Happy Gourd Disembowelment Day!

It is our favorite candy-filled holiday!  Sadly, Josh has caught on to the strategy of using his chocolates to trade with his brothers for allergy-safe options in their stash so we can no longer count on getting all his good chocolate.  Which means we now just have to be very strategic pilfering through all their bags when they go to sleep.  Luckily, they went to two trunk-or-treats and did some trick-or-treating this year so we had plenty to go though.

Our first activity was last Friday with cousins.  This year the middles dressed up as ninjas and Josh went as a low-tech Jedi (if you look closely, you can see his belt and, if you have x-ray vision, you can see his two lightsabers).  Sabrina was Goldilocks - I think Mama and Papa Bear were putting Baby Bear in his car seat when we took this picture.

We waited until just two days before Halloween to carve the pumpkins Opa got the boys so they wouldn't mold.  I can't tell who is the winner here - the humans who disembowel hundreds of thousands of them once a year or the pumpkins which have managed to get humans to plant hundreds of thousands of them every year.  In any case, disembowel them we did.

This is not really the boys' favorite part.

Although Josh was willing to pretend otherwise.

And this is what the audience of the proceedings had to say about it all.

The end product is always fun, though.  It is the year of cyclops in case you were wondering.

The big day finally came!  The boys and Jason went to another trunk-or-treat in the morning while the poor sleeper and I stayed home.  They came home with more candy than we expected so we cut trick-or-treating in the evening short.

A quick little jaunt up and down the street and then we came home.  For the rest of evening, Josh watched Doctor Who while Ben and Michael handed out candy.  They were hysterical.  I think that they had much more fun handing out candy than getting it.  They eagerly awaited their "customers" and thanked every one of them for coming.  At one point, they dug out the two packs of crayons in the candy bowl and put them aside to give to any kids who might be rude to them.  Luckily, by the end of the night we still had the crayons.

And everyone was in bed by 8 p.m.!

Raven Rock, part deux

Look at these happy, smiling people.  They are bright and full of energy.  They have no idea that they are headed out on adventure that will take them over about six miles of North Carolina soil.  I thought about taking an "after" picture, but we were all pretty exhausted and our desire to reach the van with our sore legs and feet (and backs and shoulders) outweighed any other desires.

The weather remains lovely here and we have to take advantage as long as it lasts.  So, the boys got a little bit ahead in their school work and we headed back to Raven Rock this afternoon.  There aren't a lot of good hiking options within a short distance, so we decided to go back to the same state park we went to last week and try another trail.  A five mile trail, but if you add a quick little jaunt over to see the falls, it becomes six.

Along the way we saw a wide variety of mushrooms (they must really like the extreme humidity and excessive rain), a couple of snails and a few lizards.

We made it to a different section of the Cape Fear River this time and then were lured further along the trail by the promise of a waterfall.

After Niagara Falls, the boys found it a little bit disappointing.  But I thought it was still kind of cool.

Isaac had a pretty posh ride for most of the hike: me!  Jason took him for a bit in the middle to give my shoulders and back a rest.

And I took advantage of the break to go get a closer look at the falls without worrying about tumbling into the water with a baby on my back.

And one last picture of the littlest minion before we headed back.

He did really well for a child contained for several hours.  And I did really well for hauling an extra 20 lbs around for several hours.  And the older boys did fairly well for people who were not informed about the length of the hike in advance.

Although, they did have some great lines:

Ben: "Nature gives you so much to wonder about!" (I love it when something I love has this effect on the boys)
Josh: "I would rather be doing school work!" (said at about mile 5)
Ben: "This is awesome!  I love this!  I hope we do it again!  I hope I die before then!" (sarcasm is strong in this one)

Raven Rock

We had a great time exploring nature at a state park with some of our family.  It was a hike full of weird signs, funny pictures, and lots of kids.

Here is spunky Sabrina holding hands with Josh.  It was very sweet, but I don't think it lasted very long.

This is not a trail, apparently.  Glad we cleared that one up because it looks mighty similar to a trail.

We tricked Michael into completing another scouting requirement in the great outdoors and he got to observe wildlife from afar.  We were kind of a loud group and the trail was quite busy today, so Homo sapiens may be the only wildlife he saw at this point.

End of trail.  In case the large body of water didn't make that clear enough for you.

The boys finally got to see some wildlife down by the Cape Fear River.  Turtles are not easily spooked by loud humans it turns out.

And no Miller family hike is complete without some rocks to climb on.

On the walk back, Jason found tree and decided to see how many kids he could stack on it.  Josh wasn't interested and the babies were fairly comfortable in their carriers, so that left just Ben, Michael and Sabrina.  Michael's face in this picture is fabulous.

Poor Sabrina.  She still smiles nicely in pictures, but has cousins that can't make a nice face to save their lives.

Finally, the nice view we came for.

And for our last sign of the day: perhaps the first sign we should have seen.  Uh oh!  And a great shot of Ben to boot.

Mini Mechanic

The weather is gorgeous today.  What do you do when it is nice outside?  Well, if you are Jason, you try to figure out why the van convulses when we drive it and do some minor regular maintenance while you're at it.  Who can you call on to help?  The Mini Mechanic!  He is just the right size to reach the front of the inside of the engine and light enough to sit on top of the car as well.  

Service with a smile!

10 Months

We made it!  Um, I mean, he made it!  10 months!  We were hoping that he wouldn't match Josh's record of walking at 9 months and he didn't.  Hooray!  But that doesn't mean he hasn't been plenty busy this month crawling, climbing, cruising and standing on his tippy toes trying to reach every single electronic device or cord in sight.  

He is still sporting just the two bottom teeth, but they are super sharp.  Still has curly hair no matter how much Jason combs it down.  

He does babble "Dadadadada" at times, but we're not entirely sure he is referring to Jason.  That doesn't stop me from handing him over to Jason when he says that, though.  The closest he gets to "Mamamama" is when he is in his crib screaming because we have different ideas about what he should be doing (or not doing, rather) at that time.    

He really hasn't hit any huge developmental milestones this month except to give every indication that as soon as he is independently mobile we are in deep doggy doo doo.  The child does. not. stop. moving.  He rarely wants to be held or cuddled.  He wants to get down and move.  Or, he wants you to pick him up so he can get to higher spots to move.  Our only saving grace currently is that he isn't a determined climber (yeah, I am talking about you, Ezra!).

But, he brings a lot of love and laughter and slobber into our home.  Even when he is bugging his older brothers, they can't help but smile and laugh at him.  We love our baby Isaac.

And at some point, kissing those little baby toes will get old.  But not yet.

The Reluctant Naturalist

One of the easiest ways to make my children turn into insta-grumps is to tell them we are going on a walk.  Tell them the walk will serve a purpose and you are just hammering the nails into the coffin containing all their happiness.  Which is weird because they almost always have a good time.  No good deed goes unpunished should be our family motto.

Which brings us to our family walk last night.  Apparently October is the month that North Carolina becomes livable.  It was lovely and Michael had a scout requirement to fulfill, so we thought we'd go to the trail.  

Michael was not thrilled.  

Jason's fascination with nature and brother peer pressure finally won out and he became interested in spite of himself.

He founds lots of animal signs and identified several animals.  Oh, and chased his brothers around and made loud "animal" noises and had an overall good time.

Until next time.

A Visit to Virginia

I did say we needed to have more adventures!  Go big, or go home.  My grandfather (and last grandparent alive) recently spent some time in the hospital due to a bout with pneumonia.  And at 94 years old, that is pretty serious stuff.  He is doing better now thankfully, but considering his health overall we thought we should probably come up for a visit.  Six hours later and we were back in a very familiar place.  While I don't think that I want to move back to Virginia, it was nice to be familiar with the roads and not need to use Google Maps.

We were glad to spend time with Grandpa, but there was no way he could handle spending three days with the crazy that we bring, so we made some other plans as well.

Opa got the boys some pumpkins, so the boys worked on some designs.  

Due to rain (we seriously have issues with bringing rain wherever we go), our plans for Cox Farms were thwarted.  So, we changed it up and went to DC instead.  Parking and more rain led us to the Natural History museum.  We had a great time.

It is always fun to do some hands-on science after taking a look around.

And sometimes we find friends in unexpected places.

Isaac also scored some cowboy boots since his cousin outgrew them.   He doesn't need to be able to walk to look stylin' in his boots, right?

Saturday we abused were lucky to have our free babysitters and left the boys with Dad and Diane for the morning so we could go to the temple and then at night so we could go see The Martian.  Awesome.  We haven't been on a date in ages, so it was fabulous.

Of course, I have to finish with a picture with Grandpa.

It was a fun and quick trip.