Power Farm, Fall fun and Lexi's birthday

We've had an eventful month. We have been enjoying the fall weather here. I've especially loved it as I have been finishing my marathon training. Last week Wayne came home a few minutes before five o'clock, which is very rare. Weirdly enough dinner was ready. We chowed down and decided to head to Powers Farm. OK, I've heard about this place, but I can't believe we haven't been there before. They had haunted teepee's that the kids absolutely couldn't get enough of. We took pictures in the big pumpkin patch.
We headed into the luscious bakery and decided between homemade doughnuts or cookies. Then we topped off the trip with a haunted hayride.
It was a perfect setting, misting rain and dark when we hopped on the trailer. The tractor sounded rickety and would stop and go (all staged and part of the fun). There were witches, ghosts, graves, bats and a cave that we drove through at the end. The kids loved it until the dark cave and then Trevor jumped over Jacob onto my lap. Lexi threw her head into Wayne's shoulder and kept it there until the gate opened and the ride was done. We will definitely do it next year . . which will be our last year in Rochester. Crazy.

Last Sunday was a gorgeous fall day.
We decided to drive to the park and let the kids play on the playground. Wayne had a bit of fun too :). While we were there we saw a huge leaf pile. The kids bolted over there and jumped and squealed.





We also went to Bristol Mountain. It's a ski resort here. Although I'm a bit of a ski snob growing up in Utah. You can pay to ride the chair lift on weekends and we had a blast doing just that. The kids had their first hint of snow when we reached the top and loved throwing ice balls. I, for one, am not ready for that at all. Then we rode it back down and ate a picnic that we packed.


I love the changing leaves. A few months ago we went to Letchworth State Park to hike and play. I saw this picture on my friends blog and just had to post how beautiful that place is. Now, imagine it in fall. Beautiful.

Alexis turned two on the 23rd. I can't believe it has been two years since she was born. She is a spitfire to boot. We love her so much, even when she whacks us for no other reason than to entertain herself, or scares me to death when I can smell her bathwash from the kitchen, race upstairs and see her with the entire bathwash dumped and spread on her legs, arms, and stomach and in action with razor in hand . . . with no blade (and my heartattack stops immediately).
We had some friends over for cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate. Lexi was adamant that her best girlfriends come. Most of them are 8-12 years old. She adores them and thankfully they reciprocate. All the older girls will be moving in May/June. She's not going to know what to do or how to play when they leave.


Wayne was a workhorse last night putting together Lexi's new crib. Oh, how to begin on this one. I came home about three weeks ago Saturday morning from a long run. Wayne looked at me and said, "Did Lexi tell you what she did?" I said, "No." He just shook his head and I looked to Lexi. Wayne said, "Lexi, tell Mommy what you did to your crib." She quickly said, "I broke it. I kick it. I broke it." I just looked at Wayne wondering if what I just heard was true. He nodded. Her crib was two years old. Apparently she was kicking the inside of the crib and karate chopped the wooden slat. It completely broke, but not only that, it was jagged and sharp. Wayne pulled off the jagged edge and we talked about what we should do. She clearly could not sleep in it and I was not ready to put her in a bed yet. I called my sister and told her what happened. I was thinking about contacting the company. She asked me what the brand was and I told her. She said that there was a recall on that brand for that purpose. She happened to have the same brand of crib. I couldn't believe it. I looked it up online and there it was, clear as day. I printed out the instructions to return and sent it all off. Three days later I had a voucher to purchase a new crib from Babies R Us, which actually ended up being better than the previous one. So, Lexi had been sleeping in a pack and play for a week and half while we were waiting for her crib to come in. She was a trooper at night, but didn't nap well during the day. I was so happy when it was in. She fell asleep last night at 9:00 and she's still asleep as I'm typing this (it's 9:11 a.m.). So far so good.