San Francisco in the Summer

Here are some pictures from our trip to San Francisco with Suzanne, Liz, and David.  I meant to post them a while back, but I guess I forgot.

We had a fun time.  One of the places we visited was a submarine called the USS Pompanito.  We toured the ship and met some of the guys who were on the submarine during the war.  One of them was from another ship just like the Pompanito.  We all were amazed at the small quarters, and marveled at the thought of being on a ship, under water for months at a time.  You have to be brave, for sure!

Malinda, Eve, and Joshua next to an anchor.

Here are Suzanne, Joshua, Liz, David, Malinda and Eve on the ship.

Nathan's Hair Cut

Nathan with his new hair style.

"The Joys of Life"

Joshua wanted to make the Jaws of Life that the firefighters use.  Once again the No Ends allowed us to accomplish this task.  He calls the "Jaws of Life" the "Joys of Life."  I think he is so happy to be a firefighter and the jaws of life rescue people so that's happy, therefore he hears "joys" instead of "jaws".  Here he is cutting the couch.

Leah's Surgery

Okay, I've just posted 3 blogs tonight, so even if you've read recently you'll want to scroll down and read the other two posts.  

Leah had her first of two surgeries today.  Here she is just after we arrived home.  She was a trooper about it all.  The surgery went well, and Leah is doing well.   She is not in pain - thanks to the great medicine that she is on.

The surgeries are to correct an extremely high arch that has caused Leah to walk on the outside edge of her foot.  That has caused alignment problems which resulted in pain in her ankles and knees.  

We are so grateful for the advances in medicine that allow these things to be fixed.  We are grateful to the medical professionals that have studied and worked to provide such important services to each one of us.

We hope you feel better soon, Leah!

The Helicopter

  We have these toys called No Ends.  Joshua wanted to make a helicopter.  He always wants to make something.  Sometimes it's a helicopter, sometimes it's a fire truck, and sometimes it's a school bus.  We all have fun making things with the No Ends and trying to make them better than the last.  Eve says, "No Ends Rock!"  

Here is Joshua doing "construction" on the helicopter we made.  What that meant was that he put the pencil behind his ear, looked over the chopper, and then marked it where he thought something should be adjusted.  I thought it was so cute that I took this picture.  I did have to tell him not to mark them up anymore.

Finally, it was ready to fly.

Coming in for a landing.  Great flight!

Nathan's 15th Birthday

For nearly a year, Nathan has been wanting this guitar.  He decided that if we combined birthday and christmas with money from both sides of the family, that he could get this guitar.  

He thought he was going to have to do some jobs around the house, including bricking in part of the side yard.  Nathan has been so dedicated to learning the guitar, and practicing it, that we got it for him without him having to do those jobs.  He was completely surprised!  He didn't expect it at all.

It's great to see our children work on something they love!

Halloween Pictures

Halloween was more fun this year for me than in the past.  We decided to have Halloween the way I remember it - with a more homemade feel.  I get really annoyed by the expectation to wear a costume with a big wow factor, and by how expensive Halloween has become.  With five kids to buy costumes for, it was getting ridiculous. I wanted the kids to find out that it could be so much more fun to be creative.  It took very little convincing to have them agree to making a costume instead of buying one.  All I had to do was to tell them I would only pay $15 toward each of their costume.   They quickly calculated how much money they had, and each person decided whether it was worth the cost to them to buy a costume.  Nathan didn't dress up.  Eve bought her costume.  Malinda and Eve made their own.  In the end, we all found making costumes so enjoyable, that they want to do it again next year.

Joshua's costume was already determined in July, so he was a fireman as usual.   Here he is in our living room.  This one was taken a few days before Halloween, but it has him with his beloved torch.  On Halloween day, he had his torch with him, but not at the times when I had the camera, so I thought this picture was a better representation of what he looked like on Halloween.  We, of course, went Trick-or-Treating to the fire station.  He was in awe, but not afraid to talk to them.  He wants to go back and get invited in!

Here is Malinda during the parade at school.  She was a tiger.  We made her costume with a T-shirt, some duct tape, and pipe cleaners.  She designed the ears (they look like triangles in this picture, but they really had a great shape - rounded triangles with a pinched point at the top.)

Eve was a ladybug.  She looks so cute!

Leah wanted to be a honey bee, but all of the costumes except one were soooo inappropriate! We tried to buy the cute, modest one, but it was super popular, and everyone was sold out - both online and in the stores.  I hope that tells the costume designers something about what people want, and that they will design more modest costumes.  Anyway, Leah and her friend Ashley were both bees and went Trick-or Treating together.  Leah made her costume with a T-shirt, duct tape, and pipe cleaners.  I was going to sew a little skirt on the bottom of the tee, but we ran out of time.  The wings were from last year's fairy costume.
We Trick-or-Treated around the neighborhood, at church for a Trunk-or-Treat, and went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It rained so we got wet, but it wasn't cold - it was actually really fun!  I love where we live, because the whole neighborhood is out and it's a great social event.  The kids get to see all of their school friends either on the sidewalk or when they knock at the door.  It's probably the only thing I like about Halloween - seeing the friends and seeing how excited the kids are to be dressed up.  Now, if we make our costumes again next year, then it will tap into my love for creativity and that will be another thing I like about Halloween.