The Bits: October 15th Through October 21st

This month is awesome...and exhausting!

Cuddling with my Luke.

Tommy was his preschool's King for the Day last Wednesday, celebrating his upcoming birthday with his friends from class.

The boys love holiday specials!  They are always such a fun way to celebrate the season.

This is a great example of why the brain of a teenage boy is simultaneously flabbergasting and hilarious.  When dropped off a few minutes early for soccer practice, instead of warming up, like normal, rationally thinking humans, they decide to play merry-go-round soccer...while it is spinning.  Likely to cause injury?  Indeed.  But incredibly fun?  Heck, yeah!  Let's do it!

Zac has decided he loves scary stuff: books, movies, haunted houses, all things terrifying....  So Thursday night, Adam and I dropped Zac and four friends off for a tour of the Haunted Mines, which Adam and I visited one time a few years back with my sis.  They had a long 2-hour wait in line to get nice and psyched out before they even went in, and when we went back to pick them up, Zac was chased through the parking lot to the car by a guy with a chainsaw.  Nice.  He loved it!  No, thank you.

I'd say they survived, but looking at those eyes...I'm not so sure they came back to us quite the same!

My friend Diana finally talked me into going to visit her PT husband to see what is up with my leg.  This is me resting with my post "dry needling" (a.k.a. acupuncture done by a physical therapist instead of an acupuncturist) heat pack on my backside, which seems to be the source of the problem, my gluteus minimus.  Oh boy.  Whatever those needles did sure did help!

Saturday we took a tour of Colorado for soccer games: Aurora, Centennial and Fort Collins!  We left the house at 8:30am and returned at 5pm.  We had two great games and one rough one.  It was such a long day that after dinner, I just wanted to get the kids in bed and then climb into bed myself, but soon after we arrived home I got a text from a friend asking if Adam and I were going to the adult session of Stake Conference that night, so we rallied our energy and went.  I am so thankful we did!  The messages and spirit were fantastic.  I am so grateful for that text and that God knew I needed it. 

After his game in Centennial, Josh was able to hang out for a few hours with one of his best buddies, Sanjay, who moved up to Denver at the end of the last school year, while I drove to Zac to his Aurora game and cheered him on.  The boys had such a great time reconnecting and are already setting up a sleepover after soccer wraps up. 

We were in the very, very back row for Stake Conference on Sunday morning, but we were there!  So: WIN!

Superman and Superdog; Hulk dressed as Superman and Ruby by Tommy.  I love his budding skills!

Tommy was inspired by Luke's Family Home Evening Lesson last Sunday, so he orchestrated one of his own for this week.  We learned about Noah's ark and built boats out of paper to see if they'd sink or float.  He did a great job, but what I really loved was his determination to teach and plan the whole thing.

On our Sunday afternoon walk, while on a particularly leaf-strewn section of the street, a sudden gust of wind caught up all the loose leaves and we were caught in a leaf blizzard for a few moments.  It was so cool!

Since I took these photos on Sunday, with light breezes and cooler nights on Sunday and Monday, many of the trees have lost their leaves and are nearly bare, but it's really been a beautiful, colorful autumn!

Monday, Adam did his civic duty reporting for jury duty (he didn't get selected, but learned a lot about the justice system which he excitedly told us all about over dinner).  I thought I'd do my civic duty too, by filling out and dropping off my ballot.  Maybe the political calls will stop coming in now.  I checked the voicemail yesterday and there were 17 missed messaged...over half were recordings for one political agenda or the other.  Argh.  One of the members of our ward is running for Colorado Secretary of State; pretty cool!

Tommy and I are in charge of the co-op preschool group this week and we had a great time on Tuesday, collecting leaves, talking about colors and then painting with them.  These kiddos are so cute!