A Witch and her Dragon

Grace and Shreya (a neighbor friend) 

at the ward Trunk or Treat.

It's been a long time since Grace has been willing to consider dressing up as anything other than a princess/queen for Halloween.  Every year, I try to make the case for how awesome dressing up as banana or a giraffe would be, always to no avail.

After a fairly disappointing trick or treating showing last year due to cold weather and a lot of long dress induced tripping, Spencer was convinced that the best costume for Grace would be that of a water buffalo.  Grace wasn't having that either.  Plus, surprisingly, that costume is not super easy to come by. :)

This year, hope sprang eternal and I once again tried to break Grace out of her Disney Princess induced bubble.  After every Princess costume we looked at either didn't fit or wasn't in great shape, I started tentatively pushing the idea of the witch costume.

At first she seemed okay with it, but the closer we got to the cash register, the worse she felt about it.  We were headed to my sister's house for dinner right after, so I convinced her that we'd get it for now so she could show Ellie and the cousins and see what they thought.  Then, if she still really hated it, we could return it.   That went horribly (tears, dramatic exlamations, etc.), so my hopes weren't too high as we headed home that night.

Miraculously (I still can't explain it), I woke up the next morning to a witch costume clad Grace, happily doing tricks with her witch's hat.   And she was happy about it from then on.  It was a Halloween miracle. She did end up accessorizing her witch hat with a purple crown, but hey, progress was made.   Yippee!

When I still felt that a princess costume was inevitable, I thought Luke would have made an awesome jester in Grace's royal court:

Sadly, he hated the court jester costume.  Something about it being way too top heavy, I don't know... :)  I thought it was pretty adorable.  A friend ended up loaning us the below pictured, fabulous dragon costume so it all worked out in the end.  

Sneaking all the food he could at the Trunk or Treat.

On the way to the Trunk of Treat.

Grace's school had a little Fall Festival on Halloween day.  They sent home a letter requesting that the kids dress up as either what they want to be when they grow up, or something representing their favorite letter.  Grace chose the letter P and dressed up as a purple plum.  All I'm saying is that there are a shocking amount of kids who want to be zombies and super heroes when they grow up.  Apparently other parents didn't take the "no Halloween costume" edict as seriously as I did.  :)

We carved pumpkins with some friends. I helped Grace with hers and never got around to carving mine.  It remains faceless to this day.  Spencer did a pretty good job on his, I thought.

The kids on Halloween night.  It went much better than last year,
despite an ominous weather forecast.  We braved the rain and had
a fabulous time going out with the Warnicks.  Luke is a trick or
treating natural.  He is my child after all.  :)  Strangely, he didn't
trust me to hold his bag of candy.  Or help him put the candy in
his bag.  Rats!  He's already on to me.

Cute group of cousins!

Lucky

Oh, Grace.  She's a funny duck.  Five years old,  full day kindergartner, attentive older sister,  and...aspiring shower vocalist.

Lately, she's been fighting every shower she has to take---bargaining to delay, begging for slightly increased dirtiness.  And yet...once she's in there, she never wants to come out.  She runs through every song she knows.  Multiple times.

The other day, I caught her singing, "if you're happy and you know it, scrub your [insert body part]" for a good ten minutes. She got pretty darn clean that day. :)

Never a dull moment with this one.  It's been a little rough adapting to a full day at school, but these things remain constant: Grace is a smart, caring, sensitive girl and I love her.

And little Luke.  20 months worth of pure joy, that one.  Wow.  What's not to love about that little red haired beauty?  He still doesn't talk much, but he makes up for that with some impressively expressive grunting skills.  He's fantastically cuddly and affectionate, he lives to sit in my lap and read stories, and he's obsessed with cars.  Obsessed.

Everytime we walk to the bus stop to pick up Grace, we have to leave with a ten minute cushion so that Luke can touch and examine every car we pass in the parking lot.  He hasn't starting kicking tires yet, but he'll get there.  Here's a snippet of our daily bus stop trip conversation:

    Luke: Uh!
    Me: Yes, that's a blue car.
    Luke: Uuuhhh!
    Me: Yep, it has tires.
    Luke: Uhhh!
    Me: Yeah, that one's a big, cool truck.
    Luke: Uhhh uhh!
    Me: Yeah, I like the shiny radiator, too.

So, I'm reminded of a scene from Toy Story 2.  You know, the part in Woody's Roundup where they show a small group of woodland creatures communicating an intense and fantastically detailed message to Woody by a short series of incomprehensible squeaks and grunts?  Turns out, totally realistic.  Who knew?  :)

So, so lucky to have such wonderful kids.  Life wouldn't be life without them.

Vacation Trifecta

In July, we turned an intended trip to South Dakota
for a family reunion into a trifecta of vacation family fun.
Heck, if you're already driving 20 hours, what difference 
does it make to add an additional eight?  :)

Our first stop was Williston, North Dakota.  Not only
did we get to enjoy the fabulous company of my brother
Sam, his wife Emily, and their little family, we also got to add an extra state
to our list!  And a difficult one at that!  State #32!

We met baby Declan for the first time.  He and
Grace got along well, obviously.  Ha!  Cutest, cuddliest little
guy you'll ever meet.  And Grace got to have all kinds of
fun with Edison and Alex.  Add multiple delicious dinners and
lots of fun game time after the kids were in bed, and a great trip was had
by all.


This time, we decided to try the driving-through-the-night-trick.  Now, I realize it's probably not for everyone, but I LOVED it.  I drove from 8:30 pm to about 8:30 am the next day, only having to stop once for gas.  For one, so much faster.  Almost twelve straight hours of uninterrupted road trip bliss.  I popped in an exciting book, and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

And, really, how often do I get to spend 12 waking hours without anyone asking or requiring anything of me?  And watching the sun come up?  Awesome.  On the way home I drove through the night again.  Loved it just as much.  Sure, I could barely walk and was mostly incoherent the next day, but hey, totally worth it.  And it made the additional ten hours the next day seem like so much less.  Ha.

 Anyway, if nothing else works out in my life, I think I could probably be a pretty awesome truck driver.  Just sayin.'

After North Dakota, we made our way down south to meet up with Spencer's family at Mount Rushmore.  We stayed at Custer State Park and had a fabulous time camping, seeing the sights, eating, playing games, swimming, and hanging out with family that we see far, far too seldom.

Pictured below: Lilly, April's youngest.  Adorable.  And Mom Gwen.  Also adorable.  So glad she was able to take some time off from her mission to be with us!

And then there was Sylvan Lake.  Wow!  So beautiful.  

I think we all would have spent the entire five days here if we'd known how awesome it was going to be.

Max Fairbourne, Luke's fellow redhead.

Below: Whitney, baby Sadie and Landon (left) and sweet Sammy Fairbourne (right).

From back (L to R): Calais Roemer, Olivia Fairbourne, Anthony Bardsley, and Heather Partridge.

Grace had no idea she had so many cousins.  She loved every minute of it.  Especially the minutes she spent hiding in our tent, decompressing.  What can I say, she needs her Grace time.

Anna meets the paddle board.  So fun.

Of course, we went exploring at Mount Rushmore

 and spent the evening back at camp watching "North by Northwest."

How could we not?

Isabella, Grace and Sydney.  So cute together.  The last day, they made a nest together at the campsite complete with all kinds of wildflowers and leaves.  It was pretty awesome.  Any bird (skunk, squirrel, chipmunk...) would be lucky to call it home.

The whole crew of cousins.  Mostly.

The whole crew of Bardsley siblings.  Complete. :) 

Hanging out at the campsite.  Grace made me that bouquet. 

 She took off her shoelace to keep it together and everything.  I am loved.  :)

We also explored the Jewel Cave National Monument.  Very cool.  Very glad Luke didn't come.  Grandma Gwen kindly took him while we went on the hour long version of the tour.  He, reportedly, cried through the entire twenty minute version.  Ouch.
 Somehow Grace got Chrystel to carry her almost the entire time.
She's a saint, I tell you.  

We had so much fun.  Can't wait for the next Bardsley family reunion!  And next time, for sure Luke won't spend the entire time constipated and grumpy.  For sure.  

On our way home, we decided to check out Badlands National Park.  So worth it.  It was really nice to have a just our family portion of the trip, albeit rather short.  

Best family photo bomb ever.

This was the view that awaited us as we drove into our neighborhood on the way home. 

 I think Columbus was happy to have us back.

And, I'll have you all know, we did our part in depleting the bug population this trip. 

 You're welcome.