Oh Christmas Tree

I know most people have long since posted about their Christmas mornings, but I am not so on top of things.  :) 

In early December we went up to Winter Park with my parents, as is our tradition, to cut our Christmas trees.  We went to yet another area this year, and were happy to find some beautiful fluffy trees.  We weren't sure if we would make it as Austin and I weren't feeling well the night before, but woke up feeling okay.  But the trip was still unsure.  The weather was supposed to be cold, windy, and snowy.  And my parents had some last minute plumbing problems at their house.  But eventually we were able to go!  We were determined, especially since it was already a weekend later than we usually go.  It was a true white out as we went over the top of Berthoud Pass, which was a bit scary!  As we sat eating a quick lunch before getting the trees, the wind was howling and it was SO cold!  So we went to a different area up a canyon and luckily we were sheltered from the wind there.  We were pretty quick in finding our trees this year.  It's a good thing, too, because the snow started really coming down and it was starting to get dark as we got the trees on the cars! 

 The hunt for the perfect tree.

In front of our fluffy little tree!

Zach sawing

Austin sawing

Zach brought it down!

Sledding on the road

My parents' tree

I love this tradition!

simple is beautiful

It seems that it is the simplest of things that bring us the most joy.  The boys and I are happiest when we are outside together.  There is a trail in south Boulder (about 10 minutes away) that is mostly flat, and beautiful.  We love to go out there and play!  The boys ride their bikes and I run with them.  We usually go out about 1.5 miles, then we stop at a beautiful stream and throw rocks and "fish" with sticks and mess around.  It is a perfect activity.  Sunshine, fresh air, space and quiet, exercise, and of course uninterrupted time together.  It sounds particularly nice on this cold snowy day!

 

Here are some phone pictures from a couple of times out there.

 

My mom has joined us a few times, too.

It always makes me want to give away most of our toys and move to a house with some land... 

More Fall

Pumpkin carving.  We ended up with quite a few pumpkins, but lost a few to the cold when I neglected to bring them in.  The boys had fun, although neither particularly liked the "guts."

 

We had lots of fun in the leaves.  Usually the wind blows them away or the snow makes them soggy before we have much of a chance to play in them at our house, but we were able to a few days this year.

We haven't had much snow yet this year, but they have loved playing in it.  Last spring Austin was pretty limited in how long he would play out in the cold, but this fall he stayed out as long as Zach (until I made them come in and warm up!).

 

Oz digging, of course!

 And Zach eating the snow and making snowballs.

 

Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween!  We had lots of chances to wear the costumes:  the ward party, a music class party, a school class party, and trick-or-treating.

Austin was a tiger ("rawr!") and Zach chose to be a knight in shining armor.  They were darling!

Hilarious.

Check out this look! 

This year we went trick-or-treating with a big group of friends.  We only anticipated going for a little bit, but ended up being out for about 2 hours!!  The boys were having fun and when we would offer to turn around, they wanted to keep going.  So we did.  They loved to trick-or-treat with their friends.  The boys generally ran ahead of the crowd and it seemed like Zach went twice as far, going back and forth.

 

 

On Halloween Zach's class had a party, and I got to go help.  He was so excited about it.

 

Sitting with his friend Liam.

Playing a fun game with his teacher Mrs. Yang.

 

It was so fun to see him at in the classroom more.



Pumpkins

We did lots of visits to pumpkin patches this year.  We tried to meet our friends the Rogers and the Galbraiths at Rock Creek Farm (tradition!), but our plan didn't go quite as well as we hoped.  They both live a ways away, so we had planned on meeting there.  The crowds were unbelievable that day and long story short, we had to just fend for ourselves, then meet at our house for some dinner.  Oh well...  At least we had planned to have them over after!

 

Consequently we were pretty quick picking out our pumpkins.

 

Searching...

The boys were mostly fascinated with the little dull knives you get to cut the pumpkins from the vines.

These knives, of course, were good for digging too.

 

The boys and I tried another day to meet friends from church at a pumpkin patch, but it was a chilly day and we hardly saw anyone.  But we had fun!

 

Almost smiles...

We had already gotten our carving pumpkins, so we chose some little ones for fun.

 

Zach also got to go on his first field trip to another pumpkin patch with school.  It was so strange to send him off for the whole day!  He had a great time and was so excited about it.

 

Fall is so fun!