Huntington Beach

I have always thought it would be fun to plan a trip to Disneyland without the kids knowing and then surprise them when we pull up to the gates. But, I do love all the excitement the kids have days, weeks and even months before the big trip. We started planning our trip to CA back in January or February and my girls have been talking about it ever since. We even used the "Do you want to go to Disneyland?" threat to get them to behave and it worked like a charm!

Lucky for us we didn't go alone. The Riters, Mimi and Timmy joined us! Disneyland is much better with cousins! We just wish more could have come....hopefully next year!

We met up with the Riters at Huntington Beach. It was pretty chilly and started raining so John and Davey were the lucky ones to take the girls out on the beach. Amy, Jude and I hung out under the pier.

That night we met up with Niki and the girls. I'm so sad I  forgot my camera at the hotel. My girls loved being with their older cousins and it was nice to eat dinner without them suffocating me (they'd rather sit with their cousins).

That night at The Cheesecake Factory we had them sing to Amelia for her birthday and she was not one bit pleased about it! She started crying and was really upset about it!

Cornbellys

I can't believe how much Cornbellys has grown in the past few years. I remember when there was just a hayride, the one corn maze and a few slides. Now its huge! Our first visit this fall was with most of the Martin cousins. The kids had a blast! We were there for 5.5 hours and I swear they could have stayed another few hours. Jude loved going down the big slide with me and playing in the corn house. Amelia loved jumping on the giant pillow, jump house and collecting ears of corn. Eleanor loved the giant slide, the huge haystack and the bounce house. She howerever did not like the haunted creature!

John and I took the kids back another day and ran into Savannah & Katelyn and Zack & Kate. Needless to say, the girls were thrilled!! Oh and John and I saw Jim Matheson and we were pretty thrilled . 

Pumpkin Patch

I'm not sure what it is but my kids LOVE pumpkins. This year we had 19 on our porch. As you can imagine, they had a heyday at the pumpkin patch this year. Elizabeth and her kids were in town so we got to meet up with them for the evening. We actually took Lyda to this same pumpkin patch last year. Maybe we'll get lucky next year too?

Ice Cream Van In October

The weather this fall has been ideal! The kids have played outside everyday and its been beautiful. Today we got a surprise visit from the ice cream man. I can't recall ever seeing the ice cream van in October. As you can see, the kids were beyond thrilled. Its funny how ice cream just tastes better when it comes from a pretty junky van (and a pretty strange man).