October

A few highlights from October

HAIRCUTS 

Before

After giving both boys the same haircuts.

ROLOFF FARMS
We took a little trip to Roloff Farms, from "Little People, Big World." We saw Amy from the show walking around, but didn't get a picture with her. It was a fun little pumpkin patch with a petting zoo, a real tiger, and a little pumpkin house for kids.

Staring at goats

Collin loved this guy

Cute Collin

Avery wanted Rob to carry her, too

PUMPKIN CARVING

Rob worked hard on his spider web pumpkin

My owl pumpkin

HALF MARATHON
Rob ran his first half marathon and he did great! It was near Camp Zarahemla, so we spent Friday night at the lodge, and the race was in the morning. He said it was a really nice run with lots of scenery, and the weather was perfect. He ran the whole thing without stopping to walk, and his end time was 1:58. His average pace was 8:57, which was a lot better than he hoped for! He has come so far since he started running, and I am so proud of him!

Before the run

At around mile 8, they ran by the lodge, so we went to cheer him on!

Finishing the race! Mile 13.1

HALLOWEEN
After the half marathon, we went to Sunnyside to visit Rob's sisters and their families. We made it to the Sunnyside ward Halloween party and trunk-or-treat, and got to see lots of people who knew Rob growing up.

Devil, Woopie Cushion, and Skunk

 On Halloween, Rob went to school in the morning and I picked him up early and we went to a little pumpkin patch in our neighborhood.

 When it got closer to evening time, we took Collin trick-or-treating with our friends the Ottos. His skunk costume was a big hit and he scored lots of candy!

We loved his bushy tail

With baby Adam, the adorable owl!

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Favorite Things

Collin loves to dance. If any kind of music comes on, he will immediately start rocking his head back and forth, or bounce up and down if he's standing. Doesn't matter what kind of music, he likes it all. Rock, pop, music from toys, hymns at church. . . he just can't keep his body from dancing! He also LOVES it when Rob or I dance with him. Let's just say there are a lot of embarrassing dance parties in this house. 

I took this video over a month ago and we think it's so funny. He was sitting there, playing the same song over and over, and rocking to it expressionlessly.

He is still trying to decide whether his future career will be as a dancer or a percussionist. He loves to play the drums, and hits anything with a surface.

He has also become quite the socialite. He loves playing with other kids. I love going to get him from the kids club at the gym and watching him play with other kids. I recently found him sitting with 2 big boys (2-3 year olds) playing cars. Then yesterday, I found him with 2 girls, playing with dolls at a dollhouse.
He always has lots of fun with his friend Avery. This is an old video, from almost 2 months ago, of these two taking turns screaming. Sorry about the shaky video, it was a left-handed attempt at recording while holding Collin.

 And one more of these 2 cuties.

Collin is growing up so fast! We love his personality. He has been so funny at night when we put him to bed. As soon as we put the blanket over him, he pulls it over his head and plays peek-a-boo a couple times and cracks up every time! Then when we leave, we think it's funny to listen to him through the baby monitor. He will keep pushing the button on his gloworm over and over, making it play music, for 10-15 minutes most nights before going to sleep. We wonder what he's thinking about in there. But we're just happy that he is okay with being in his crib and can get himself to sleep after spending a few quality minutes with the gloworm.

New York City

     So after spending the weekend in Pennsylvania, Danielle and Derek were kind enough to watch Collin for 3 days while Rob and I took a little trip to New York City. We rented a car and enjoyed the scenery for the 5 hour drive. It was our first overnight trip without Collin and it was so much fun! 

     We stayed at a hotel in New Jersey, and took a 15 minute bus ride straight into the city each day. We saved money this way (and had to keep reminding ourselves of this as we settled into the slightly gross hotel and neighborhood). However, what the neighborhood lacked in cleanliness, it made up for in its diverse wildlife. When we were walking back from the bus stop one night, we saw a raccoon cross paths with what we thought was a cat. . . but then after getting (way too) close to it, realized that it was a skunk. 

     We arrived at our hotel Monday afternoon, checked in, and went straight to the city. We wandered around Times Square and walked to the Empire State Building, then had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Then we went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway! We had been so excited to see it for so long, and we loved it! 

Times Square

Times Square (Phantom billboard in background)

Empire State Building

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Phantom at the Majestic Theater

     Tuesday morning, we woke up bright and early and headed for Rockafeller Center for the Today Show! We stood around in the audience, and waved when the cameras came around. We were on camera waving at one point. During part of the weather, Al Roker stood right in front of us so we could be seen behind him too. Every once in a while the reporters would come out and talk to people in the audience in between segments. Al Roker shook our hands and Ann Curry came and talked to us for a few minutes. It was lots of fun to be there for the show, and to have our few seconds of waving on TV!

     After the Today Show, we headed to take our ferry to the Statue of Liberty that we had booked in advance.  We had tickets to go up to the pedestal and museum inside. I don't remember exactly how many stairs it took to get up there, but it was at least double the RB stairs at BYU. :) From the pedestal, we had a good view of New York City.

Actual size of her foot (in the museum)

We are mostly covering the view of NYC, but it is there.

      After the statue tour, we wandered around Wall Street and got some lunch before going to see the Ground Zero Memorial (which we also had to get tickets for in advance). The memorial was really beautiful. We kept imagining how crazy it must have been on that day, in such a busy city, for such a scary thing to happen right there. Skyscrapers make me a little uncomfortable to begin with, and the thought of the two of them collapsing in the middle of the city is terrifying. And we imagined if we were on the crew that had to dig through the rubble, find people to rescue, and clean up the endless mess. Where would we begin? It was hard to imagine what the city must have been like after 9/11, and amazing all that has been done at ground zero since then.

Wall Street

New York Pizza- just as greasy as we'd imagined

Ground Zero Memorial

     After that, we went to Times Square for some delicious New York Cheesecake. We went to Junior's, which we've seen on the Food Network and it was divine. Then, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge and took a little walk on it. We had some dinner and walked through Chinatown and Little Italy. It was dark by then, so we ended our sightseeing for the night.

Brooklyn Bridge

     Wednesday morning, we took a little walk through Central Park. It was nice and pretty and we wished we could have had the time to go for a run like so many other people there. It would be fun to live close to such a big park like that.

     Our last stop in New York was the Manhattan Temple. We were so glad we were able to go there. It was such a cool experience. It seemed out of place in the loud and busy city, but as soon as we walked through the doors, it was silent and peaceful.

We loved our New York trip! We missed our baby so much, and couldn't wait to see him again, but we were so glad we could make this fun romantic trip alone!

Weekend in PA

After Collin's birthday, we stayed in Indiana, PA for the weekend and got to see some fun surrounding places. We went to Punxatawney, home of the famous groundhog Punxatawney Phil. We stopped by Gobbler's Knob, where the festivities happen each year on Groundhog Day and they determine whether Phil sees his shadow. We also went to the library to see Phil himself!

Phil's cupboard

There were groundhog statues like this all over town

Spencer, Collin, Ethan

After Punxatawney, we visited a little Amish town called Smicksburg. We stopped at the stores there and bought delicious fudge!

We passed several of these and the Amish people smiled and waved every time.

Collin just loved playing with his cousins! Bryce walked around talking about Baby Collin all day, Spencer and Ethan provided lots of entertainment for him, and Meagan (who I realized I didn't get any pictures of) was the best at making him laugh.

There was lots of light saber fighting going on.

Rob took Collin and Bryce on a jog

So many fun toys!

Bryce, Ethan, Collin

Cute brothers Ethan and Spencer

He liked riding in this wagon

Lasagna one night. Had to get a picture

Collin was obsessed with these fridge magnets.

We all had a great time in Pennsylvania!