water park on Thanksgiving day--now that's a holiday!!

AT LAST the beloved Great Wolf Lodge--i'm pretty convinced its in the running for the happiest place on earth. My dad found this little gem in Tacoma. Ray was rockin her boots and ready for the splash down. Brady could always be found in the huge wave pool--i think he swallowed half the pool from attacking those waves. pure exausting excitement the rooms were awesome with wolf den bunks for the kids to crash in there were tears at time of departure but jared and i gave it our huge approval. we already made plans to repeat this next year. thank you to mom & dad vofo for makin it all happen. so much fun and so many memories.

nuthin' says the holidays like taxidermy!

after some morning turkey meal prep big papa thought it'd be wise to get the kids outta the house. so we hit the dreaded McDonalds/playland then ventured to Cabela's to check out the dead stuffed animals. hey a free zoo--theres just no movement or noises from the attractions. what a great elephant impression huh? i was looking forward to seeing most of my mom's family that we havent seen for a while--those fiferoonies are a silly bunch--gotta love 'em. Aunt Tammy's fam and my crazy uncles Dwayne and Lynn arrived with Grandma & Grandpa Fife--we filled the house with food, lots of laughs, and of course family fun.

turkey trot --WA part deux

crazy middle aged women signed up for a 5K in Tacoma on turkey day morning. gotta love the rain in washington. it was wierd to run with soggy feet but it was so worth it. Mom, Roxi, Shannie and myself all did great despite the extremely uphill course--the hardest course i've ever run. hills and rain: we are women hear us roar. (ok just a little purr)

big papa's thanksGIVING plan

our big trip to Washington with the VoFo clan must be blogged in several sections so i'm beginning with the heartwarming plan my dad had the grankids carry out for the holiday. he purchased about 70 winter acccessories for the kids to put in little bags and deliver to a homeless shelter. he also set up an adorable assembly line to prepare lunches to take to them as well. here's the cousins in our color coordinating sweatshirts (thank you dad and aunt tammy) all done handing out some holiday cheer we all left with much more than what we gave that day.

packing a punch

the minute i pulled out the suitcases for our thanksgiving trip to Washington, brady grabbed his and scampered off to pack--like a week early. his must take items were: his dragon to sleep with, spiderman mask and costume, a little lite reading material and of course toothpaste. he's cute and i supplemented quite a bit but good work brady! gotta have a little fun while packing right? so jared decided to put caden in his inflatable ninja suit. he was more mezmorized than anything. i havent seen jared laugh that hard in a long time. we tried to have caden give us a little action and "hi-yah" shouts but it didnt quite pack the punch--he didnt have to say a word, it was too hilarious as it was.

run forest run--with jenny, tammie and I

if we survived at week at girls camp together we can certainly do a 5K--no problem. we got our personalized bib numbers and joined the other 900 runners i'm still reassuring tammie at this point Bubba Gump restaurant hosted a great venue and along the coast made a beautiful scenic route forest gump himself congratulated us by name at the finish line! we felt stronger than ever--ok maybe not but we were proud of ourselves and i was super proud of us running four times. GO TEAM! it was so great to get together and laugh our hineys off. we had a great lunch out afterward and just helped, healed and loved each other like we always have and always will.

our not so simple trip to the pumpkin patch

it was a beautiful autumn morning, raylee and mommy were ready for the tractor ride, farm tour and pumpkin picking fun. but it can't be that simple right? this is my reaction after i called AAA for key lock-out assistance and they notified me that it was necessary to dispatch the fire department since my 2 yr old was locked inside all strapped in her carseat. raylee was in great spirts, except when i was having her try to wiggle her arm out to fetch the keys. as two fire trucks, the fire marshall and Lugo's towing all arrived to my rescue i couldn't help but CRACK up. what a lovely spectacle i made at my daughter's school field trip. our rescue was complete in time for raylee to enjoy her day and man did i get a lot of laughs!!!

preschool cuteness

we have been very pleased with Mrs. Murphy who has been sub-ing for Mrs. Crystal while on medical leave. Mrs. Murphy got Brady's speech therapy going right away with Miss Jenny--LOVE her. here's brady and raylee (cuz she thinks Mrs. Murphy is her teacher too) giving a thank you gift on her last day. i just got these shots emailed to me from Delany's mom. they were TOO cute so they must be blogged. Every friday Brady and Delany go skipping off to speech together like the super heroes they are. his class went on a bus and got to trick or treat at the school district office. Brady has since not let go of his vampire teeth he received.

trick-or-sweet!!

the lady bugs were poised, the house was decorated, the cookie haunted house was candied up and the crew (us, Grannie, Mike & Connie, and the Lister fam) was ready to hit the streets. we started at coach bekkis house and made a couple good loops. i loved watching them all scamper up sidewalks--after reminding them of yard courtesy and hoping caden would only ring the doorbell once or twice. they all found a rhythm and caden's manners were awesome--at each door he said "trick or treat PLEASE" and then finished with "thank you very much, have a happy halloween". and after every door he had to run back to us and say, "Look mommy (or daddy or grannie etc) I got MORE candy". it was just a pure delight. Raylee's repeated phrases were, "I skay-oed" (scared) and "I want my mommy-- no my mommy". we all tried to carry her but my back is pretty sore right now. My absolute favorite part was coming home and having to PRY the candy buckets from their clinched grasps and have the youngest 3 burst into a lovely loud symphony of screams and crying. thats when i laughingly yelled over them, "HAPPY HALLOWEEN"!

SCOUT-ing for pumpkins--get it???

time to go to the pumpkin patch. this years group was my fab 4, grannie annie, audrey and baby SCOUT. it is so fun to see how the kids attack pumpkin picking from year to year. caden wanted to count them all. brady had to pose on the hay mountain, kendra had to precisely choose the perfect one, and raylee just wanted to pick up and drop about 30 of them and say cheese for the camera with each one. scout was perfectly happy playin in the wagon and us parents (and grandparent) were just smilin a big halloween smile watching em all.