Santas galore!

Which of these Santas are actually Santa's helpers and which is the real one? We saw Santa at the Lincoln Crossing clubhouse, Fairy Tale Town and at the ward Christmas party.

Family Pics

Our family portraits turned out really great this year. My friend Nancy Reynolds took them. I especially like this picture of the kids playing in the leaves. They're so cute!

Halloween party

Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, so we celebrated by going to the Trunk or Treat at the church on Tuesday and the Halloween party at the Lincoln Crossing clubhouse on Saturday. In case you can't tell, Nick is a fly. We used costumes I had on hand and only spent $15 for a couple of things to go with them. Nice. They looked great, too. The party at the clubhouse was fun. We went to a spooky, but kid-friendly graveyard, played games, jumped in a bounce house, and ate pizza and cotton candy. Ken took them into the haunted house and they weren't as scared as I thought they'd be. The night of Halloween, we had burritos at John and Stephanie's and passed out candy.

Cinderelly

Elizabeth and Natalie were in the play Cinderella together. They both played mice. Natalie had a line and Elizabeth had a few lines and they both had singing solos. They were on stage for about half of the play. They did such a good job and were so adorable. They made some good friends and pretty much had the time of their lives.

Light rail adventure

We went on an adventure around Sacramento. I had to drop off a car in downtown Sacramento, so the kids and I dropped it off and rode scooters over to a light rail station. We rode the light rail all the way up to Folsom, where Ken picked us up. This was the first time on the light rail for 3 of the kids. I used to live right by a light rail station and I rode it to school, so I was able to show them places along to trip that I remembered. We had a great afternoon.

Elizabeth's birthday

Elizabeth is 11! For her birthday, she wanted to go to a neat nursery in Loomis called High Hand Nursery. We ate at a cafe, fed koi fish, looked at the plants, and went through an art gallery. She got to pick a glass flower when they found out that it was her birthday.
She had cake with a couple of friends and she had cake with Hodgson cousins. The highlight of her birthday, though, was getting an ipod. She's growing up!

Soccer

Nick played in his first sport. He was on the Fire Scorpions soccer team. He was fun to watch. :) It was pretty exciting when it was his turn to be the captain. His coach, Brian Plummer, is handing him his trophy in the picture below. Nick loved the whole experience and wants to play again next year.

fire station

We went on a tour of a local fire station with our preschool co-op friends. We got to climb in the truck, try on firemen jackets, and spray a fire hose. The kids loved it. Nick wants to be a fireman when he grows up.

American Summer

The kids learned about our country this summer and filled a book with facts about states, symbols, landmarks and historical figures. When they finished the book, they earned a trip to Great America. Rachel did this flag activity with them.
We had so much fun at Great America. This was the kid's first time there and Ken and I had never been there together. Our kids are brave. They went on big rides. Elizabeth had to be bribed to go on her first upside down roller coaster (the Demon), but she did it and loved it. The park had a fun kids area and a water park. Everyone except me went up on stage during a "backyard circus" show. Nick and Ken were strong men (Nick was stronger in the show), Natalie was a tight rope walker and Elizabeth and Kate were butterfly ballerinas. We had a great day.

Patrick's Point

The day after Ken and I got back from Cancun, we left to go camping at Patrick's Point. Here we are, standing by the initials I carved in the fence 4 days after I started dating Ken.

Kate wanted to be carried everywhere and Ken was so nice to let her ride on his shoulders many times during our trip. What a good dad. We loved the foggy views. It made it even more beautiful.

The Pixtons, Elkins and Worthingtons (our co-op families) went camping with us. We all spent a lot of time searching for agate rocks at Agate Beach. Nick is looking with Kendra and Richard Pixton and Jonathan Elkins.

Elizabeth and Natalie had fun with their friends. Camille and Kayla Pixton are running from the waves with them in this picture. They did this for over an hour. We did a lot of fun new things this year. We went to the tidepools at Palmers Point and saw the Native American village. We had some great adventures at Fern Canyon. I'm going to start a Patrick's Point fan club. Love it!