Hiking

The day after Thanksgiving we finally got ourselves off the couch to go do a little hiking. We went to Santiago Oaks Regional Park in Orange. It was close by, and beautiful. We were surprised we had never been there before. There were many trails to choose from. We decided to hike the mountain goat trail that went up to a lookout point. It was a long hike, but very scenic.

Thanksgiving 2012

Julie hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at her house this year. We missed having Grammy and Grandpaw there this year. Julie cooked a delicious turkey, ham and green bean casserole for us. Her house looked beautiful. Grandma, Pappy, Skyler, Jerry and I had a great time! Gobble, gobble!

Laughlin

 

We took a trip to Laughlin before Thanksgiving this year. We stayed at the Riverside, for the first time since before Skyler was born. It was good to be back! We checked in and walked along the river. To our surprise we saw a skunk! He was walking around the parking lot. A few minutes after that we saw two huge raccoons. I had no idea Laughlin would be such a zoo. Skyler fed some giant koi fish by the Colorado Belle and ate chicken nuggets on a bench by the river. That night she got to play at the Kids Kastle bouncing in the bounce house, playing arcade games and coloring. The next day we had the $1.99 breakfast at Harrah's. Then we drove to Grapevine Canyon which was about 5 miles away. We went on a hike into the rocky area. There they had ancient petroglyphs from 1100 AD. We climbed up rocks to see how far we could go. As we were making our way up a smooth huge rock, Skyler gasped! A  big tarantula came out right in front of us. We had never seen one in nature before! We decided we better turn back. Skyler decided she loved hiking and climbing on rocks. After seeing a few more rock drawings, we headed back to the Riverside where we caught a movie (Wreck It Ralph) and relaxed in our room for a little while. In the evening Skyler visited Kids Kastle again. Later we walked to Joe's Crab Shack which had a nice outdoor deck on the river.  We had some clam chowder and calamari. I was hoping to see more raccoons but we just ran into the skunk again. We made sure not to bother him though. The next morning we made our way home after a yummy breakfast at Ihop. It was a great time visiting Laughlin again!

November Poses

Skyler loved posing in November. Here she is in her favorite sparkly hat, with her lunchbox before school, playing with Janey and their cars, and in curlers.

Fall Back Party

We had friends over to celebrate the time change in November. Jerry manned the grill and all the kids swam and did crafts. At the end of the night the kids danced "Gangnam Style".

Halloween Night

 

We were so happy to go trick or treating with our next door neighbors again this year. Janey was a witch and Julia was the Mad Hatter, which went well with Skyler's Alice in Wonderland costume. Their baby brother Robbie went with us too. Frank's friend was a Rubik's cube. We walked more streets this year, stopping by Ernie's house, and the creepy haunted house on the corner. After trick or treating, Jerry and Rob played ping pong in the garage.

Halloween 2012

Halloween was so fun this year. There was a Halloween party and parade at school. Skyler's class made caramel apples and foam frames. Then it was time for the parade! The new principal came out in a Peter Pan type outfit and led all the children around. Skyler was cute in her Alice In Wonderland costume. They made caramel apples in the class. Skyler also posed with her big buddy, Skylar.