The busiest month in a while

November almost always sneaks up on me.  I think because the end of October is so crazy that my mind is forced to shut down for a day or two.  Not this year!  Lilly wanted to do a "Thor" movie night with her friends for her birthday and that meant we were going to do it a week before her actual birthday.  Which just so happens to be our USMC Ball weekend.  When it rains it pours!!  This was my kind of birthday party.  She wanted an ice cream cake which we could make in advance and pizza before the movie.  Easy!  The movie was AWESOME! The girls then proceeded to go outside and play around in the tent.  We had to have an early pick-up the next morning in order to get everything for the Ball accomplished so the girls all had to be up and ready fairly early - I am sure they can take a nap to catch up on all the sleep they didn't get the night before!  

In all honesty, Lilly is really thriving in Yuma.  It is going to be hard for her to say goodbye to her friends this summer when we move.  

Since this is Jim's last ball at MAWTS-1, we thought it would be fun to take the kids.  They are finally old enough to sit through the ceremony AND partake in the dancing afterwards.  It was awesome!!   

I WISH I had been able to get a video of them dancing especially Ben break dancing, but the lighting in there was terrible so the clips I have it is very hard to see. 

Our ball hotel had a lazy river and we got the kids up early enough on Sunday for them to play around in it a bit before we checked out.  

The next weekend, Jim went on a camping trip with some Marines from the squadron and the kids had to march in the Veteran's Day Parade which is another reason we had Lilly's Birthday Party the weekend before.  

A little bit of a side note, do you remember last month when we salvaged the cat trees? Well the repairs have finished and suddenly someone is very interested in them.  Sorry Oscar.  These are not for you!

Lilly helped me deliver them to the Humane Society and hopefully the cats that are waiting for their forever homes and enjoying them!  

It seems like we have been celebrating Lilly's birthday for the past two weekends and actually we have.  Finally the real day as arrived!  We need to invest in a bigger bed for her if she continues with the whole process of growing older.  The balloons (one for each year) won't stay on the bed! Thirteen!  How in the world did that happen?  Hard to believe.

She has grown up to be quite the young lady.  Full of confidence and spunk and the most lovely personality, except when dealing with her siblings.  Sigh, well hopefully that will come with time.

Wes has been practicing his vertical leap thanks in large part to two dogs that live nearby.  Most of the time he can't get his head above the wall, but occasionally he gets some air and their faces meet.  The snarls and barks sound horrible but it is pretty funny to watch.  I usually give him a few minutes of this and then we go on our merry way until the next time.

Lucy, being a 6th grader which is basically the "seniors" of her elementary school, gets to play all the inner district schools in sports.  The flag football team is no exception.  While most of the other teams can field an entire team of boys, Gowan is pretty small so the girls play too.  Girls can play on the other teams too but most of them don't.  Our team is almost equal boys and girls.  Last year, it didn't really work out too well, but this year - they have the ultimate flag snatcher - Lucy!

There is a two day tournament and we started off kind-of rocky.  We lost the first game.  The second game we tied and the third game we won!  So we are in the consolation game and the other team doesn't show so we win by default!  So by my calculations we came in third!  Go team!!  Lucy played great!  The girls on a whole did AWESOME!!

Suddenly, it is the week of Thanksgiving!  Kind of last minute we decided to go camping in Joshua Tree National Forest for a few days, then Palm Springs for Thanksgiving Day then drive back to Yuma.  So we pulled the kids out of school a day early and we hit the road.  Joshua Tree is Beautiful!!  The high desert is really pretty.  The kids were in heaven with all the rocks to climb on and trails to run down.  It was super crowded!  We almost didn't find a place to stay the second night.  

Too soon we were packing up and heading over to Palm Springs to first take a shower!!  The camping was nice, but fairly primitive. Afterwards, we hit the pool/hot tub and then another shower.  Dinner was downtown at a pizza place then back to the hotel to get ready for a turkey trot the next morning.  

Since the kids were in Miami we have tried to sign them up for turkey trots when we can.  If we can't find one then we still make them run a 5K.  It is the highlight of the day - hahaha not really - they pretty much hate it!  This year we found one just down the street from the hotel.

There were several pre-race activities to enjoy.  Jim, Lucy and Ben got massages!  Ben said he would like to do that more often.  Maybe another family tradition?  

We got a quick family photo with the turkey.

Lined up for the Start

The race itself was pretty cool.  We basically ran up and down a main street in Palm Desert a few times.  Lilly took off like a Gazelle and we would catch glimpses of her when the route double backed on itself.  I ran with Ben and Jim had Lucy.  Neither of them were excited and were VERY VOCAL about it.  It might be the end of the family tradition.  

Sadly, Ben is NOT dabbing in this picture.  Lucy is shooting daggers out of her eyes.
Only Lilly was all smiles at the end.

We decided to do some putt putt before getting ready for lunch which quickly devolved into a free for all on the greens.  Another holiday tradition perhaps?

Since we had an early check out time and our Thanksgiving reservations were at noon we decided to go ahead and pack the car and then drive over.  Everyone was responsible for making sure their bags were in the car and if they wanted to change into more comfy clothes for the drive back they were easily accessible.  

The hotel has several "lakes" that you can take a boat ride on and they were offering shuttle services to the restaurant.  Even though we could have just walked over, we thought it would be more fun to take a quick spin around the lake.  
  

The buffet was INCREDIBLE!!  Even Jim was impressed and that is saying something.  Soo many choices.  The girls were excited to have sushi and crab legs while Ben couldn't wait to hit the doughnut wall.  I doubt we ate enough to cover the cost, but it wasn't for lack of trying.  

One more quick putt putt strike

 We attempted to get a Christmas card shot in the lobby in front of a massive pumpkin.  Didn't really work.  Too dark.  Sigh.  One year I am going to be able to get some family photos taken, by a professional, not some random stranger doing a kind act.  But not this year.

Time to head back to Yuma.  About thirty minutes into our drive, Lucy discovers that her backpack is not in the car.  The backpack that was right beside the door in the hotel room that she was the last person to vacate.  Deep breaths Grayson, Deep breaths.  Couple of phone calls later we were heading back to the hotel and told it would be waiting for us at the gate.  Crisis averted.  

Speeding headfirst into Fall

October is deceptive.  Every year it starts with barely a bump but by the time Halloween rolls around, we are on a full gallop towards the Holidays and everything that entails.  October in the desert is even more this way.  The month starts out HOT like crazy August HOT.  It is still that way at the end, but the difference is October nights.  Once the sun goes down, it is actually pleasant.  You notice this because the parks suddenly get extremely busy at sundown.  When most parks are closing up shop for the day, the Yuma parks are just getting busy.  Sure there are enough non-Yumas running around the parks during the day, but the true Yumans only come out at night this time of year!  

Early October was a big time for Lucy.  After 13 months she got her braces off!!  I am not sure exactly what we were paying to straighten because she only had brackets on the front teeth, mostly because she doesn't have many back teeth!  We had to pull some and then she lost a few more.  Poor thing!  Of course she may have to do stage 2 in a year, but for now, we only have to worry about losing a retainer.  I hope in a few months she only has to wear it at night.  Less chance of it getting thrown away!!

Lilly has blossomed into quite the little money-maker!  She loves babysitting and this month she expanded her portfolio to include pet sitting.  Of course it becomes a family affair when you add school to the mix.  I told her I would handle the morning walks since she has to be a school at 7:00 am.  One morning I was lucky enough to get some help from Jim.  Those 3 dogs had a good time pulling him down the street!!  

Lilly had a much easier time of it later in the day!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the kids are not currently swimming (much to my chagrin).  I love swimming because of the tight knit team we are on and oh yeah, all three kids swim at the same time and the same pool!!  It is a win-win for me!!  That being said, I am enjoying the soccer the girls are playing and originally they were on the same team.  Now that they aren't, it has gotten a bit trickier.  The league they play on signed up for the fall season in San Luis which is about 20 minutes away and really is on the border of Mexico and Arizona.  We drive down there every Monday for games. This sign always makes me laugh when we pass it.  As you might can imagine, the team hasn't done that great in this league.  We have only won a few games but for the most part have given the teams a nice game.  Hopefully the ball skills the girls pick up while playing here will increase their playing level for the future.  

Crane School District has a week off for fall break after a half week of half days.  The first half of the week was occupied with soccer, baseball and pet sitting.  The second half the kids and I decided to head on over to San Diego and go to Sea World.  Jim was still in the midst of WTI so he was unable to join us but in typical Jim fashion, he got us a hotel room, tickets and plenty of tips to occupy us for our stay.

Since Sea World no longer puts humans in the tank with the Killer whales I wasn't sure how entertaining the live shows would be but I think they did a good job of making it more educational about what keeping these animals in captivity is teaching us about the world at large.  The kids, while they also enjoyed the shows, were more interested in the rides.  Lucy was unsure about riding the Manta Ray but eventually she came around and everyone rode it multiple times mostly because the park was virtually empty.  Several times they got off the ride and step immediately back in line and two seconds later they were back on the ride.  

We were able to link up with some friends for dinner in LaJolla which was fabulous!!  Being this close to California is not a bad thing I will tell you!  The next morning we headed on over to Cabrillo National Monument which we could see from our hotel on Point Loma.  The kids were a tad reluctant but when I promised to take them to Richard Walker's Pancake House afterwards for Brunch they were all in.  Once we got there, it was a different story.  I had a hard time convincing them to leave!

By now we are well into week 3 in October and everyone is starting to get excited about Halloween.  We had to hit up our local Target for a few things and when I turned the corner I was greeted by a small herd of dabbing Unicorns.  I begged them to be unicorns for Halloween!  

At least  four times a week Wesley goes for a run with either me or Jim.  We generally take different routes but without fail one of us will go by a house that has a dog that can jump.  This is endlessly entertaining for Wesley.  Even if you have been dragging him for over a mile, when he gets close to where one of these dogs live, suddenly he is galloping full speed if you let him to get to the wall.  Recently Wesley has started to get in on the jumping action.  He has now gotten his head above the wall to take a peek of his buds.

Ben has been really enjoying playing baseball again.  He is starting to get into a groove too.  It's a shame the season is winding down.  He has decided that playing catcher is the way to go since the catcher is always playing.  Nice thinking dude!  His season started out rocky, but they came alive towards the end and made it to the playoffs.  Of course the second game of the playoffs conflict with something we have had on the schedule for weeks - Trunk or Treat!!

This was a bummer, because we had decided we were going to do a family Inside Out theme and Ben had an important role!  I had been gathering the costume items since the middle of September.  Lilly was going to be Disgust, Lucy was Joy, I was Fear, Ben had Anger duties and we had a friend and her daughter signed up for Sadness and BingBong.  Well Sadness and BingBong dropped out due to unforeseen conflict and then Anger had to play baseball so the girls and I improvised.  I found some milk jugs in the recycle and printed out a picture of Anger and Sadness, added a cool light to each and VOILA. Sorry BingBong, I didn't have an extra milk jug.  Apologies to those of you who haven't seen the movie -- this paragraph will make no sense to you (Cough Cough - Jim). 

I appreciate the girls putting up with me and my obligations.  This should be the last year we have to do this extra costume change.

Lilly made A honor roll for first quarter so she scored a special meal with just Daddy!  It worked out for them to eat breakfast.  I had Ben and Lucy with me at a kickball tournament.  Lucy and Ben were thrilled - NOT!  Hahaha.  Lucky for me there was a free movie playing on base that they could attend because our Kickball team kept WINNING!!  We played two games on Saturday and then played four times on Sunday!!!  Ultimately we ended up in the finals and had to play the same team that had beaten us early in the day.  We came back to beat them in the finals but since it was a double elimination tournament, we had to play them AGAIN!  Of course, we couldn't keep up the streak and we came in second.  All in all it was an awesome experience and everyone is super psyched for the spring season!

One more day to go!  The kids had been chomping at the bit to carve their pumpkins even though here in Yuma if you carve pumpkins too early the are rotten before the big night.  As usual some of the designs proved to be too complex and we ended up with something not quite what were were going for, we got the check in the box and sometimes that is enough.

Lucy and Ben got to wear costumes to school on Halloween.  Lucy's costume was deemed too scary (by me) so she chose to be a unicorn in a human costume (basically just a graphic shirt and some colored hair) but Ben was eager to be McCree from the video game Overwatch.  We had been working on it for a couple of weeks.  
Once they got home from school they were able to put on the ones to trick or treat in.  Lilly was a Cactus and Lucy was the Puppetmaster from another video game Five Nights At Freddy's.  Jim and I were clueless, but everyone under the age of 13 knew EXACTLY who she was.

Ben and Lucy turned it up a notch this year by trick or treating in rollarblades! We could barely keep up!!  This is especially amazing when you consider Lucy was sick and running a fever -- and missed the rest of the week of school!  

Whew - October is in the books!  Can't wait to see what happens in November.