The Pumpkin Patch!

A beautiful day.  We had a great time at the pumpkin patch.

 Benson LOVED the animals.

 Zoe needed a little coaxing.  She was much more excited to ride the train.

 Climbing on tires.  This was an activity that we missed somehow last year.

 I think this photo prop has been there since I was a kid.  

 Crawling, climbing, and having fun.

The kids got to see some real work being done.  This huge machine rolled apples around and then sent them up a sort of apple escalator.

 This big orange beast was definitely there when I was a little one.  Kind of funny to now see my kids there.  If you look through the pumpkin's nose, you can see the side of Benson's face.

5cent Fun Times

No outings here.  Just our everyday life.

 Fun at the dinner table.

 Rock on lil' buddy!

 Me?  Markers?  What?

 One of our traditional activities at Sam's club.

 Future dentist.

 This is a statue outside of my OB office.  We call her Sylvia and Zoe wants to get a picture with her each time.

 Same statue, different day.

 The 80's called.  They want their bracelets back!

 5 months!

 One of my favorite recent pictures of me and the kids.

 A rite of passage.  Jumping in puddles on a rainy day!

Zoe spending time with her Grandpa.

Apple Hill 2012

Apple Hill is a great little place just east of us and slightly up in the mountains.  It boasts a variety of apples and apple goodies (pies, tarts, donuts, etc), and is a great day trip.  We went last year, but much later in the year.  We decided to hit it a little earlier this year and we had a great go of it.

 As with almost any family outing, there's got to be food.  From last year, we learned that we didn't want to spend our money on the food up there, and so this year decided to bring food from home and have a little picnic in the back of the van before starting our adventures.  What a great idea!  The kids were pretty well confined and we didn't have to try to keep them on (or falling off of) a picnic table bench.  Keep this in mind for next year!

 Daddy teaching that hygiene is important wherever you are.

 Handsome Daddy and beautiful children!

 Zoe got to ride Sassy.  What a natural cowgirl she is.

 And with a little help from Mommy, Benson got to ride Blackie.

 More playtime!

 I was a little late in taking this picture.  A huge caramel, white chocolate and Oreo covered apple had just been in that bowl.  It didn't take us long to devour it.  Yummy!

 Riding more ponies!

Funderland 2012

If it wasn't for Groupon, our family probably wouldn't have as many outings as we do.  Ryan bought a Groupon deal for this fun little place called Funderland.  We were getting down to the wire, as far as expiration dates go, and so, on a whim and a Wednesday, we decided to finally use it.  If it seems like there are hardly any other people/kids in the park in these pictures, it's probably because there aren't.  We didn't check the opening time and ooops! got there 40 minutes before they opened.  We had to walk around the neighborhood a little bit to pass the time.  Thankfully the Sacramento Zoo is right across the street so we had a slight diversion.  Once the gates opened, we had a fun time.  Funderland is about 1/1045th the size of Disneyland so after 2 hours, we were pretty much done.  We had a fun time and the lack of lines was great for the kids too.

 Open.... open.... open....

 Picking the perfect teacup.