November

 Monday night we had did our annual thankful tree for FHE.  Grace was in charge of the lesson and she loved the idea. After we finished covering the tree in leaves, she quizzed us all on things we were thankful for and wouldn't let anyone repeat anything.  I think the authority went to her head.  She made us raise our hands and everything.  It was pretty funny though.

Monday was also our cute puppy's birthday.  We hung up the birthday banner, he got two new toys, and Grace worked hard on a surprise card.  He has now officially hit the terrible twos.  Not sure what that will mean with a dog, but he does think its fun to bark a lot at every squirrel who dares enter his yard.  He can be a real stink sometimes, but we are still glad we got him.  He's definitely part of the family.

Trick-or-Treat

 On Halloween we had a fun get together with the neighbors with Halloween themed food.  Sadly I took no pictures.  Then we all headed out trick-or-treating together.  This year we ended up with 2 M&Ms and Anna from Frozen.

Evan's costume is actually my sister's from years ago, and when he saw it in our costume bin he instantly decided that was what he wanted to be.  Kyle was hoping to be some sort of super hero, but he has outgrown the Costco options, and when he realized that he said he wanted to be and M&M with Evan.  Grace went back and forth between Annabeth from Percy Jackson and Anna. She actually went as Annabeth to school, and Anna for Halloween. Maybe I can reuse the Annabeth one for next year ;)

  The weather looked sketchy all day for that evening, but we decided we would brave it. We lucked out and only got drizzled on a little.  I think because of the lowsy weather people were more generous with the candy.  We did just our neighborhood, and not even all of the houses in it, and their buckets overflowed to the point I filled all of  my coat pockets with candy.

Kyle is definitely related to me.  He came home, dumped out his candy, and started sorting.

 Grace is super sweet, and as she went through hers she kept trying to give it to the people she thought would like it best.  The boys were kind and reciprocated by giving her all of the regular M&Ms- her favorite.  

Since Gramps was feeling better, the day after Halloween we took the kids up to see him and let he and Grammie see their costumes.  We watched the end of the Seahawks game together and the kids loved his Seahawks pjs.

Evan declared this his last year trick-or-treating.  He has the option to change his mind for next year, but it definitely made it a little bittersweet being out with him this year.  I am not a fan of how fast he is growing up.  

Pumpkins

Gramps fell and broke his hip shortly after our return from Hawaii and I volunteered to go sit with him for a few hours on a Saturday.  It was pretty much our last possible day to go to the pumpkin patch, so Brandon braved it alone.  Looks like they had fun.

 This girl is gorgeous.  We are in trouble as she gets older.

 Love that he is still a goofy kid.  I know our little kid years are running out and I'm enjoying what we have left.

 Thankfully they selected some impler designs this year.  Still very fun, but a bit quicker to carve.  They all helped carve their pupmkins too.  Grace just picked something random, Evan went with angry Jack Skellington, and Kyle's matched a pumpkin pillow we have.

 Brandon and I ended up with pumpkins with the biggest stems ever.  They were huge!

It's kind of a pain getting them done sometimes, but we do enjoy our pumpkin carving tradition.

Kauai

Warning - this post is going to be really long and have a lot of pictures.  I want it recorded while I still remember it all though, so here it goes.

 We arrived in Kauai on Saturday, and by the time we got to the house and got settled we were too tired to really do anything.  The next morning we went to the local branch at church, which was kind of fun because it was so tiny.  After church we headed home to change, and then most of us went to see the "grand canyon of Hawaii" (Bryce's family went the day before while waiting for the rest of our flight to arrive).  It was a bit of a drive up, with some threats of car sickness, but it was gorgeous.

 If only I wasn't soooo terrified of heights and paranoid one of the kids was going to fall in the entire time.  I looked and saw it all, but I was very happy to get back in the car and head back down.  So amazing though!

 Our first of many shave ice stops.  This was Uncle's shave ice in Poipu and it was pretty good.  We tried their shave snow too which got high marks from my little shave ice connoisseurs.

 This was the view from the front porch one night, all the men in the house out trying to figure out how to get a coconut out of the tree.  They never did get one out of that tree but they had a great time trying.

 The girls all got their nails painted one night.  They thought they were so fancy.  

 Out of order - but cousin pics on the porch before we went home.

 Bored while the adults were packing up and cleaning.

 Kyle seemed to really perfect his boogie boarding this trip.  

 Grace seemed to perfect getting sand all over herself.

 Cute little mermaids.  This was about our set up everyday, lots of beach chairs in the back, and lots of kids and toys in the front.

  These two did this for hours.

 Several days we ended up with a boy fort and a girl fort.  One day the girls even plotted and attack on the boy fort and tried to sneak over to it.  It was hilarious to watch the plotting and overhear their conversations.

 Deacon was a big fan of the water, but not such a big fan of getting out.

 It took some coaxing to get Grace to try boogie boarding

 but then she loved it......until she got sand/salt water in her eyes.

  Thankfully she came up with this plan and that seemed to help.  Hooray for goggles.

 Claire was quite the little boogie boarder too.

 Grace found her true passion on this trip- snorkeling.  She practiced this summer and was so excited to go.  We got to hear about all the fish she saw each time she went out and she kept Grandpa busy with her constant snorkeling requests.

 Snorkel Bob

 One afternoon Brandon had to bury all of the bigger kids in the sand.  They thought they were so funny.

 Kauai had more chickens than I have ever seen just wandering the streets.  We had several roosters nearby that would wake us up every morning, so the kids came up with a plan to catch one with Grandpa and spent their mornings trying to lure it into their trap.  Unfortunately we never caught it.  The one in our yard sounded like it was going hoarse so it was especially entertaining.

 Group boogie boarding.

 Grandpa taking Grace snorkeling again.  Usually he went too, but occasionally he would just walk along beside her holding her hand.

 When Grandpa wouldn't take them out Grace and Graham opted to just snorkel near the shore looking for treasures.

 Deacon is in a sword phase so he and Ben had a great fight on the beach for us one day.

 Kilauea lighthouse

 Sadly it was already closed when we went, but we got a few pictures and also saw a bunch of albatross flying around which I loved.

 No nene in this picture, but we did finally see some of the elusive bird.  

 Gwen was so fun to watch on the beach.  So easy going about it all, but trying to keep up with the big kids.  

 We walked along the road by our house a few times and found this great tree and swing. 

 Also on the walk down our road, some fabulous vines. Not so fabulous when you are pretending to be Tarzan and one snaps though.

 Lizard catching was a highlight for the kids.  Evan has 7 in his water bottle in this picture.  

 Then everybody was holding a lizard.  The kids loved chasing them around the yard and holding them.

 The views on Kauai were absolutely gorgeous.  So green, mountains, blue ocean, blue skies.  It is hard to think of a prettier place.  

 Hanalei Bay

 Attempting to surf.

All in all in was a great week with family.  We loved all being in the same house, getting to play games after the kids went to bed, the kids getting up and playing together every morning, and just all of the time together.  Thanks Mom and Dad for a fantastic vacation!