Halloween

We love Halloween in our house. We had fun carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, getting dressed up, having a veggie skeleton, eye ball tacos and mummy hot dogs. However, this year was a little different as Kaylee went over to Izzy's house and Kianna and Ella drove around. Trace trick-or-treated with Michael, while the adults handed out candy. Trace came home with 18 lb worth of candy, which was crazy! It was a fun night.

Halloween Horror Nights and Sunset Cruise

 

Kaylee, Kianna and her friend, Emma McMullen wanted to go to Halloween Horror nights at Universal Studios. Stacie and I went along as chaperones to make sure they made it back to the hotel safely since it ends at 2 am. They got early admission tickets so were able to enter the park at 3 pm. They had 10 haunted houses to try to get through by 2 am.

While they were at the park, Stacie and I drove to Mims, FL on the Space Coast to go kayaking. We signed up for the sunset and bioluminescence kayaking tour. We had an awesome time on the sunset portion of the tour. We saw lots of dolphins jumping and manatees swimming around. It was amazing! As was the sunset. After the sunset, we rested for a bit until it was completely dark before beginning the bioluminescence portion of the tour. The latter, was very disappointing. The stars were very bright, but the algae was barely visible, which was very underwhelming. 

Afterwards we headed back to Orlando, where we waited for the kids until they were finished. They made it until 2 am and managed to see 8 out of the 10 haunted houses. The night was full of ups and downs, but overall the girls had a good time and would do it again. Stacie and I had a great time chaperoning!!! 

Senior Pictures

 

Our beautiful girl is a Senior. I'm not ready for her to leave, but am so excited to see where the future leads her. We had a fun photoshoot on Palm Beach Island with Italian food afterwards. Love this girl so much!

Homecoming

 

Kianna and Rex

Colby, Emma and Kianna with her date

Kaylee and Izzy Gomes

Both girls had Homecoming tonight at Jupiter High and they looked beautiful. Kianna had fun with Emma and her boyfriend. Kianna said it was more fun this year since she knows more people. Kaylee definitely knows more people too. Love my girls.  

Iowa

Wednesday, October 5th- 

We flew back to Iowa for a few days to celebrate Dad and Sue's 40th Anniversary. We don't have any pictures to show for it, but we spent the evening with Grandma Becki and the Langfald's.  

Thursday, October 6th-

Today we met Grandma Jacque and Rylan at St Patrick's Church and played bingo. We had some winners in our group. Kianna and Rylan each won $10, Grandma Jacque won $20 and Kaylee won the jackpot which was $120. We had a lot of fun! 

Friday, October 7th-

The goal of the weekend was to get all six of Dad and Sue's kids together for the first time. We all chose this weekend to meet in Cedar Rapids and that was the plan until Hurricane Ian wreaked its havoc on the gulf side of Florida the week before. Thankfully, Dane and Robin were fine and came out with minimal property damages. However, their area was hit badly, which caused their flights to get cancelled and Dane's work load to be crazy with all the damage to the properties he manages. 

We began with family pictures at Ellis Park with the hope that Dane and Robin could be photoshopped in at a later date. We then transitioned to the Hampton Inn and Suites where we reserved a banquet room and catered in Olive Garden. We spent the evening catching up and playing games. We all had a great time!

It worked!!!! All six of us together thanks to photoshop.

Dave and Darla

Rick and Krystal

Dave and Lana

Dan and Debi

Dane and Robin

Trevor and Keri

Kevin, Libby and Addy

Kaylee, Kianna and Trace

Saturday, October 8th-

We met at Dad and Sue's house to watch the Hawkeye game, visit and play games. Katie surprised everyone by flying in for a few hours. She and Jonathan had just returned Tanzania and hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro a few days earlier. She showed us their pictures, which was very special. We had a great time visiting, playing Peanuts and Up and Down the River.

Sunday, October 9th-

We met Dad, Sue, Debi, Dan, Libby, Kevin and Addy in Iowa City and listened to Scott preach at Harvest City. It was our first time there and it was great hearing him preach. It happened to be Emily's birthday, so after church they invited us to join them for her birthday lunch. Afterwards, we went to Bloomsbury Farm with Dan, Debi, Kevin, Libby and Addy. We had so much fun showing Addy the animals and experiencing fall in Iowa. We had such a great day!

Monday, October10th-

We don't have any pictures to show for it, but today we visited with Grandma GG, played games and visited with Grandma Becki. Tomorrow we head home. We had a great time in Iowa visiting our family, celebrating Grandma Sue and Grandpa Wayne and experiencing fall.