Happy Halloween!

Halloween was fun times around here! I love Halloween and this year was the first year that Ivan actually shared in the joy with me:) He was our master pumpkin carver this year. Ivan loves gutting them (because that means he gets to eat the seeds later), but Tyson wanted no part in it.

Carving with Daddy. Tyson thought it was fun to put the triangles back in the holes and have us pop them out over and over again:).

Tyson really did love the jack o' lantern, he was just mad that we were taking a picture because he couldn't look at it. Sorry bud.

Tyson was a lion for Halloween. If you asked him what he was being, he would say "lion and a tiger" because the whole week before I kept asking him which one he wanted to be, but he couldn't choose. So Ivan finally did. Tyson was pretty dang excited to go Trick or Treating. He mostly just loved his bucket. He did not let go of it all night, especially when it was filled with candy.

For the first round of trick-or-treating we went with Tyson's friend and our neighbor across the way, David. They have so much fun together. Tyson just loves David!

Tyson thought it was necessary to take the candy from the people and put it in his bucket himself.

For the second round of trick-or-treating we went over to Ivan's parents house. Tyson was pretty excited to go with them and kept saying how fun it was that we were going "all together!" The goods. The book is much more interesting apparently.

Tyson didn't want to wear the hood all night, but we had to get at least one picture with it, and this is what we got. The angry lion. The tradition continues (last year it was the angry elephant).

After some book reading, we finally got this one. Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had the most AWESOME birthday this year! Ivan didn't get to take labor day off because of busy season, so he had a few days that he could take off. He used one on my birthday and we got to party all day! It was seriously so much fun. I could not have asked for a better birthday from my boys! We slept in (as long as Tyson would let us) and Ivan insisted that we have birthday donuts (because we weren't having cake that night) so he went and got us some donuts for breakfast. So yummy! Then we went to Bishops Pumpkin Farm. So fun!

We got to take a hay ride out to the patch and then we got to choose our own pumpkin. Tyson wanted to walk around the whole patch. He had a blast!

He found The One!

A fellow maternity ward patient:) Hopefully I don't get that big!

Petting the pony.

Brushing the goats

Feeding the goats.

We got to go on a little train ride around the whole farm. It was really fun. Tyson's breakdown when we were getting off will attest to that.

We went home and got some lunch and took Tyson over to Sister Wunderli's house so we could go on a little date. We went to Petroglyph. It is a ceramics place right down the street from our house. We painted a cake plate together.

Don't mess up Ivan!

We were pretty pleased with the finished product!

We stayed home for dinner and had lasagna. My favorite dinner and the one I always choose on my birthday. Then we finished it off with a delicious pumpkin pie milkshake. Seriously delicious! It was definitely one of those times that you wish it was your birthday every day of the year! So fun! Thank you for the wonderful day my boys!

More Oakland

We got to go to Oakland to see our friends, Britta and Shay, and their little guy Cal. We are so happy we got to go! It was so fun to see them and catch up with them. They live right by the Oakland Temple in the cutest little apartment. So fun!

They took us up to this lookout point. It was so pretty! You could see the whole bay, the Golden Gate bridge, the Temple. It was the real deal. Awesome!

They took us up to a little train park. Tyson is in love with trains right now so he was pretty excited. It was a great ride. The train is steam powered and run by the most friendly people around.

The cute Brunson family!

Tyson was pretty broken up about getting off of the train, so we tried to cheer him up by taking a picture with the conductor, super nice guy by the way, but it didn't really work. He continued to cry for about 5 minutes.

After that, we went to a little animal farm where you can feed the animals and pet them. So we grabbed some lettuce and celery and headed up there. It was really fun!

Tyson was pretty dang nervous at first. He liked watching Ivan feed the animals, but wanted not part in it himself. Once he got over his initial nervousness though, he loved it!

Cal got pretty brave too!
Can I just say that cows have the longest tongues ever.

A piece of celery fell on the ground while Shay was feeding the cows and he kept trying to feed it to all the animals, but none of them would eat it. Apparently they get pretty picky when they are fed regularly. So finally he hid the celery in some lettuce and tricked a goat into eating it. Victory!

We went to this amazing crepe place for lunch and it was so good! It is so fun to go to the city and get to try the little mom and pop shops. They don't have many of those in Roseville. We also drove right past Occupy Berkeley. Ivan was pretty dang excited. He has been wanting to see an occupy movement for a while.

Thank you so much Britta and Shay! You guys are the best!

Stanford and Oakland

On Thursday, October 20th, Ivan's mission president and his wife were in Oakland and they invited all the missionaries in the area to go down and have dinner with them. We jumped at the opportunity to see them and were super excited to go. The dinner was SO fun! It was great to see President Fotheringham and his wife and some of the elders that Ivan served with. Our camera died before we could get any pictures (so sad) so we are waiting to get them from the other guys. We decided to make a long weekend of it and we headed down to Stanford to stay with Heather and James and their boys Talmage and Everett. We got to tour the campus, which is gorgeous by the way, feed the ducks and go on an adventure. We had so much fun with them! Heather spoiled us. We had "cupcakes" for breakfast and received the royal treatment. Tyson was in toy heaven that's for sure! She had the most amazing white chocolate macadamia nut cookies I have ever had and Ivan loved the s'more bars. So yummy! We also got to see Heather's parents, which are old family friends of Ivan's family. They are such a blast!

At the top of Hoover Tower. It looked out over all of the campus. Gorgeous. We are so glad we got to see it!

A reproduction of the Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin.

In front of the Memorial Church on campus. It is beautiful!

They have a pretty awesome community park right in their backyard so we couldn't pass that up. The boys played on the toys, passed the football (and Ivan taught Talmage how to tackle, sorry Heather), kicked the soccer ball, and took a ride in a red wagon. Ivan pulled them around for probably about 20 minutes. They loved it! The only thing they couldn't decide on was which way to go. Tyson wanted to go backward and Talmage wanted to go forward. Decisions, decisions. So Ivan made the executive decision and they went sideways. So funny. Then they played a game where Ivan pulled them through the rope swing and the boys had to try to dodge it. They thought it was pretty funny. Tyson especially liked it when it hit his head. Sometimes we wonder about this kid:)

Ivan also taught Tyson to throw the bread at the ducks heads. He seems to have a knack for teaching kids naughty stuff:) He justifies it saying that he was aiming for their mouths, but we all know the truth. Tyson thought it was pretty funny though. He loved to see the ducks scramble after the bread. I wish I could see into this kids head because he thinks the wierdest things are so funny. Pretty sure he has the cutest laugh ever though so I don't mind!

The two boys throwing together. I love Talmage's face. Classic.

Talmage deep in thought about the ducks.

We went a little further down the road from the duck pond and found a little inlet of water. We went out on the dock and Tyson thought that the bird poop was rocks, so naturally he picked it up and threw it in the water. So gross. Talmage and his grandpa were causing an earthquake on the bridge and the boys thought it was pretty funny to hear their voices while they were bouncing. We also got to see some guys windsurf. It was pretty cool. Then the guy fell.
And Tyson crashed on the way out.

Thank you Wiggingtons for having us! You are Be-awesome! We had a blast!