Lake Skating

Last Friday we drove past Twin Lakes and saw some people playing hockey on the ice, so we figured we'd try out our skates while we knew the ice was frozen enough. Wynn proved again that he isn't big fan of being bundled up and only lasted about 30 minutes but we had fun. My feet were killing me by the end; they'll have to get used to skates. Both kids had fun and it was awesome to skate on a lake for the first time. It's pretty bumpy out there, but I only fell once :).

Thanksgiving

We had a pretty low key Thanksgiving this year. Highlights include... making festive hats, watching a movie at home, playing a few games, and eating yummy food of course.

Sydney "put Nemesis" to bed since she didn't want to participate.

Look closely... you can see the lone tooth poking down :)

Pajama Party

Sydney got to have a pajama party at preschool the other day. I was the snack parent that day so I got to stay all day and help with the fun. The kids all wore pj's, made pillows, got to bring sleeping bags, have popcorn and watch a short movie at the end of the day.  At the parent conference, her teachers said she is very smart and great at one on one interaction. She still doesn't play a lot with the other kids and hangs back but she warms up more and more every week. She loves going and loves to show us her projects and sing all the songs she learns. I'm really glad she has so much fun.

Let it Snow!!

Sydney had her first really snowy day at preschool this week. While in Texas, my mom got her a new snowsuit which worked great for so much snow. She dressed up in her warmest clothes to go to school and then we played in the snow after preschool too. She was a really good helper with the Minnie snowman and made the head and ears all by herself. I had to lift the head though :). Her teachers at preschool said her favorite snow activity was spraying the snow with squirt bottles filled with colored water. I'll have to get another squirt bottle and let her paint the snow here at home too! Whenever Sydney laughs really hard she throws her head back... I just happened to catch that moment this time.

Halloween

I'm more traditional when it comes to Halloween, so this year we opted to walk door to door first to trick-or-treat. I thought we'd make it just in time for the trunk or treat after the carnival at the church... Turns out the did the trunk part first... but we didn't need obscene amounts of candy anyway. Sydney enjoyed walking door to door and choosing which houses to go to by their Halloween decorations. Both kids were wearing like three layers of clothes so they were toasty warm on the cold night. At the church we played a few games and came home to a few pieces of candy and bed. Overall, it was a pretty good night, and Andy got the spoils of all the candy we didn't end up handing out at the church.

Trip Stage 3: Texas

After visiting Oregon, we drove into Boise on Friday night and flew out early Saturday morning. The kids did  awesome again on the flights. I even got to bring aboard Wynn's car seat for the longer flight, so he slept about half of that one. Wynn got pretty clingy to mama during our trip, but he immediately warmed up to Grandma and Grandpa Pack. There is something about going home that just feel comfortable. Every time  I walk into my parent's house it just feels familiar and good. The Texas heat wasn't too high this time of year so we got a lot of time outside enjoying the warmth. Sydney was fascinated by the warm wind and still is talking about Alaska's cold wind and Texas' warm wind. Wynn was in heaven playing with all of grandma's trucks and cars since we have yet to get many of those with his birthday just around the corner. Grandma Pack has a gift for playing with children. Her imagination amazes me. I can play with Sydney and keep her attention for a few minutes, but Grandma can hold her attention for hours. Whenever we come home from a trip to see her, Sydney creates and recreates things she played with Grandma for months. We visited a nature museum while there that had local animals and a dinosaur walk. Sydney wouldn't go within 15 feet of any of the dinosaurs except for the "happy" one pictured below. Wynn was fascinated by the weird noises they were making and tried to imitate them if he could.  They enjoyed the animals so much we decided to take them to the zoo the next day even though its quite a drive. They both loved the zoo. It was just the right temperature and partly cloudy. Sydney loved being able to feed the birds and see big animals like the giraffes and elephants. Wynn's favorite were the birds too though. He made friends with a hawk who seemed intrigued by his little laugh and face on the other side of the glass. He was a little nervous about the macaw's shriek but decided to try and see if he could imitate them too. Andy, Dad, and Kevin decided to build Chinese lanterns and even though we didn't fully succeed it was fun to try and Sydney got to run around and play with Brooke. All the cousins got to dawn their Halloween costumes on Saturday night for a mini Halloween party and then trip to the trunk or treat. It's too bad Sydney didn't get to enjoy all her candy since we left the next day, but she had fun being a ghost and telling everyone "Boo!" Both kids loved visiting so much family and its been somewhat rough getting back into the humdrum of daily life, but we glad we got to see everyone and look forward to their next visit! Get ready for picture overload...

 This is as close as she'd get to all but one of the dinosaurs

 Obviously Wynn wasn't as nervous

The "happy" dinosaur

Feathered friend

Their favorite game... too bad Wynn can't keep up on his own yet

Wynn learned to point and say da for "that" while we were at the zoo

Picnic party 

She has the most dramatic facial expressions for everything

Trunk or treat with Grandma and Brooke :)

Trip Stage 1: Idaho

For the first leg of our trip we flew into SLC and drove up to Pocatello, Idaho. I was VERY nervous about flying all day and then driving three hours with a squirmy little boy (Sydney is a champ at traveling with all her experience)... but I was EVEN MORE nervous about sleeping in a hotel room with everyone so close to each other. Sydney had a loud croupy cough when we left from a cold a few weeks back and was waking up 3-4 times a night coughing and crying, so I was really worried she'd keep waking Wynn up. Well the kids did great on the flight even though Wynn was restless and after our first night in the hotel I sighed a HUGE sigh of relief! She woke up a lot coughing and crying but somehow he slept through it all. We got to enjoy a beautiful fall day at the Idaho Falls, Idaho temple where we were able to attend an endowment session with Andy's nephew and wife and other family. Sydney napped while we were in the temple so she was easy babysitting for the cousins and Wynn was just happy as usual :D. It was awesome to get to see family we haven't in a while. The next day we got to watch nephew Tyler's ISU football game and it was indoors/not crowded so the kids could move around and play. They lasted almost the whole game and then we took them to a park. We are really glad we made the extra effort to fly into Salt Lake and drive into Idaho so we could be there with family on their special day and visit with everyone for just a while. 

Of course the kids wouldn't look or smile...