Happy Halloween 2012!

Happy Halloween from the Zincke clan!  In case you're not up on your video game characters, we have Joseph and Leah as Mario and Luigi, Ellie as Princess Rosalina, Amari as Princess Peach, and Dave and I (not pictured :) had hats- Dave had a star hat and I had a "one-up" mushroom hat.  We have been enjoying all sorts of Halloween festivities and the kids are super excited to go trick or treating tonight!

Fall Fun 2012

This year for our annual farm visit we decided to go to Apple Annie's Orchard in Willcox, AZ.  It was a bit of a drive, but just when we started getting bored, we started seeing signs for "The Thing?".  Mile after mile, giant billboards enticed us to stop, get gas, and see "The Thing?"  Thank goodness for the internet, we were able to satisfy our curiosity without having to stop.  You know you want to know what "The Thing?" is!!  Anyway, we got to Apple Annies and got our apple-pickin' gear.  It was fun for about 20 minutes then it was just hot.  There weren't many good apples left on the trees and my fantasy of my children joyfully skipping through the orchard picking low hanging fruit was just that- a fantasy.  Still, we got a decent pile of apples to take home and make into applesauce.

We had lunch at a little park next to some railroad tracks.  Every few minutes these loud, fast trains would whiz by- the kids thought it was the best park ever.  Dave and I got Big Tex BBQ for lunch- after real Texas BBQ it was a little disappointing.  These Arizonians make great Mexican food but BBQ, not so much.

After lunch we drove over to Apple Annie's Pumpkin Patch.  We decided that for the first time in our lives, we were going to get the biggest pumpkin we could find.  Everyone should live a little once in a while, don't you agree?

Winner, winner, pumpkin dinner!  Dave found this big guy and as a reward, got to carry it back!

California Dreamin'

Growing up my mom would always say "Labor day is for laboring!" and then come up with big work projects to do over the weekend.  OK, maybe not always, but often enough that I remember it!  Well, Dave and I decided that this Labor Day was going to be for vacationing!  We took a trip with the kids out to San Diego to visit my brother, sister, and their families.  We had such a fun time.  On Saturday we went to the beach.  Everyone had such a great time.  The little ones weren't to interested in the ocean because the waves were really high, but they could have played in the sand and eaten oreos and cheese-its (standard beach fare) forever.

I was introduced to boogieboarding- what a rush!  Ellie tried it too with her cousin and had a lot of fun but took all the skin off her knees riding the board up the beach with the waves.  I was pretty grateful that my brother loaned me his wetsuit!

On Labor day we had a fun excursion before we left for home.  We started the morning at a cafe near the beach- they advertised free kid's meals.  It is possible that they regretted that as we walked in with our combined 8 children, but we had a great breakfast and the kids behaved pretty well.  We then went down to the train station to ride the train to an ice cream place in a nearby city.  The kids were very excited about the train.

We enjoyed some yummy treats, then it was time to head back.

Look at all these happy kids!

We had such a nice time in California- it is so fun for us to be able to see family more often.  Maybe next year we'll do a big work project to celebrate Labor day..or maybe we'll start our own tradition and go to the beach again!