down to 35 degrees at night, but we bundled up and stayed pretty warm. A camping trip for the books!