Trunk or Treat

We had a tri-ward Trunk or Treat tonight. This year we have a dark wizard, Russian Peasant, executioner, and Japanese lady. I just couldn't bring myself to go get costumes this year so they had to raid the costume box of what we already owned. I think they did a great job. Brendan never broke character even for pictures.

 Every ward in this building met together for it. There were A LOT of people there. Since Halloween is on a Sunday we aren't going trick or treating this year so this was the only chance for candy. The two youngest went around to cars but the two oldest either handed out our candy or walked around looking at costumes and trunks.

Paige spent time with her friend Cassidy, who was a fairy. She told me later that Cassidy's wings kept hitting her in the face and that a few little kids told their moms that "the girl with the ax is scary". She felt a bit bad for frightening little kids. However, she was the one who decided to be an executioner whose robes had screaming ghosts in the hem so I am not sure what she expected. 

Some of the trunks were decorated amazingly. One was decorated as a pirate ship complete with people walking the plank for candy. It was wild. However, people were stingy with candy, likely due to the number of kids and they didn't come home with much. It's a good thing anyway, probably as there is now less to tempt Mom. ;)

Ward Service Project

 Our current ward likes to have a ward service project every time they have a ward conference. This time they teamed up with El Paso Botanical Gardens and we weeded the front entrance. Most of the kids were very helpful and it was nice to get to work alongside some ward members and get to know them. Paige hates yard work and mainly wandered around trying to look busy (but I know better). Brendan spent the whole time in a very small patch of the yard because he is so particular about getting every weed. 

I was amazed at some of these desert weeds. The desert really is out to kill you! Look at this one that is taller than Darby with sharp pointy spines! We had a hard time getting it out.

There were also tiny ones with itty bitty barns that could go through some garden gloves. Ask me how I found out about that. But we did well and it looks pretty good now. There is satisfaction in a job well done. Jason took us all to Jamba Juice afterward as a treat. 

Invisible Braces

 Eva got her Invisalign braces today. Can't see them? Good. That's kind of the point. :) She changes her trays every week and has to wear bands until told otherwise. Because she's a responsible kid Jason and I felt that she could handle this kind of braces, which require more self-control than regular braces. We felt she would wear them when she was supposed to even if they hurt and she would clean them properly and not lose them. She will be wearing them for about 2.5 years. 

Jack O' Lantern

It's pumpkin carving time! This year we did not get smaller pumpkins for the kids to paint because they are all old enough to carve if they want to. Jason scooped out the guts and the kids picked out the seeds to dry and roast.

The girls think pumpkin guts are gross!

We decided to carve Trogdor the Burninator into the pumpkin this year. It was especially funny because of Strongbad's "tutorial" on drawing him. 

Here he is all lit up. We think he looks super cool!

We also had indoor smores as a treat. If we had a real Trogdor he would have roasted them outside for us. 

Blessing

Today Brendan got his patriarchal blessing. His appointment was this morning before church. We arrived at Patriarch Keven Jensen's house and he let us in. He explained that his wife would usually be seating us and chatting with us while he took Brendan into another room to get to know him a bit. However, his brother was sick and she was tending to him upstairs. That was fine. Jason and I sat in the seating area and read some of his books. One was about the Saints in El Paso and Jason is thinking of getting it to finish reading. 

After chatting with the patriarch for a little while, Brendan came back in and the blessing began. It was beautiful and as unique as Brendan is. I cried. I think Jason did too. There were surprising things said and answers to questions I had had about my boy. He, of course, was not emotional and looked very contemplative. 

The patriarch suggested that we take a picture and then led us to the front door. Jason and Brendan exited first and suddenly I felt Patriarch Jensen's hand grip my arm tightly and hold me back. He told Jason, "She will be there in a minute" and he proceeded to tell me that he knows it's hard to be a parent to such an exceptional child, that everything will be okay, and that the Lord loves him. He told me that the brother that lives with them has Down's Syndrome and came to live with them when his parents died. In an age when you sent children like that away to live in institutions, his parents chose to keep his brother with the family always. He explained that he understood what it is like to have special souls in your family and that the Lord is watching over us. I started crying again. It was a sweet and special moment and I will never forget how it made me feel. I thanked him and we drove home. 

I wondered how he knew that Brendan was autistic, if it was apparent or if Brendan had told him. So I asked Brendan. Apparently in their conversation, he told him that he had Aspergers Syndrome. It made me glad that he is now feeling more comfortable in his diagnosis to tell people. Its not too long ago that he was ashamed of it. We talked with Brendan about his blessing and how he felt, and what surprised him about it. It was an interesting conversation. a physical copy of the blessing will be mailed to him in a week or two. I hope he visits it often. 

 

Young Women's Camping Trip

Because this group of girls did not get to go to Girls Camp this past summer due to COVID, their class leaders decided to rent a cabin in Cloudcroft and have a mini-camp. Eva was so excited to go and returned home with stories to tell. Apparently, some "wildlife" got in the cabin at some point. Yikes!

She had a great time having out with the girls her age. She especially loved helping out with the cooking. 

They also went apple picking, played lots of games, stayed up late, and had a devotional outdoors the next day. It was really a great thing that these leaders did for the girls. 

This is Eva. Mom asked me to elaborate on the cabin trip since I was there and she wasn't.  Sister Stetson drove me and the Esplin twins (two girls in my young women's group whom I'm friends with) to the cabin. We played Harry Potter trivia on the way there. When we arrived, it was really cold and dark so we all went inside and fell asleep. Apparently, during the night, something happened (I think it involved a moth). The reason I don't know all the details is that I slept through it. I was told there was screaming and opening of doors and such. ( I sleep really deeply. My bed was in the closet behind a curtain, and the other two people in the room said it was like I wasn't even there.) Then, in the morning, we went apple picking (it was super fun) and took a hike. After lunch ( which I helped make), we painted pumpkins and made caramel apples. 

A funny thing about that: one of the adults brought lots of toppings, and one of those was these things called "unicorn chips", and they look like blue and pink chocolate chips. But they taste more like crayons. It became a sort of game: "Let's see if we can get this person to eat these without telling them they're disgusting".  One of the Esplin twins even tried writing with one AND IT WORKED. I don't think we ate any more after that.

Anyway, after a day or two, we packed up and went home. I was sad to leave, but I was really tired from the hiking and climbing and such.  I came home, showed off my painted pumpkin, and took a nap. All in all, it was super fun and I'm glad I went. Darby's told me she can't wait to do things like this when she's twelve. ;)

Cornfield Maze 2021

Because it is October it is a tradition that we go to a cornfield maze. Luckily, El Paso has one along with a pumpkin patch. It wasn't as big as the ones we've been to before but we were happy that we could hold to tradition. 

We played a little in the pumpkin patch and playground. Then we had a treat and proceeded to the maze. 

We made it through the maze in 19 minutes! And we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. We picked a pumpkin to carve and then headed home. 

 

Camping

Driving up the mountain it was so nice to see green. 

Before we left I looked into places to camp in Cloudcroft. Several of the sites stated that they were closed in the fall but I found one that had everything we needed and said it was open from April 15 to October 17. When I tried to call and confirm those dates no one would ever pick up. But we went anyway. Sure enough, it was closed. Sigh. We went to the ranger station and they told us that it closed last week. I told them it would have been nice if they updated their website with that information. I am finding that typical in this area. Many El Paso agencies, and apparently New Mexico forest department too, haven't updated their websites and/or they aren't very helpful. I won't even get into school websites. Anyway, the rangers told us about an open recreation area called Upper Karr that we could still camp in. So we headed there. 

The fall colors were lovely in the Lincoln National Forest. The birch trees along our hike were gorgeous! We had to turn back early because Paige had to go to the bathroom and we weren't prepared for that on the hike. No toilet paper means you try to use whatever's handy and let's just say it didn't quite work as well. Sigh. 

Later at the campsite we read, played games and relaxed. It is a good 15-20 degrees colder than in El Paso. 

Jason took Paige and Brendan on another hike while the other girls played card games. When they got back they told me all about it. They took Stella. They found some cows on the hike that she really wanted to go investigate. They also found elk bones. Jason took a picture of his watch showing the elevation. Can you believe it was over 9300 feet?

At night we toasted marshmallows and roasted some of the apples we had picked. Paige made up and sang us a song about it. ;)

At night it was almost freezing temperatures but we were prepared and everyone was warm enough. However, nothing is ever as comfortable as your own bed and we woke up a little more tired than usual.

In the morning we had our campfire meals and then packed up and headed home. It was nice to be amongst trees for a while before we head back to cactus.