Vertuccio Farm

Visiting Vertuccio Farm is becoming a yearly arizona tradition. The temperature here dropped for two days into the 60s and so we jumped at the chance to wear jackets and went to the farm after school. (It was so crowded so I guess a lot of people had that same idea.)

Brinna would not let me put her down on the giant jumping inflatable, but Perry had a blast jumping around us.

Why did I ever think that when they grew up they would stop climbing on things? Being a teen sure doesn't stop them.

And this is when we lost it. We were waiting for the hay bales to take a picture on. The family in line in front of us LITERALLY took at least ten-fifteen minutes getting a picture with every combination of family members imaginable (all the grand kids, all the boys, each family, individuals...). It would've been comical if it wasn't us waiting behind them. 

Waiting is hard for our little family. So there was some hay throwing which turned into some yelling. But we tried to make the best of it!

I think the birds in some of these hay pictures was so cool.

Brothers!

Finally it was our turn! :)

We enjoyed a few more of the activities before it got dark.

My personal favorite is always the corn maze. We take turns letting each kid lead us for awhile. 

They are getting so big :)

Until next year, Vertuccio!

Pre-Halloween parade

Trunk or treats were banned in our church stake area this year. So our ward council got creative and decided to hold a Halloween parade. They created a float and invited everyone to stand outside their own home and they would come by and throw candy to us. 

My kids said yes to candy and another opportunity to dress up.

Eric was asked to ride his bike at the front of the float to keep everyone off of the streets etc. He decked his bike out with glowsticks and had a lot of fun riding the route with everyone.

Candy!

(I'm trying really hard to catch up on here because we really do love having a family record. But I am feeling so far behind that starting with now and working backwards has seemed more manageable so that's what I've been doing this week. Once I get back to where I left off in september then I can resume back to the here and now. Here we go...)

faces that give me hope

Life has been so strange lately. Between covid and election, everything feels unsettled. Have you felt that, too?

There is one thing keeping me grounded and hopeful--my children.

Yep, these are the faces that bring me peace and purpose:

Don't you feel peaceful now, too? ;)

These pictures on my phone just remind me that even though I don't have control over the big wide world around me, I do have a lot of control about what happens inside our little home and family. I can choose how I spend time with my family. I can choose what we talk about and how we treat each other and those around us. I can create happy memories and experiences for them to learn from. We can have fun and be a refuge from the world for each other.

I'm glad Brinna gave us all of her silly faces as we tried to take a picture together one afternoon while waiting for children to come home from school.

See, there can be pure joy no matter who is elected or not elected and whatever covid chaos is out there.

There are many things we don't have control over, but there are many things we do.

(I'm glad E and I are a team raising these five kids.)