Carving our pumpkin

Wednesday afternoon, Lance and I carved our family pumpkin. I asked Lance what he wanted to carve, since last year we did the Transfomer "Autobot" symbol. We decided this year it would be fun to carve a "Decepticon" symbol.

Lance helping to cut off the top. 

During the course of the cutting, his clothes magically disappeared, as they usually do whenever we do things like this. 

Scooping out the "guts", as Lance likes to call them. 

Not a huge fan of being sticky. 

Mom finishing the clean-up 

You can see our pattern on the table. Lance wanted to help carve, so he and I carved a few lines together... 

...but he soon got bored and decided watching "Phineas and Ferb" with his friends in our living room was a better idea. So, I finished it up with Jude watching on. 

I think it turned out pretty well!

Trunk-or-Treat!

Our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat this Tuesday. George was in Roanoke and missed out on the fun, but the boys and I had a good time dressing up. Lance was a member of the SWAT team, I was the "bad guy" he was catching, and Jude was dressed as George--an ER resident. 

Making his "serious business" face. 

Happy boy, as usual. 

Our neighbors were nice and took this picture of us all together.  

I've been caught! 

Trouble...

We enjoyed a nice night of chili, friends, and--of course--candy!

Pumpkin Patch!

This past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with my family! George (he's doing a rotation down in Roanoke, about 2 hours away) had the weekend off, so it was an extra special treat to be there with him. 

My family has gone to the same pumpkin patch for the past, oh, 12 years at least. 

(This picture was taken in 2000--I was 17!)

It has certainly grown since the first time we went and now has all kinds of fun things to do. The weather was perfect, family was there, it was a great time. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...

Laura, Tyler, and Mason

Pumpkin ice cream! Yum!

Jude liked it...

...but I think Vera liked it more.

I love this picture because you can see Vera just aching to get at that drip... her tongue is out and everything.

Lance is petting the hind-end of a pot-bellied pig (it's the only end we ever saw because the pig was busy digging up the whole pen).

Jude was glad to get out of the stroller and "stroll" around.

Next we took a hayride to the field where we could pick out a pumpkin.

Amy and Vera

The Calderwoods

The Glass family

Jason, Glenn, and Mom

Aunt Linda and Kailey

Jude thought the ride was relaxing...

Lance is helping Laura and Tyler find the perfect pumpkin for baby Mason.

Grandma and Jude!

Lance soon got tired of looking at pumpkins and found a deep tire track that was much more fun.

Isn't it beautiful?

Pumpkins--they're good to eat, too.

After we picked our pumpkin, we went back to the farm for the best part of the trip:

The pumpkin bounce!

Jude tried to get up there...

...but soon contented himself with playing in the sand, also a very fun activity.

What a good brother! I know it doesn't look like it, but Lance really is trying to help him up the bounce.

Showing how it's done.

Cousins! All three on the Allred side. They were all a good sport to sit still for this and Lance was great trying to get Mason to be happy for the picture. And yes, they are sitting in the middle of a spider's web made out of rope.

Silly boy

Lance being a monkey.

They also have some fantastic slides. You can't tell from the pictures, but they are quite long and fairly steep. It was really funny to watch the kids go down because they'd hop right in and start propelling themselves down faster and faster by pushing with their hands. I, on the other hand, frantically tried to slow myself down on my first run. I could blame it on the fact that I had Jude in my lap and that when I sat down I slipped and bruised by tailbone, but the truth is I was a little scared! I did get the hang of it, and after bolstering my courage, I started pushing myself faster, too. It was better by far! How can you tell you're getting old? You're the one standing at the top of the slide, scared to go down, and the 5-year-old is the one telling you it's fun and you won't get hurt.

And yes, the dog went down the slides, too.

Jude in the corn pit:

Don't eat the corn! I guess there is a reason the sign said "No children under 3 years of age permitted."

Lance and Amy on the swing

George. There aren't that many pictures of him because he was the official photographer for the outing.

At the end of another slide.

Tire!

Lance in the corn pit.

Brothers!

It really was a wonderful day. We ended it by finding an Italian restaurant that served "noodles with shrimp" (Lance's request), and then George drove our family back to Charlottesville that night only to leave the next day for Roanoke again. I can't wait until our family is back together again.