Halloween Festivites

  Halloween is one of our favorite holidays and we did some pretty fun stuff this year.  The first Halloween thing we did was go to a haunted corn maze with our friends Caitlin and Clayton.  We used to go to the Haunted Forest with them in Utah.  It was pretty fun this year too.  We learned some new things about me and Clayton like how Clayton gets scared when he walks onto hidden trampolines in the maze and how I scream as if I'm half human and half Pillsbury Dough-boy when I get scared. Anyway, here's the only picture we took -

Caitlin and Caitlin with a monster

The monsters in the maze were really nice.  They would answer questions like which path we should take.  They would try to stay in character when they responded though, so it was in a creepy voice.  My favorite interaction with a maze monster was when Freddy Krueger snuck up on us in the maze and Caitlin Barnes said, "Who are you supposed to be? Wolverine? Edward Scissorhands?". 

Edward Scissorhands, Wolverine (Caitlin probably loves this picture) and Freddy Krueger

I think Caitlin is so funny and I love that she doesn't know scary movies very well but can quote the entire movie of Ice Age.  Anyway, we finished the night by eating some icecream at Baskin Robbins and it was quite delicious!

On October 18th we went with Matt and Amy Keller to Schnepf Farms because they have a huge corn maze and once we got there we found out that there is a ton of stuff to do there, so it turned out being even more awesome than we thought it was going to be.  We were all pretty hungry when we go there so we started by getting some hamburgers and hotdogs. After dinner we walked around a bit and found out there was a skateboard and bmx demo happening, so we watched that.  I thought it was pretty cool, but I don't think the rest of the group liked it very much.  Also, there were lots of bugs flying around because we were near a light pole and I could tell Caitlin was on edge...

After the demo, we headed over to watch pig races.  I would have been cool, but we couldn't really see the race.  The bit we did see was fun though.

Group selfie with Matt hiding and a creepy ghost kid photo-bombing

The pig race track

  We left the race a little early and then headed over to the corn maze.  It was huge!  We thought we were going to be lost in there for like 20 years, but we made it through pretty quick.  It wasn't like the haunted maze with monsters roaming around and hidden trampoline ground, but it was still pretty creepy because it was very dark, like pitch dark and the movie Signs would not leave my mind, thinking about aliens walking around at night through corn fields.  We were using the flashlight apps on our phones to help though.

 After we finished the corn maze, we went back to the main area and played some mini-golf because we still had some time before the firework show.  I think Matt won.  I'm pretty sure we all had some nice hole-in-ones (or is it holes-in-one?).

I don't really remember this instance, but it must have been the most exciting moment in mini-golf history based on Caitlin and Amy's faces.

Me coming back from retrieving my ball from the rugged terrain after a crazy shot.

I love this picture.  We captured a photo of a real Matt Keller out in the wild!

 Once we finished mini-golf we headed over to a nice and not crowded spot to watch the fire works.  It was a fun show, but we spent most of the time trying to take pictures.

After the fireworks we went to In-N-Out for shakes and fries which was super good!  There were a lot of high school kids there after a football game had ended or something and they were all stupid.  The older I get, the more I dislike random high school kids - especially in groups.

As it was getting closer to Halloween, we invited our friends, the Best's and Johnson's, over to our house to carve pumpkins and watch a scary movie.  Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of people, but we got a couple of the finished jack-o-lanterns.  It was pretty fun and we all got to know each other a little better and enjoy Halloween festivities.  The movie we watched after was Zombieland.  We were a bit embarrassed because we had forgot how much swearing was in the movie...

I forgot that since it's not cold in Arizona in October like it is in Utah that the pumpkins rot more quickly.  Our pumpkins were super gross before Halloween, so I threw them away.  Here's a top view of the nasty rotten pumpkins (and our Costco receipt).



Halloween was pretty fun!  Caitlin dressed up like a sheep with her friend, Natalie, at school.  They went to the store and bought stuff to make their own costumes.  Natalie made the cool sheep ear headbands.  After school, Caitlin and I went to Chipotle for dinner because if you wear a costume on Halloween there you can get a burrito for only $3.00!  It was rad!  I didn't have a costume though and refused to dress like a nerd because I have done that too many times, so Caitlin reminded me that she has a zebra onesie from last year when she dressed up like a zebra and I wore that.  It was a little snug, but it worked!  After we ate dinner we went over to the Best's house and ate lots of treats and watched a scary movie called Misery.  It was a pretty fun night!

Caitlin and Natalie

Acting Baah-some!

Eating at Chipotle.  Some of the young women from church came too and they enjoyed seeing Caitlin as a sheep.



New car!!

Sooooooooooo we got a call in September from the Redlands mission saying they had a 2011 corolla for sale and we were first on the waiting list, and asked if we wanted it.  We asked my dad to go take a look at it and if it looks good, to buy it!  So we hurried and tried to work out a loan and get our finances in order.  It was a bit stressful.  Let's just say my parents are the best people on Earth and it all worked out!  So my dad bought it for us.  Then I bought a plane ticket down there for my fall break to pick it up and drive it back.  I flew out on Monday October 6th and came back on Thursday the 9th.

Before I left it was conference weekend.  It was a good conference, especially since I was just able to relax and didn't have to think about school!  On Saturday I went down to Queen Creek to have dinner with Karen and then go get a fancy waffle from the waffle truck...yummm it's our tradition.

I also got ALL my grading done so I wouldn't have to worry about any over the break.  Check it out:

Pretty impressive, I know

Conference was great and it was a good, relaxing weekend!

Monday I flew kind of late so I got home and had dinner and just hung out for a while.

Tuesday I went running in the lovely San Diego weather, then my Dad and I ran some errands to Costco and Home Depot.  We had a pretty good time.  At home depot we made an amazing discovery in the coke bucket...

MAGICAL!!!

And Dad is a Diet Coke ;)

After our errands my Mom came home early from work and we all headed to the Zoo!  It was so fun!  It was kind of a whim decision but I'm glad we went.  It was a perfect day there.

Koala

This was pretty funny.  We got together for a picture and my mom took it on my phone and said "Oh got a perfect one!" and then I looked and saw this and I was like really mom?  Hahahha she cut off the giraffe's head at the perfect moment.  Hilarious.  So we had to take another one with a different giraffe.

Not sure why this one is all blurry

Meerkat king

Jayce pwning a ginormous bird

Jayce's favorite animals are the birds of prey

We rode the skylift thing back to the front of the park.  It was super funny because Jayce was being super whiny about how he wanted to see the birds of prey AND ride the skylift, but it wasn't going to happen if we had to pay for the lift.  He was being super bratty and my dad was like "Well you can't get everything you want, Mr. spoiled brat" and then this guy near us was like "Hey, that's MY name!" and it was pretty perfect timing and hilarious.

Plane flying by Balboa park

When we got home from the Zoo something really sad happened...our never-dying fish was dying!  It was really sad.  I took a picture but it's pretty sad so I won't put it in here.

The next day I spent going through old bins, getting rid of a lot of my old stuff in case my parents have to move.  And also because all my stuff was taking over their house haha.  I found some gems in my things.  I'll just share a few.

This is my favorite one!  So hilarious!  I still talk like this...it started early!

My amazing stuffed animal collection that my future children will enjoy thoroughly

I threw away all my trophies.  My soccer ones too.  It was pretty sad.

All my ID cards!  HA!  (Except 7th grade, not sure where that one went)

Pennie in her happy place...on Mom's bed falling asleep

My mom and I made these delish doughnuts

So Wednesday all day was going through bins, then on Thursday I left to go back home.  The drive went super fast because I was listening to a book which was awesome.  Once I got back it was a lot of school planning and grocery shopping and cleaning and stuff.  It was a great break and we love our new car!  I guess I should put a picture of it on here.

Here it is!  It's beautiful!

And that was my fall break!  Good times!

Crazy rain/flooding!

There was some crazy rain and flooding here in September!!  I have never seen rain like that before...it was like a hurricane.  There were 2 days in particular that were super crazy.  The first day was September 8th and school was delayed that day!  The roads were really flooded, some were even closed.  I had to go to school and babysit the few kids that came to school that day.  It was a bummer.  Here's some pics:

Turning onto the street my school is on...crazy lake right there!

Billy went to Target and this was the parking lot...

This road was SO flooded in the morning but I couldn't take a picture without crashing.  There are two cars stuck.  The water was up to their windows in the morning!  The road was still closed on my way home.

The next stormy day was a Saturday.  I took some videos but I can't post them here for some reason.  Here are a couple pictures.

It was really fun!  I wish it rained more often.  I love the rain!