On Veteran's Day, we decided to go out and take a hike around Lake Mead.  I guess, since I've lived in so many beautiful places, I just imagined that a hike around a lake would have, I don't know, a little nature?  Instead, we got this.

A dirt/gravel path surrounded by sagebrush and rocks.  And in the middle of November we got weather in the mid-70's that bordered on too hot after walking for an hour with no shade or breeze.

We made the mistake of pushing our stroller along the gravel, thinking that Jason would nap for part of the hike (it was his nap time) or even just sit for a few minutes.  Instead, we spent our time carrying an over-grown baby and pushing an empty stroller.  We did try and walk with him several times but his proved to be even worse since he is absolutely fascinated with rocks/dirt/gravel.

After watching him examine every pebble he could find, we'd resort to carrying him again.  

The big reason we picked this hike was that people raved about the tunnels that you could find along the way.  (These were made to cart materials to make the dam.)  So we walked for an hour and came upon these bad boys.

Yeah.  There were two of them.  Alright, I guess.  A little underwhelming, if you ask me.  Still, it provided a bit of shade and a little bit of amusement.

Can you spot our photo-bomber?  

We did have a nice view of the lake int the distance.  

There were another set of tunnels further up the path but we decided that we'd had enough of Nevada nature and took a small rest before turning around.  Here is Jason with his BFF.

But the best part of the whole hike, according to Jason, was the fact that every 10 minutes a helicopter tour roared by.  It circled right above us and so we got a great view every time it passed.

Here is Jason signing 'airplane' as one passed.

On the way back, Ethan decided to pose on every group of rocks he found.  This was, by far, his funniest pose.

Alaina has one thing to say to all of you....

 Isn't she sweet?

Halloween!

This year, Halloween came and passed in a sugar-fueled blur.  We ended up waiting to carve our pumpkins until the day before Halloween.  (Good thing we did too, since the heat and dry air made those pumpkins wilt by the second day we had them out!)  Here are the kids with working on their masterpieces.

We let Jason paint his pumpkin which turned out pretty darn cool.

After cleaning up the baby, I was way too tired to stay up any later.  Lucky for me I had this pumpkin face kit....1 minute later and my pumpkin was finished.

Sadly, we didn't get a picture of the finished pumpkins....

We did however, make it to the church's trunk or treat.  Robert couldn't decided between the dragon costume or the turtle costume for Jason, and so he dressed him in both.

The kids dressed up for school the next day and they looked so cute.  The boys were wolf-ninjas and Alaina was Cleopatra.  (You may notice that Alaina stayed allowed me to take a lot more pictures of her than the boys let me take of them.  They were too excited to get out the door and get to school.)

While the kids were at school, Jason and I spent the day hanging out in a box.   Really.  What could be more fun than that?

Halloween went straight back to full-swing as soon as the kids came home.  We got everyone ready and Rob took the kids out trick or treating.

They had such a great time.  And I couldn't believe how many kids came to the door.  For a while, I didn't even bother closing the door and going back inside.  I just stood their as lines of kids came and went from my door.  As soon as the kids came home, I made them quickly go through all their candy and find the stuff that they really didn't like.  I took that candy and immediately, 'regifted' it to the swarms of children in our neighborhood.  

For the rest of our trip to California, we just enjoyed spending time with Spencer's family.  One day, while Lisa was at work, Robert and Spence spent the morning working on the electrical system at the house while I spent a beautiful day at the park with the kids.  The next day we watched Spencer coach both Myles' and Ellie's soccer teams.  These kids really worked the field out there.  (Must be the great coach!)

That evening we went to hang out at the beach.  It was a little chilly for me, but that didn't stop the kids from doing everything from playing football, making sandcastles and running in the waves.  Brrr!

I actually stayed nice and toasty since Jason conked out right before we got to the beach again, and stayed asleep the entire time.

Just look at that cozy little guy!

We loved our visit to Spencer and Lisa's home.  I just can't believe we hadn't made it there earlier.  We'll have to get back there this next summer so Spencer can teach the kids how to surf.  :)