Bob's Pumpkins

This one's for you Bob! Steve went and got the pumpkins from your garden and they sure brought us a lot of attention! Everyone who came to our house commented on the size of your pumpkins! Especially the gianormous one! Many a person told us it was the biggest pumpkin they had ever seen! In the picture below, you can see how big your pumpkins were! The one on the left is from your garden and the other one was one of the biggest ones we could find when I took my preschoolers to the pumpkin patch. The one below isn't even half of the size of the picture on the right!

We had a really fun time cleaning them out! Coralee had her friend Brynn over and she helped us out. Coralee and Landon did not care much for the sliminess of the pumpkins, but little Brynn did not mind at all! It was quite a sight watching her dive right in and scoop out the seeds! Especially when the pumpkin was about as big as her! We had a good time. Stephen did the creative carving! I think he did such a good job. Our pumpkins looked great Halloween night and they still do! The big one also served as my backdrop for my preschool pictures. The pictures turned out really well. Thanks for the monster pumpkins!

So, here are the girls cleaning out the big one. I thought you might want to see how thick the walls of the pumpkin were! It took me awhile to get the top off! Then, Coralee wanted to show you the top! Can you believe how big it is?!

Happy Halloween

We had another great Halloween. I had a hard time getting into it this year. I think it was just one more thing that I had to do and so it was hard to motivate myself, but we pulled it off even though we didn't have decorations. Much to Coralee's disgust. She really wanted to get our stuff out, but it just didn't happen. Sorry Cor.

Coralee was a Barbie Bride; Landon was Spiderman; Braylon was a cow; I dressed up as a cow and a basketball player for my preschool classes; and Stephen dressed up as a pregnant account manager. He likes to dress up like people from work. He looked great though! He really can pull off anything can't he?!
Like every Halloween, we got the most out of our costumes. We had plenty of opportunities to strut our stuff. First, we had our community Halloween party at our park that my friend Kim does every year. She amazes me. Coralee was unable to attend as she had practice for the primary program, but Landon and Braylon had fun trick or treating.
Next, we invited our friends Jessica, Alana, and Brigg to our ward's trunk-or-treat. They live down the street from us and our kids are the same age which is lots of fun. The kids loved going from trunk to trunk to get candy. However, Landon was very nervous about the "fire". Several people had dry ice going and Landon thought it was smoke. We couldn't go to those trunks! I got to walk the kids around while Stephen passed out the candy. Good times.

Third, we got to wear our costumes to my 3-4-year-old preschool class party. We had a good time making crafts, eating, and trick or treating in the basement. After the party we loaded up in the mini van and headed off to Steve's office to show off. The kids always get lots of candy from all his co-workers. They are great. We got to crash his office potluck and see everyone's costumes. Fun, fun.

Fourth, we lived it up Halloween night! We had our friends (the ones mentioned above) and Brother Dave over for Chili and then we headed out. The weather was much nicer this year and we didn't have to go home due to frost bite. Gotta love that. We walked up and down our street and the kids did so good. There were a couple of scary houses that we couldn't go to, but other than that they do not seem too tramatized. We were worried about Landon. He kept falling behind because he was so busy taking everything in. He would stare at each person as they walked by and then we would look very closely at every house for "scary things". One boy's costume really scared him and we had to skip a few houses to get ahead of him. Halloween is such a disturbing holiday for the wee ones. I really don't get it.
Finally, one last hooray as we got to dress up for my 4-5-year-old preschool class. This party was a little more chaotic than the first, but we lived through it and I think all of the kids had a good time. I was happy when it was all over! That is our 2007 Halloween in a nutshell. Hope you all had as much fun and excitement as we did.

World Series

Well, our beloved Rocks did not do as well as we would have liked, but we sure are happy that they made it to the World Series! Especially since Steve and I got to go to game three here at Coors Field! It was AMAZING!

First things first, I am sure that anyone who reads will be asking the question, "How did you get tickets?" At least that is what we get from everyone here when we tell them that we went. This genius, at least he is in this situation, that Steve works with got into the back up URL for ticket sales to the games here in town. Lots of people from Steve's office bought tickets since they were the only ones fighting for tickets in the backup URL. Steve and his buddy Cliff bought four tickets and then Cliff sold his two on E-Bay because he was going to be out of town and the sale paid for Steve and I's tickets along with putting some extra cash in Cliff's pocket! It was unbelievable! We went to the World Series for FREE!Stephen called me laughing and said, "You will never guess what just happened!" My first thoughts were that he either got fired or he had some monster sale and was able to buy his company. What he told me was even better. For those of you who may not know, getting tickets to the World Series is next to impossible. With people all over the country bidding at the same time, it is so hard. They did not do local ticket sales, so the only way to buy was online and so it was a nightmare. First, tickets went on sale on Monday until the system crashed and then they went back on sale on Tuesday. So many people made it all the way through the process and then once they submitted their information, it would say that the system failed. So many people we know tried to get tickets and came out short! I told Steve we must be livin' right to have gotten the opportunity to go.
So, about the game! It was AMAZING! It was so cool to see the stadium filled to capacity. We had gone to a game ealier in the season and the place was empty. It was really sad, especially for Steve because the stadium was always packed when Denver first go the Rockies. So, it was de ja vu for Steve and surreal for me. We walked around the stadium, becuase we got there like two hours before the game started, to take it all in. When we were almost back in our seats we got caught in a cattle drive. At least that is what it felt like. We got trapped in a mob of people and we did not move for like five minutes! It was so crazy. The place was insane. It was so cool to experience it though, even if it was a little claustrophobic (How do you spell that!). We caught the end of batting practice which was fun for me because I had never seen batting practice before. And then we were able to sit back and watch as the stadium filled up. It was awesome.

My favorite part, well one of my favorite parts, was the beginning when they announced the starters and then Carrie Underwood sang the national anthem. This was not only one of my favorite parts because I love Carrie Underwood, but because it almost made me cry. The huge flag, fireworks going off during the rockets red glare, the whole stadium singing so loud that it almost drowned Carrie out, and just the feeling that a game could take patriotism to a whole knew level for me is something that I cannot even put into words. No wonder they say that baseball is America's favorite passtime. In that moment, I felt the validity of that statement. It was a moment that I will never forget.

My second favorite part happened in the sixth and seventh innings, when we finally put some runs up on the board. The highlight of the night was when Matt Holliday got up in the seventh inning and on the first pitch, from a brand new pitcher, hit a three run homer! The place went nuts! I don't think I have ever yelled so loud in my life. Everyone was jumping up and down, fives were being given to everyone standing around you, and the stands were filled with the waving of white towels. (At every entrance to the stadium, they passed out towels with World Series printed on them.) It was a sight to see.

The night was truly amazing, even if we did end up losing. Steve and I got to be together (My most favorite thing about the World Series!) and enjoy and great baseball game in an amazing atomosphere. It's funny how a simple game can unite so many people. It was incredible to see the whole city going crazy over our Rockies making it the World Series. It truly gave everyone a boost and made for a great Rocktober! I never quite understood how people got so fanatical over a game, but now that I'm living in Denver, I am beginning to understand. The road to the World Series gave everyone high hopes, made people believe that miracles do happen, and made everyone realize that when things looks as though they are impossible, if you work hard enough and you work together you can achieve the impossible. What a season! Thank you Rockies!