October

When we got back from Tennessee, we were thrown right back into regular life.  Corinne and Evan decided that "cleaning" windows was the coolest thing in the world.
    

    
Co-op continued every Friday.  I especially love my Latin class - it's just three third-grade girls, and they are the sweetest things ever!  My insects class and mammals class are both delightful, too, just bigger!  We have park day once a month after classes, and Corinne took the opportunity that day to show off her superhero shirt.
    

The first weekend in October was General Conference.  I had been challenged by my friend Claire to read (or listen to) all of the April Conference messages, about one a day, before this one started, and it transformed my experience.  Not only did I benefit from the wisdom I absorbed while reading them, but October Conference was so much more rewarding because I didn't feel as cheated.  Instead of being frustrated that the kids did so much interrupting, I looked at those (new) sessions as more of a preview of things I would study later.  It was the first Conference in a long time where I ended feeling satisfied and refreshed!
  

Waiting for the "Conference Coin Shop" to open.

    
We almost always carve pumpkins in the same spot in our yard.  Coincidentally, there have often been volunteer pumpkin plants that spring up in that area!  This one did unusually well, although it failed to produce any pumpkins.  It made beautiful pumpkin blossoms each day, which wilted by afternoon.
    

     
One Thursday, as I was "assisting" Evan to stand up and walk to his room to clean up dirty clothes, we had an ill-fated collision between his heel and my foot.  I've often thought my toe was broken, but this was the first time it actually was.  It wasn't too subtle, either.
   

Eeeeew.

The day after getting my toe x-rayed and buddy-taped at urgent care, I (probably foolishly) decided to go to Rise of the Jack O Lanterns - an awesome outdoor display of pumpkin art at Descanso Gardens.  It was quite a long walk on my gimpy toe, but it was really cool to look at.
  

Note the jellyfish in the background.

    
The next morning (still on my gimpy toe) we attended the Club 21 Walk-a-thon in Pasadena.  This was our second year, and the first year we all officially registered.  We also took Elise's friend Ashlee while her family was moving that day.  The kids had a great time, both at the walk-a-thon and at the carnival that followed.  We even came home with two carnival-prize goldfish, one of which promptly died.  Club 21 is a learning and resource center for people with Down's Syndrome.

Hairstyle Booth

   
After the carnival, and some lunch, we drove to the Pomona Fairplex to look at their RV show.  (Yes, this was still on my very unhappy toe.)  We found this tiny "TAB" teardrop trailer and fell in love with it.  It was all we could talk about for about a week afterward.  It's small enough to be towed by a Honda Odyssey, but has all the amenities we would need for comfortable trips.  The plan would not be for us to sleep in it (at least until the kids were old enough to do a tent on their own), but to use it as a gathering place, kitchen, and bathroom.  Sadly, we discovered a bit later that neither our driveway nor our garage would admit such a lovely toy.
   

     
Connor and Elise tested for their yellow belts in October.  They both did great, and broke boards with their feet this time.  Evan's taekwondo class had their own promotion day, where Evan earned a preschool stripe on his belt.  He also broke a board, and was SO excited to be like his older siblings.  In moving to the yellow belt class, Connor and Elise started sparring as part of their training.  
    

Promotion #2

Evan's Board Breaking

There were a few days in a row, where a ton of really gross black flies kept accumulating in our living room window.  At first I thought someone had just left the door open, but they kept reappearing, even after I swatted all the original ones.  We searched everywhere to see if there was something dead or disgusting under the couch or something, but couldn't find anything.  Eventually, they stopped appearing.  However, a week later, different insects started appearing in the same window area.  These were like tiny, hook-legged wasps.  I went online, and with great difficulty discovered that the big ugly flies were "flesh flies" and the wasps were called "chalcid wasps".  There was a small hole in the windowsill that went down into the wall cavity, so I realized that the flies had apparently grown in something dead in our wall (probably a rat).  Some hatched, but some were parasitized by the wasps, who lay their eggs on maggots.  The wasp babies ate up the maggots, then hatched out as adult wasps a week after the surviving flies.  Isn't nature beautiful?  We sealed up the hole.
    

Chalcid Wasp

Halloween was great this year - not overwhelming at all.  Elise's friend Sarah convinced her to be a "twin witch" with herself and her friend from school.  Connor, very practically saying that he couldn't think of a better costume, went as the Grim Reaper for the third year in a row, and Evan wanted to be Captain America, mostly because of the shield, since Evan doesn't really know anything about Captain America.  Corinne went to the church party as a chick, but did Halloween itself as a black cat.  That is the benefit of having lots of hand-me-down costumes to choose from.
   

Ward Party, with Our Neighbors

  

Connor's, Elise's, Evan's, and Corinne's (Ghost-Carved by Mom)

  

After trick-or-treating, they always end up watching Garfield's Halloween Adventure

We also spent October preparing for the church Primary Program.  These pictures pretty much sum up the craziness of rehearsal!
   

 
On the day of the program, Connor and Elise were among the kids who played prelude music before the meeting started.  Our ward newsletter guy took these great pictures, since I was too busy and stressed to think of such a thing.  (It's not appropriate to take pictures during a Sacrament Meeting, so there are no photos of the actual program.)  The kids all did an amazing job, which was helped by the great writing and directing of my first counselor, Danni.  Afterwards, we had our traditional milk and donuts outside!
  

Waiting to Play Prelude

Me Trying to Remember Everything

  

Danni and Claire are two of my favorite people.  I'm so lucky they agreed to work with me!

    

Donut Line

  

September, and Tennessee!

One Saturday, we used our Magic Mountain passes to go to Hurricane Harbor for the first time.  It was fun, but a little bit too big!
  

At home, Ryan's pepper plant continued to produce Carolina Reapers.  Corinne stole my phone and took some cute pictures of her feet and her bedroom.
    

  

One day during school time, the kids looked so lazy I just had to take a picture to show them.
  

Connor and Elise got free tickets to go see "Sleeping Beauty" with some church friends at the Glendale Center Theater.  It was one of their "Children's Theater" productions, so everyone had a great time.
   

On the 22nd of September, we set off on our vacation to Tennessee!  It was the first time flying for Corinne, and the first remembered time for Elise and Evan.  We left super early in the morning, so everybody was wiped out by the time we got to Nashville.
  

The pilot let Evan sit in the cockpit on our way out!

On our first day, in Oak Ridge, we visited the American Museum of Science and Energy.  We could have easily spent two days there, but only had three hours.  The main exhibit, of course, was about the Manhattan Project, and really helped me understand how each group worked together - Ryan and I have now visited Hanford, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge!  There were tons of other science exhibits, including a show about electricity, which was only attended by us that day.  We all got to be volunteers!
    

Late that afternoon, we went to the Museum of Appalachia.  It's an outdoor museum consisting of authentic Appalachian buildings from the 1800s brought together in one place.  It was a beautiful walk as we wandered around to see everything.
   

Schoolhouse

Corinne's Favorite Exhibit

      
That night we drove to Gatlinburg and spent the night in a less-than-fabulous hotel room, which Evan thought was the best, because it had stairs.  In the morning, we got to eat breakfast at the famous Crockett's Breakfast Camp.  We had planned ahead on this one, based on rumors of "deep-fried cinnamon rolls", but even better were their inch-thick pancakes.  Can you tell I enjoyed this??
    

Skillet Combo

Deep Fried Cinnamon Roll

We then went to the Great Smoky Mountains visitor's center, and picked up Junior Ranger books for the three oldest.  We did a great little nature walk/hike nearby, where the kids climbed a waterfall and identified trees (Junior Ranger requirement).  On the way back, we saw a few people staring at a snake in the creek.  It didn't look like a rattlesnake, so I wasn't too worried about it.  We took a picture, watched it for awhile, and went on our way.  I found out later on the internet that it was a venomous Copperhead!
    

Looking at the Snake

     

Our last activity that day was to hike to the top of Clingman's Dome.  There is a great observation tower there, and although the fog made most observing impossible, it was really beautiful and memorable anyway.  We did get a good picture of the view at the parking lot level.  On the hike back down, Elise and I became obsessed with looking for caterpillars.  We were the last ones to get to the car.
        

  

Observation Tower

On Friday morning, we drove around the Smokies in the rain for a bit, then started our trip west.  On the way out of Gatlinburg we passed through Pigeon Forge again.  This place is like Vegas for families - crammed with mini-golf and water parks and dinner theaters of all imaginable themes.  It was kind of unbelievable.

When we passed though Nashville again, we stopped at Hattie B's for hot chicken.  This is the cultural dish of Nashville, and Ryan loved it.  He admits he should have ordered it less spicy, though.

    

We spent the rest of our trip at Nana and Al's home in Dyersburg.  My poor, deprived children were amazed by their huge lawn, and spent lots of time rolling down their hill.

  

On Saturday, we went to Discovery Park of America.  It's like an all-purpose history, art, and science museum with outdoor gardens and exhibits as well.  The kids' area was Corinne's favorite - especially the tub full of "living sand".  While I was watching the other kids on the huge human-shaped slide, she wandered over to the tub, stripped completely naked, and tried to climb in.  I guess I can understand her confusion.
     

Inside the Fish Tank

 

  
Outside there was a harvest-themed exhibit that was really cute, along with a historical village.  There was a sorghum mill on display, which Connor and Elise thought was cool, after having read Strawberry Girl this summer.
   

  

More Caterpillars

 

Elise the Mule

We ate at a lot of buffets during this trip, but this was the first, and best-named.
    

 

  
Saturday evening, I took Elise to the local LDS branch building to watch the Women's Session of General Conference.  It was Elise's first chance to attend since turning eight, and it really made us appreciate how well-established the church is in California.  Most of the Relief Society was there, which consisted of about ten ladies.  They hopefully asked if we were new, and I had to admit we were just visiting.  Elise and I had a really special time, though.  When we got back, we saw that Nana had been taking on the other kids at every board game they owned.
     

  
The next morning, we went with Ryan's grandparents to First Baptist Church in Dyersburg.  It was a neat experience, and a lot of fun to meet all of Nana and Al's friends.  Ryan said it looked like Nana was "running for President", with all the handshakes and hugs she got.  The warm welcome and friendliness we felt there was amazing.  I definitely have a positive impression of Southern Baptists now.
     

Before Church

  

On Sunday night there was a lunar eclipse, which we watched from the front porch.  You could hear frogs calling from the trees all around, and we even caught one the first night we were there.

     

A very lousy picture of the eclipse.

    
On Monday morning, Al took Ryan and the older kids shooting at a friend's property.  Elise came back saying that Grandpa Al told her she was "Annie Oakley".
   

     
Knowing of our plans to eventually remodel our kitchen, Nana took me to her friend's house to see what they had done.  She also invited me to her Bunco club that night, where I was immersed in more Southern friendliness and fattening food!  Plus, I won eight dollars.
    

Nana's Friend's Kitchen - It WAS very nice.

    
Tuesday morning, very early, we had to leave to make it to our flight home from Nashville.  I would have liked to have had more time in Tennessee, but we made a lot of great memories in the week we had!