Happy Halloween

Halloween was nice this year!  The weather was perfect- not the raining/sleeting/wear-your-heavy-winter-coat-over-your-costume weather I remember from my childhood- more like 70° and sunny. 

So nice, I may have actually gotten a slight tan planting my fall bulbs this afternoon. 

Around dinner time, we headed over to grandma & papa Dow's house, where there's always plenty of the trick-or-treating action every year.  We visited two of the neighbor houses, but didn't venture much further... not until Kaden has a better grasp of what's going on.

I was able to get a bit more mileage out of my costume.  Ben chose NOT to dress up.  Shocker.

Lucky for him, I found the ole' "greaser" wig at his parents' house that I forced upon him.  Tee-hee.

It didn't dawn on us what Ben should have been until a little trick-or-treater pointed to Kaden and exclaimed, "Hey, it's Curious George!" Then it hit me, Ben should have been the Man in the Yellow Hat carrying Kaden around. Next time? Next monkey costume opportunity? Next kid?

Someday we'll really get it together...

Ben & his dad mostly watched the Rangers in game 4 of the World Series while Shanny & I passed out candy.  Kaden did his thing and ate his animal crackers.

The Craighead & Dow families

I absolutely loved Jay's "Woody" costume from Toy Story. 

(He even had the giant pull-string that Deana fashioned & attached to his back.)

Zumba Zombie Bash

... a little pre-Halloween fun @ the Amarillo Townclub.

On Saturday morning I helped two of my fellow instructors promote our Zumba classes. 

This time the ATC hooked us up with a stage and a sound system, which made it 100x more fun!

Everyone shakin' it on the Cornell basketball court.

Torry (the ghetto superstar) did a fantastic job making all of our decorations and getting us organized.  I'm learning to appreciate all of my friends who are forever more
prepared/structured than I...

Eat   •   Sleep  •   Zumba

Lunch with Daddy

Since Halloween falls on a Sunday this year, I decided to put Kaden in his little monkey costume and visit Ben/ his students for the first time.  Luckily, we got there a little early so I got the chance to watch Ben in action for a few minutes.  It was nice to finally put some names with faces and watch everyone interact; somewhat made me miss middle-schoolers...

Despite feeling overwhelmed at times with his teaching and coursework, I was thoroughly impressed with his math teaching skills & thought he looked like a great teacher!

Climbing, Oh MY!

Note to self:

Watch Kaden more closely when he is in the high chair...

... otherwise he will crawl from said high chair to the china hutch.

(I was literally gone 30 seconds.)

Which also happened the SAME morning Schatzi decided to polish off an ENTIRE loaf of cinnamon-rasin bread from the counter.  It's been a morning...

Maxwell's Pumpkin Farm

Who would have guessed there were so many things to do at a pumpkin farm?! 
Neither Ben or I have memories of going to a pumpkin patch growing up, but today we headed to the edge of town to check out Maxwell's Pumpkin Farm with the Richards & the Bresslers for more FAMILY fun!

daddy & Kaden feeding the goats

 

Danni, Kaden and Jace watching the bunnies and feeding them lettuce.

Kaden was a little small for the trikes, but still enjoyed sitting & being pushed around.

My favorite part of the morning was the "gigantic jumping pillow"... not for Kaden, but for Ben and myself!  The name says it all, as it looks like a GIANT bubble of air to climb and jump on.

Dan with Danni, Ben with Kaden and Jace climbing aboard.

My favorite picture!

notice all of the jumping adults...

The only downside of the "gigantic pillow" was that two of the boys in our group were feeling their tailbone and back a little (or a lot) more than usual...

Next, we tackled the obstacle course.

Kaden started out walking with mommy, but ended up on daddy's shoulders.

Heather making her way across the wobbly bridge with Danni in tow.

The grand finale were the two 40' tube slides.

Dan & Danni

Angie and Jace

Kaden & mommy exiting the "fast" slide.

It was almost lunch/nap time by the time we finished going down the slides.  Even though we went to a pumpkin farm, we ended up leaving Maxwell's without said pumpkin... 

...NEXT year we will definitely make enough time to ride the tram into the field.

Friday Night Lights

We decided to drive out to the ranch for their homecoming football game on Friday night.

I hadn't been to a high school football game in almost two years, so it was fun to be in the crowd... and feel rather old... and not very dramatic.  (You couldn't pay me to go back to high school)

Kaden somewhat paid attention if we pointed and told him to "look". He seemed the most excited when the band began to play at half time, which caused him to dance... or bounce (those words seem to be synonymous in his mind & cause the same response). 

He also seemed fascinated by a few of the mums the girls were wearing.  As a non-Texan, this may be one of the weirdest/tackiest, not to mention expensive homecoming traditions I have been introduced to. 

Google it... there are no words... 

Red River, New Mexico

Several weeks ago I planned a little retreat in the mountains so we could be TOGETHER—

partly to just be a family, partly get Ben’s mind off school & celebrate the completion of the first 6-weeks.

Kaden on the 4 ½ hour drive.

As we approached Cimarron Canyon, I knew that Ben wouldn't be able to resist jumping out and fly fishing for several hours.  In years past I would stick around the area and go on a hike for a couple hours, but there was no way that was going to happen with Kaden this time (maybe in a few years). 

Fly fishing bliss

We ended up dropping Ben off for about 5 hours and driving the remaining 20 miles to our cabin in Red River. I snapped a few pictures out the window as we drive from Eagle's Nest to Red River.  Sadly, this doesn't even come close to what it looked like in person. 

Right before we got married, Shanny gave me a few pictures of Ben proudly holding up his catch alongside his dad and grandpa (a.k.a. Dado) somewhere near this spot when he was only 7 years old; he has been coming to Cimarron Canyon to fish for close to 30 years! 

"Please, can I have just 30 more minutes?" 

Kaden & I entertained ourselves while Ben tried out a midge (some type of fly) and fished for another 45 minutes or so.   Kaden entertained himself on this fallen log for a LONG time. 

LOVES playing outside!

Kaden & mommy

13 months old