What we have been up to!

This may prove to be the longest post ever, and for all of you that keep telling me that I haven't updated my blog forever...you are going to be sorry! We have definitely not been bored lately, and have been blessed to be able to spend time with family and loved ones doing some fun things!
First things first...my family came into town a few weeks ago, and the kids were estatic to have them at their own home for a few days. We went hiking at Red Rock for one of the afternoons, and that was all the pictures I somehow got. But mom and dad, and Mahoney clan, we had a FANTASTIC few days with you, even if you play the wrong rules to Settlers. We missed you from the minute that you left, and Jackson and Max keep asking if you are coming back any time soon. So consider that another invitation!
We then got to head down to beautiful San Diego, to not only get to play with cousins all weekend, but to help celebrate Grandma Hats 85th birthday with her! It was a true surprise, since all of Liz's siblings and their children came in for it, as well as Russ's whole family, so it was a crazy and wonderful fun-filled weekend. We got to do a lot of fun things, but I think the boys' highlights of the trip was playing with cousins (old and young) at Papa's park, jumping on the tramp with way too many people at all times, sleeping in the motorhome with Grammi and Papa, going to the beach and making a bonfire, and swimming in the pool. Oh, and of course challenging Grandma Hats to bowling on the Wii and realizing that she's better than most of us! That is something Jackson still talks about to this day. We love you Grandma Hats!

Russ pulled an all-time infamous move, and found tickets to Universal Studios and to the Wild Animal Park for all four of us - all for $20. So even though we probably won't go back to either of these places any time soon, it was definitely worth the money that we put into it! The kids were semi-interested in the things at Universal Studios...it was a little disappinting that there wasn't more for them to do. Max FREAKED out when we were watching the fire demo, but they both loved seeing the characters (without long lines to meet them!) and they loved the ball area, where they could do whatever they wanted and not get into trouble.
We also spent a few hours at the Wild Animal Park, and the kids loved seeing the giraffes, the lions, the elephants, and the rhios. But there wasn't a whole lot of shows or anything else to do there, so we felt pretty good about the few hours that was spent there!

Last but not least...the Halloween of all Halloweens! We missed our ward's trunk or treat so we crashed another ward's where the stash of trash began. Then on Halloween day, a bunch of friends went to the Haunted Shark Reef where all kids got in free if they were dressed up, and got to trick or treat there AND see the fish! They had a BALL. That night we got together again with a bunch of friends and went trick or treating around their neighborhood. Jackson had decided at the last minute to change his mind on being a power ranger again, to being a member of the SWAT team, and he was a very handsome SWAT man. Max decided also at the last minute - to not be a Christmas present (which he had been saying for weeks he was going to be!) and he was a very cute Peter Pan. We had not yet carved pumpkins, so instead of making ourselves more crazy for more candy that would be donated to Russ's work (or the bishops office!) we went home and carved pumpkins finally. Halloween is a great holiday - and it's fun to have it here, and it's fun to have it over too.