Dinosaur Park

Today we went to Dinos in the Dark. It's lights and Halloween decorations were out. This year was a little different. Everyone had to wear masks, at least inside and there was a clearly marked path you had to follow through the museum and then around outside. They had tape arrows inside and barriers outside to guide us/people along the path. Last time you could just roam wherever. This year instead of candy, they gave out glow sticks. Owen would get excited each time he'd be given a glow stick and then he'd try to give his previous one to the worker. It was pretty funny. At the end of the path, each of the kids got a goodie bag. It had candy (better variety), little toys, and some cool gems/rocks. It was a better haul than last time. I liked this time because there were no games that you had to wait in line for and get a tiny piece of candy. I kind of hope they keep it like this instead of the old way. They also had times where they'd turn off all of the lights outside and you had to use a flashlight. Not for very long though. The kids had fun.

Nampa/Whitney's Wedding Reception

This weekend we went to Nampa to go to my cousin's reception

Friday

We left today about lunch-ish and picked up some stuff to eat on the way. The drive wasn't too bad, except that it is long, just under 4 1/2 hours. We got there around 7:30 (I think). Once we got all settled in Eric went and got some pizza from Little Caesar's and then we watched some TV. Our room was pretty nice. It was an ADA room so it had some extra space (wider than a normal room) which was nice, and the bathroom was bigger too. The hotel is an extended stay one so it had a kitchenette. It had a fridge/freezer, sink, microwave, and dishwasher.

Saturday

Because of Covid, we couldn't just go down to the pool, you had to sign up for a time, so when we went down for breakfast, we signed up for 10a. Breakfast was pretty good. It was kind of a grab-n-go line thing. There was bread and bagels, cereal, yogurt, milk, juice, breakfast sandwiches, waffles. There was a table so we ate in the lobby. After breakfast we came back up to our room and got ready to go swimming. It was kind of nice doing the sign up thing for swimming, you didn't have to swim with anyone you didn't know and you had a time limit so you couldn't stay forever. The kids had fun in the pool and Owen preferred staying in the hot tub. Once our time was up we came back up to our room and got rinsed off. Eric went and got some lunch then we just hung out in our room. Eric took the kids and walked across the street to Walmart and got a couple of games (I forgot to bring some). After a while the Burns' came. They got the room next to ours. Then we all went down to the pool together. It was pretty fun hanging out with them at the pool. Once we were done, we came back up to our room and got cleaned/showered off and ready for the reception. It was at Robert and Michell's place.

They had BBQ food there. It was pretty good. They also had some desserts and cookies, which Emma and Owen were excited about. It was fun seeing some family we don't get to see very often. After the reception, we came back to the hotel and went to bed. 

Owen is looking that way in the pictures because my mom is rubbing his back/neck so he is zoning out.

Sunday

We didn't really do much today. We got up, got breakfast, and brought it back up to our room. Once we ate, we got all packed up and then just chilled a bit before we had to check out. Once we checked out, we met the Burns', my parents and Emily at a restaurant for lunch. The place was ok. Once we were done, we headed on home. It was a pretty decent weekend.

Visiting 'Aulani

Today, me and Emma went to the cemetery for our annual visit. It started out pretty stressful because we were cutting it close to the appointment time to the spa. We went to Beyond Spa where Emma had a pedicure and I got to do a foot soak. Emma was pretty excited about it. She picked pink nails with a ghost on her thumbs. We also got a drink (in a beaker) to share and some popcorn. It was pretty fun.

Next we went to Barnes and Noble to just take a look around at things. She had a lot of fun going around from thing to thing showing me something. It was pretty cute. 

Next, we went and got some treats at The Sweet Tooth Fairy got dinner at McDonald's, and then headed to the cemetery. 

When we got there we got all set up: laying down the blankets, setting up food, giving 'Aulani her decorations/notes. We barely made it by 7pm. Once 7 hit we lit the candle. I let Emma do it this time. She was pretty excited about that. We watched Tangled just like last year. I actually styaed pretty warm this year, except for my face. We used my Minky blankets and the jean ones, gloves, hats, and jackets. Once it was 8 o'clock, Emma blew out the candle and then we watched some more of the movie and then we hung out in the van for a little bit writing notes and watching Captain Underpants. Once we were all done there, we said our goodbyes and headed home.

 

I forgot to take pictures of all 3 of us until it was dark so we/I tried a bunch. It was kind of funny how hard/bad it was. We ended up getting some decent ones.