Friday Outing

Today Darrick was in training today to be Command Duty Officer so he did not get home as early as he usually does. So we thought we might go for a drive to check out a hike. But as we got closer the temperature started dropping and it started raining. The higher up we went the colder it got until it was 35 degrees and there was a little bit of snow on the ground! The surrounding mountains were so beautiful with snow on them.

The kids wanted so bad to get out and feel the snow so we pulled over and let them out. They were so excited. The boys started to try to make little snowballs. Naomi has never felt or seen snow before and she could not wait to get at it!

She loved it and kept saying "This is cold!" She wanted to take it with her so we let her take a little piece but of course it melted.

Then on the home we saw a big fat raccoon! It was a great time!

Kayak Point

Before we get to Kayak Point I have to tell you about Sunday morning. We had been having lots of rain during the week so it was so awesome when we woke up and the sun was shining. We looked out our bedroom window and noticed that everything was steaming. We called the kids and we just all sat there and watched it. It was really cool!

Now to Kayak Point! Today after Darrick got home from work we took a drive to find Kayak Point. Someone told us about it and said we should check it out sometime. It took us about 20 minutes to get there from our house and the drive was stunning. The whole way we traveled through forest. When we got there the kids were so excited to see a huge playground and Darrick and I were excited to explore!

The views were so gorgeous!

While the kids were playing on the playground Darrick and I took a few moments to walk down the pier by ourselves holding hands.


Once we got to the end we could look back to where we started and what was around us.

When we got back to the playground, it was so nice to see the kids playing happily together! (Which is not always the case!)

Then it was time to do one of my most favorite things: explore! The kids love it just as much as I do and we love to see what treasures we can find. There were a lot of shells and the shore was all rocks, no sand in sight!

Naomi loves sticks! There were so many in fact that she kept trading the one in her hand for another one she found on the ground. One of her favorite things to do with them is pretend that they are vacuum cleaners. Is was too cute to watch her vacuuming all along the rocks!

We saw some geese flying!

Naomi also enjoyed standing on the logs and singing her heart out!

It was a really cool place but before we knew it, it was dusk and it closed, but we enjoyed it while we could!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Hays Family!

We started our morning with homemade orange colored chocolate chip pancakes. They were a big hit!

After lunch, and while Naomi took a nap, we carved two pumpkins. Micah and Jacob both designed the face for one of them.

After the pumpkins were carved it was time to get into our costumes. The town we live in was having "Trick or Treat on 3rd street" which is one of the main streets in the town. You could go trick or treating in all the shops. I let Naomi wear some make-up which she loved.

It started raining when we were going into all the stores but we hung in there. We were surprised to see how many people came out, it was really fun. This was Naomi's first Halloween but it did not take her long to get the hang of it. Micah and Jacob were so sweet coaching her what to do.

Naomi was Cinderella, Micah was a Mad Scientist and Jacob was Frankenstein that Micah created.

After going to the stores we met up with some neighborhood friends to trick or treat around our neighborhood. We were all amazed at this huge leaf that Naomi found! It was pretty cold and a little drizzly. All the kids had an undershirt, shirt and sweatshirt under their costume. People in our neighborhood were very generous, giving each kid 3-5 pieces of candy. Before we knew it their pumpkins were full!

One thing that was new here is that almost all the houses in our neighborhood are split level which means you have to walk up a flight of stairs to get to the front door. Naomi really had to work to get to each door to get her candy and she was wiped out by the end.

Our friend let Naomi hold her flashlight and she was fascinated with it. She spent a lot of time in one spot examining things on the ground. We had to teach her not to shine it in people's eyes. At one point we told her put it on the ground, meaning the light, but she stopped walking and put the whole flashlight on the ground!

After we got home and warmed up with baths it was time to sort through our candy. We got 2 big bowls full!

Hope you had a great Halloween!