The Story of Us: Fantastic Fall

This was a great fall. I couldn't wait for the kids to get back to school, not because I was sick of them or anything, but they were really bored and by the end of summer there was a lot of fighting and crabbiness. I made a zucchini chocolate cake and we celebrated the last day of summer.

Lily pretended like she wasn't excited for school to start, but I think she totally was. Jack was excited, but also a bit nervous about going to school for the full day and eating school lunch. Lily was nervous because she had a male teacher for the first time, she's a hugger.

Annie was super-duper excited to start preschool. She loves it.

Both the big kids played soccer this year, it was madness. There were two practices and 4 games per week, plus many of their games were at the same time, or overlapping, and most right at dinner time. It felt like our whole family was revolving around soccer schedules. It was awful and I hope I don't have to go through that ever again. On a brighter note, they sure were cute and both enjoyed it. Lily mostly liked hanging out with the other girls and wearing the cute outfit. Here she is after playing goalie.

If you look at this picture closely, it pretty much explains it. This was mid-game, the other kids are running, and Jack's standing there with his arms behind his back.

We had an extra rainy early fall. There was a lot of good times had splashing.

There were also good times had in the hammock, especially when I can get the kids to not jump on me or try and swing me off. Most times I try and relax in the hammock and end up upside down hanging on for dear life.

We had a really productive garden this year. It seemed to get started late, but then we got a ton of produce. Except for the zucchini, which started early and produced a ton.

One day Lily and Jack decided to try and sell some of the vegetables. They went out and actually made a couple dollars.

After that Jack really got into it. He went out several times and actually seemed to work pretty diligently. I bought him a shark wallet for all of his loot. Our neighbor told us this was his sales pitch "I got this new wallet. I don't have a dollar in it. You could put a dollar in my wallet!" Look closely at his sign he's making, he's so funny. Apples and a sunflower seed are $1, but a pepper is free.

We used all of our produce though. The favorite was home made chunky applesauce. Annie liked to peel the apples, she's doing it in her undies here.

In fall we usually have so many different kinds of fruit and veggies that it gets kind of out of control. Here June is enjoying a pear from our window sill fruit pile that
she'd just help herself to occasionally.

June has grown so much. She has a few words; first was "Daddy", then probably "bye bye", she says "mom-MY", "shoe" and she's generally really great at mimicking and babbling. She started walking at about 14 months and now at 17 months is starting a little trot/run. She does a cute little bob/dance when she hears music, and she really loves when everyone watches her. Here are the girls while playing dress up. I think June looks like a pink Gandalf.

Here are the kids all riding on a motorized stuffed animal at the mall. Once while Lily was driving and Jack was hanging on the back, she accelerated unexpectedly (they're super slow) and Jack just plopped right off the back. Everyone around us had a good laugh, it was cute.

Jared and I got called to be the Cub Scout Bear Den leaders. It's a good time. Jared is teaching them here about knife sharpening, something he is very passionate about.

We went up the canyon quite a bit for family home evening dinners, a favorite McCoard past time. This is at one of my favorite places in the world, the last picnic area at Cherry campground up Hobble Creek Canyon.

We went to Maple Lake one night. It was lovely but freezing cold by the time we ate dinner.

We paddled around the lake a bit in my dad's canoe.

Jack enjoyed the mud.

Lily found a butterfly that was cold.

We, of course, went to a couple punkin' patches.

Love these kids in corn. We had corn everywhere in our house after this.

Jack is mesmerizing a turkey with his turkey hat. He loved it so much he wore it to school, twice.

After the Trunk-or-Treat at the pumpkin patch I was going to bed and realized my phone was missing. I used the "Find my Phone" app and saw that it was still there. I drove back at 11pm and found it a few feet away, half buried in the dirt parking lot. It had clearly been run over. Miraculously the Otter Box saved it and there was no damage, except a slight discoloration where a rock was majorly pressed into the screen. It was amazing.

We went to a fun air show at the small, local airport.

Rode the train way too many times.

We made some fun pumpkin pizzas.

Jack rode his bike into a parked truck while riding home from school. He got a pretty good shiner, this picture is about 4 days into it.

Jack has record breaking wacky hair in the morning. I don't have any idea how this even happens.

Jared went to Denver with some man-friends for a Broncos game.

We went to IHOP while he was gone. The kids have been begging to go for weeks because IHOP plays commercials on Nickelodeon. Jack said it his dream to work there and Lily said it was the fanciest restaurant ever, mostly because of the whip cream on the hot chocolate they ordered. The waiter spilled Annie's hot chocolate on her (it wasn't hot anymore), she wailed, but only because she was sad. Then she hit the jackpot and got a whole new one! The whole thing is not really blog-worthy, except that with 4 kids, we rarely take them to restaurants anymore.

I bought myself a grown-up Razor scooter. I love it. We all go on scooter rides downtown, or around the neighborhood. Sometimes I put June in the hiking backpack while I ride, it's quite a spectacle. Since Annie's started school, most days we ride scooters the four blocks. Here she is on the way to the Halloween party in her ninja costume. Cutest kid ever!

Halloween was a good time. Busy though, and in the future I hope to eliminate some of the superfluous activities. Annie was Elsa, Lily was Anna, Jack was the red Power Ranger, and I made June a super adorable Ewok costume.