Halloween

This year Ada dressed as Athena, inspired by her favorite Greek mythology book series Heroes in Training. To compliment her outfit, Todd worked long hours to create an amazing shield and spear fashioned from cut and shaped foam mats. Medusa’s eyes light up with the flip of a switch and the gemstone in the spear lights with the click of a button at the pole’s base.

Ruby was a beautiful mermaid, inspired by her love of Disney princesses 🙂

We started with trick-or-treating through downtown Fairhaven, made our way back to our church for dinner and games, and then finally visited houses in our neighborhood. The girls got lots of candy again!

Pumpkin Patch

Another great year at Willetta Farm! We always enjoy the animals, rubber ducky races, pumpkin shooter, and horse drawn wagon ride. My parents also got to join in on the tradition 🙂

Homeschool & Guinea Pigs

After our big Canadian road trip we started school….and adopted a couple of guinea pigs from church friends.

The piggies are named Snowball and Poppy, lovingly called “the girls,” not to be confused with our girls 🙂 Snowball is solid white and tends to be the friendly one. Poppy has an orange spot on her head and likes to run and hide until caught! They seem pretty spoiled with their large enclosure to roam and kick up their paws. The most entertaining thing they do is called “popcorning” where they hop/ leap into the air (all four paws off the floor) to express they are happy or excited. They also poop a….lot! 😀

Road Trip: Days 11-13

Said goodbye to my parents at Mount Robson Provincial Park in B.C. then headed back to Jasper for a hike around Maligne Canyon. The next morning we packed up to go but decided to drive around in hopes of seeing wildlife. We were fortunate to witness a large herd crossing the river and eventually they crossed the road in front of us. We continued our drive on a back road and came across another smaller herd.

We had a wonderful time despite some car sickness, long hours, and moving to a new hotel almost every night. Todd did an amazing job planning every detail and we enjoyed getting to see more of God’s beautiful creation with one another 🙂

Road Trip: Day 10

Another full day exploring beautiful Jasper National Park and the Columbia Icefield. We hiked around waterfalls, toured Glacier View Lodge, and hiked up to the chilly Athabasca Glacier.

Road Trip: Day 9

After a full day at the water park, we woke up early the day and drove to the Edmonton Valley Zoo. After exploring the zoo for a few hours we headed 4 hours to Jasper with a stop in Edson to see a larger-than-life squirrel. This day was extra special because my Dad turned 70! What better way to celebrate than on a long road trip with family and wild animals, ha! 🙂

Road Trip: Day 8

We spent the entire day at the West Edmonton Mall which is the largest mall in North America. Nine hours of that day we played at World Waterpark located inside the mall. We had lots of fun and I was brave enough to go down some of the “faster” slides. I only got water up my nose a couple of times 😉

Road Trip: Day 7

On our way to Edmonton we drove through the prairies with a stop at Elk Island National Park hoping to see a few wild animals. We spotted bison, a beaver, frogs, birds, and a white-tailed deer. The girls also had fun making bison magnets and dressing up as wild animals at the park’s learning center/theater.

Road Trip: Day 6

Our next stop was to Drumheller, Alberta to see the dinosaurs! We toured the amazing Royal Tyrrell Museum, climbed 106 stairs to the mouth of the World’s Largest Dinosaur, hiked along Hoodoos Trail, then stopped for a quick walk across the Star Mine Suspension Bridge on our way out of town.

Ada is really into dinosaurs at the moment so we took the opportunity to learn more about them at one of the best museums in North America.

Road Trip: Day 5

After leaving Banff we headed to Calgary and spent the rest of the day exploring downtown. I loved the architecture, sculptures and creative art throughout the city. Unfortunately the Calgary Tower was closed, but we had so many other things to see 🙂