October 2015 And An Odin Story

First off, a cute Odin story. The other day we were driving in the car. Out of the blue we had this conversation:
Odin: Mommy, do you want to go to jail?
Me: Um.... no?
O: Then you should love us. If you love someone, you're a good person. If you don't love people, then you are mean and you go to jail.
Obviously, this is not completely true, but I loved his 3 year-old logic. :)

October was the Las Vegas Greek Food Festival. We went on the first night (Thursday 10/1) because of scheduling conflicts the rest of the time. We once again, had great food (this year the kids were willing to try a few more things). We went to the kid area and were disappointed to find only a few bounce houses instead of the carnival rides they had last year. I wondered if they only rented those for the weekend? But aside from minor disappointment on the ride front, we had a great time! Adelyn brought her "jingly" skirt from last year and had a great time dancing around. She even got me to dance a bit with her. I like this little tradition that we started.

The next week the kids and I "joined" other homeschoolers at the Renaissance Festival. I put joined in quotes because we walked in with a bunch (in order to get in free) but went on our own way after we entered. They had a treasure hunt for the kids that we enjoyed doing (the kids got parasols for their efforts). We had a nice lunch. And we got to see some sword fighting. We ended up there for just a few hours, but I think that was enough... the kids were pretty tired.

At the end of the month Ben and I headed to California to go with Jake and Katie to Escape Music Festival. We had a blast!

Halloween was spent again with the Lantz's and our friends, the Brown's, joined us this year too (they just moved to town). Adelyn was "cheetah girl", Odin was the "one-eyed-one-horned-flying-purple-cupcake monster, Genevieve didn't dress up. I liked that the older kids thought about their costumes and didn't just go with a typical princess or something. Love their creativity!

Happy 14th Anniversary to Us!!

This year we went away for our anniversary. We decided to drive down to Sedona, AZ. It was so worth it!

Ben booked us at L'Auberge. Unknown to me, he booked us into a cottage. It was so cool! It was like a little house... no direct neighbors, outside cedar shower, tons of room... I am so spoiled!

After a lovely drive down to Sedona, we booked dinner at their creek side dining. It was so beautiful. After dinner we went for a stroll. And quickly discovered that Sedona is really a sleepy little town... everything closed at 9 or earlier! So after looking at closed up shops, we headed back to our cottage.

The next morning we woke up very early to hike up the bluffs before sunrise. It was hard to get out of bed, but I'm glad we did. The hike was beautiful and a bit challenging (mostly because we couldn't stop). Unfortunately, the sunrise was blocked by a lot of clouds, so it wasn't exactly the view we were looking for. But it was nice and peaceful. Once others started to get to the top, we decided to head back down. We got back to our hotel and did their stretch yoga class. That felt amazing after our hike! Then it was (finally!) breakfast time.

For year 14, the traditional gift is animal. I bought Ben an adult coloring book of animals. And colored pencils to go with it. After showering, we sat on our deck and colored. It was a lot of fun!

The next morning we decided to do a nice, easy, quick, hike. Things didn't go quite as planned. We got to the trail head and started going the way we needed to get to the trail we wanted to go on. First problem was that the instructions weren't exactly clear. Secondly, the trails aren't marked very well. So, we made our way and kept going, enjoying the views. But then we started to get worried that we wouldn't be able to find our way back. Luckily, we stumbled into a volunteer and she told us to continue on the loop for more views and an easier (marked) way back down. We finally made it back to our car! But instead of an hour hike, it was close to 3, which left us hustling to get back to our cottage, pack up and leave to head home.

I am so glad we had our little escape. It was the first time alone in far too long. Here's to us!