Great Western Trek, Part 2: In Minnesota

Nicky was initially disappointed in the house.  When we told him it was on a lake, he thought we meant that literally.  He was expecting a floating house, or at the very least an island. 

Sorry, buddy.

Great Western Trek '22, Part 1: Westbound

So recently I have had several people (and by "several" I mean "more than one") ask me if we still have a blog.  And yes, technically, we DO....  but it is covered with cyber dust and spiderwebs.  The fact that anyone asked and even expressed nostalgia over our blog prodded me to get out my cyber Raid and duster, and let our adoring public peek into our lives once again.

I've realized that since we have a private GroupMe with immediate family, that's how I primarily share updates from our lives.  But obvs not everyone who reads this blog has access to that, and for some reason my brain didn't take that into account.  Anyway that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Well, going back to the start of summer, this year we FINALLY made a long-overdue driving trip out to Minnesota and back.  Our niece Bethany was getting married in June, and of course we HAD to be there, so that provided the perfect opportunity to make our usual long trip visitng friends-and-relations along the way!

It's beginning to look a lot like vacaaaaayshuuuun...

I wish I'd got a picture of the back of the van all packed up.  Truly a masterwork of Mad Tetris Skilz.

Halloween 2022

 Updated to add this adorable Halloween art from Katie:

 

Boo!

 The kids had a lot of fun deciding on their costumes this year.  Every one was pretty much set by the end of summer, which has to be a world record for our family.  After repeated pestering I finally told Nicky I wouldn't buy any elements of his costume until the end of September at the earliest.  And then me being me, I waited until it was too late to order special items. (insert eyeroll emoji here)  But it all worked out, as it always does, and everyone got admired by all the old ladies in the neighborhood and had candy thrown at them, which is the whole point anyway.

So, youngest to oldest they were: 

Nicky: an inkling boy from Splatoon

It's so great having creative children.  The only thing I had to do for this was purchase the hat and shirt.  Katie did everything else: designing and coloring the logo on the shirt, adding the blue stripe to the pants, and making the "ink tank".

 

Booyah!

Andy was Link from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

We used to have Link's Master Sword, but the wings broke off b/c it was used too many times as a weapon for playing Splatoon.  Let that be a lesson to you, kids: never mix genres.

Daniel was Mario again, this time with a mustache that wouldn't sweat off:

Let's a-go!

Of course Daniel chose the largest pumpkin he could find.  Our only requirements for kids choosing their own is that they have to a) be able to carry it themselves, and b) be willing to carve out all the insides themselves.  So if you want to be responsible for a 20-lb pumpkin, have at it dude. 

Next, continuing Jojo's trend of choosing utterly obscure characters, he went as an original character designed by Katie.  It's a ninja rabbit named Rafael...

(reference art):

Jojo's mask only lasted about 10 minutes.  It was really hard to see with it in the dark.  But he did manage to scare a little girl while he was wearing it, so there's that.

The resident cosplayer, of course, won the night with her ensemble, Philza from Dream SMP (a Minecraft role playing series from Youtube):

reference:

(It being a Minecraft character left a lot of room open for interpretation lol.)

The pumpkins in all their glory!

Jojo's candle kept going out, but here's a closeup of it:

(It's a squid from Splatoon -- a big theme around here these days.)

Everyone went trick-or-treating, even Katie (she used her youthful looks to her advantage), and had a grand time even though it rained the entire night.  Carrying an umbrella and a prop and a candy pumpkin definitely made it more complex, but no one complained, and all came home with a respectable amount of loot.  There were a fair number of other families out too, which is always good to see.

The next morning was our homeschool coop, which was not fun getting up for.  Everyone was a little sugar hungover -- I noticed a definite uptick in the energy levels of the students, and corresponding reduction in ability to pay attention to the subject matter.  But hey, I'll put up with almost anything for a decent supply of Snickers.  Oh, and peanut M&Ms.