Fall Fun

We decided to take a little trip down to Minot for a night with the kids since Jotham had a day off school and Waylon is always off on Monday's. So after church and a quick lunch we packed up and headed out. Amariah managed to have a bit of a nap as we hoped she would while we drove. We checked in and went straight to the pool for some water slide fun. Amariah loved the big water slides, she was pretty much the same age Jotham was the first time we took him, he probably liked it better at that age then he does now, but he still had lots of fun. After that we had supper and then shopped at Target for a while. Since Minot is an hour ahead of us it was pretty quiet while we were there, so had some time to look around and find some good deals. The next day we did a bit of shopping at the mall, Amariah made friends with the Old Navy headless mannequin girl, and they had lots of fun playing in the kids area. Then after trying Sonic we went over to the zoo. 

We had lots of fun looking at all the animals. It was pretty empty there when we arrived as it has started to get colder, but a few more families came while we were there. We even knew one of them who had led the service at church a couple times. We have never been to Minot without bumping in to someone we know. Amariah loved getting the animals to eat out of her hand, even though she would say it bit her, it was really just licking her. By the time we were heading out more of the animals were moving around so we stopped by the ones we saw first again for another look. Then we were off for home after lunch.

That week Amariah and I dug out some winter stuff just so we were ready, she decided to try some of her things on. The next weekend Waylon was off for the youth retreat, this year I stayed home with the kids, after playing outside we needed to warm up with some hot chocolate. We sent Waylon these pictures of us and he replied with a picture of himself, though he was drinking coffee. Amariah was pretty excited about the dress she picked for church on Sunday. Amariah still sleeps in all sorts of crazy ways, this bottom picture is how she stayed asleep in our bed after we got up.

 More leaf pile fun! We also went to the fire departments open house, had a tour, ate some food and Jotham even got to spray the fire hose. Amariah has been working on doing things herself, here she got her jacket on (kind of). Amariah is also getting big enough to play games with us, this was the first time we all did a board game together, she did a great job. 

 While it did get cold for a while, it warmed up a fair bit and we've been able to play outside lots. Gotta get out while we can, we know it'll get cold fast. Jotham's class was doing a project on floating and they all had to make boats to see which could hold the most weight. We got to come in and see their competition. Jotham got second!! But as his teacher said, how well they did didn't matter as long as they were understanding how things worked. October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance day and someone had organized a little gathering so a friend and I went. They gave us lanterns to write on that we later released. It was nice to go, hopefully next year we'll all go together (it was a little last minute and a clubs night). 

 Jotham wore his Canucks hoodie one Saturday morning, so Amariah requested to "wear hockey too". Since it was a nice day we walked over to the park to play while Waylon was busy working on his sermon for the next day. After church the next day Amariah fell asleep on the 5 minute drive home and I managed to get her sleeping into her crib, Jotham was pretty impressed with me.  

 Later that afternoon we met some friends at the park and went for a walk together. Amariah then invited herself in to their house so she could play, she knows how fun their playroom is. We ended up staying for supper even, it was a fun impromptu day. Amariah started Puddle Ducks, its a swim class for 2 and 3 year olds, they do games or a craft or story first and then play in the pool for a while, and warm up in the hot tub for a couple minutes at the end. Amariah loves it! She tells us most days at supper how she went down the slide on her own. Amariah and I did some shopping one day, she found a bear to love at the store (which we left there after a quick hug) and then we decided Daddy could buy us some flowers since they were on sale. After we got home we walked over to the toddler park to play for a bit. Love having warm weather in October!

 The mornings are always a bit cool and we were meeting friends at a park one morning, so Amariah picked her own hat (and the rest of her amazing outfit!). It was the perfect morning for some fall pictures, I even found a tree that reminded me of fall in BC. It's also been good weather for Amariah to wear her pink leather jacket, every little girl needs on of those. 

Hopefully the warm weather holds up for Jotham's birthday...