Skyline Caverns

The kids had Friday, November 11th off from school so we headed down to Skyline Caverns down in Virginia for a little day trip.

This was a pretty amazing cavern and we all enjoyed touring around the different formations.

This was "The Eagle" and I think it was our favorite one!

It was a fun way to spend a fall day!!

Rockets

On Saturday, November 4th the Cub Scouts held their annual rocket launch at Misty Meadows Creamery. Landon was very excited about his event!!

His first rocket attempt almost cost him some finger as it exploded while he was still touching it!! But fortunately they got it all figured out and his second launch went much more smoothly.

We finished off the afternoon with some yummy ice cream which made it fun for the whole family!!

6th Grade Volleyball

Abby had a great time playing on the 6th grade girl's volleyball team at Western Height Middle School. She learned a lot and became an even better player by the end of the season. It was a big time commitment, with either a practice or a game every single night of the week, but she had a great little team and made some good friends along the way. 

We had a great team photographer who took pictures at every game and got some great pictures of Abby. I will just let the pictures do the talking as I loved all of these amazing shots that he was able to get!!

Go Lady Grizzlies!!

Trick-or-Treat!

The Ladners came over for dinner and trick-or-treating with us which always makes Halloween even more fun for all of us. This year we had a witch's daughter (Abby), a Nexo Knight (Landon), Darth Vader (Coldon), Rey (Reygan), Captain America (Nolan), Princess Elsa (Maylie), and a dinosaur (Willow).

I was amazed that we were actually able to get a picture with all of the kids and no one was crying!!

Of course we needed another picture with "Anna" and "Elsa" too!

All the kids loved trick-or-treating but Maylie really got into it this year. She was so excited about all the candy she was getting just from knocking on people's doors. She kept asking for days afterward when we would be going again!

Carving Time

On the Sunday before Halloween we set aside some time to carve our pumpkins. I am the master pumpkin degutter (scraping out all the seeds and pumpkin guts) and the kids all came up with their own design and did most of the cutting themselves.

Well, except for this little one who stuck to painting her pumpkin instead!

Jason helped Landon draw his design out and then he did the rest of the carving.

We ended up with a Nexo Knight sword (Landon), a rose (Abby), and a square face (Nolan)!

Halloween Festivities

On Tuesday, October 21st, I took Abby, Nolan and Maylie to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat activity. Jason and Landon went to Landon's last baseball game instead.

Maylie was thrilled to find her best friend Ayda. They made an adorable duo as Elsa and Anna!

On Saturday, October 28th we headed back down to Six Flags with the Ladners to enjoy some more rides and spooky activities. It was a lot more crowded this day but we still made it on a lot of rides and enjoyed a fun stunt show before leaving the park before the "awakening" when all the scary people come out!!

October Happenings

This girl endured a lot late nights watching baseball games for both Landon and Nolan. She was quite the trooper!!

Jason's parents came for a quick visit near the end of October and we had fun taking them around the area, including to this fun Corn Maze at Misty Meadows Creamery!

On Saturday, October 21st, all the kids were playing outside while we made dinner for Jason's parents. Nolan came inside crying saying that he had hurt his arm while jumping on the trampoline. Turns out they were "catching each other bounces" and this bounce had caused him to go pretty high up and then he reached out to catch himself with his left arm. He wasn't crying too much so we told him to rest on the couch for a minute until it felt better. A few minutes later I went to see how he was doing and noticed that his left arm was bowed! Needless to say, I rushed him over to Urgent Care where they discovered that he had fractured both his ulna and radius in his lower left arm!! 

This was our first broken bone in our family so we were caught completely off guard. Urgent care wanted us to go to the ER that night where they splinted his arm and made an appointment for us to see an orthopedist on Monday.

The orthopedist was in Pennsylvania and he recommended surgery to fix his arm as well as a rod and screws which would require another surgery in 4-6 months. We set up his surgery for the next day, but as we were driving home, Jason and I both felt prompted to get a second opinion. After a lot of calling, running around, and seeking recommendations, we were able to meet with a pediatric orthopedist in Frederick who told us he definitely didn't need any rods or screws and she thought she could fix it that day right in her office. It was a painful few minutes for Nolan when they reset his arm, but it is now healing nicely with no surgery!!

He will be in an extended cast for 5-6 weeks and then a brace for a few more weeks until it fully heals. Thank goodness we felt prompted to get that second opinion!!