Halloween

Halloween day I think all we did was go trick or treating. Actually my pregnant sister and I had our mom paint our bellies so we could take a picture (and that’s all it was for, just like the last Halloween I was pregnant). It’s fun to do, but I wouldn’t want to go out in public, plus it’s a little chilly in Montana by the end of October to be walking around with a belly hanging out. Niko was a pirate and said Argh! when asked. So cute! Adam was a ninja and Kaitie and I had mom paint eyeballs on our tummies so we could make a face.

          

It only took two answered doors for Niko to figure out that trick or treating is awesome and then he tried to skip the sidewalk and run through yards. Smart boy, but it doesn’t work well in our neighborhood because so few houses have their lights on.

 

 

Then I (read that as my mom) made my belly into Humpty Dumpty for trick or treating.

Carving pumpkins

The day after we had our corn maize adventure we carved our pumpkins. Kaitie and Adam came over with their carving tools and some newspaper to cover the counter and we got started.

We all had sharp tools trying to cut through our huge, thick pumpkins. I promise Niko only had a scooper and a little plastic poker! He was pretty excited at first though. And of course he kept saying “goats, pumpkins” and we had to remind him of this when he tried to take a bit out of the top of the pumpkin (and not just once, why does my kid have to learn everything multiple times?)

I think he enjoyed pulling the guts out. Of course only for a limited time then he let mommy finish the fun stuff.

 

I don’t know what was happening here, but he looks excited (the kid doesn’t smile from excitement, is that weird?) When he got bored of pulling out guts and such I stripped him and gave him some permanent markers to color on his pumpkin. He told everyone about it for quite a while so I’m assuming he loved the pumpkin activities.

Corn Maize!

I wanted Niko to have a fun time picking out a pumpkin, so I took him to the corn maize. We bribed Kaitie and Adam to go with us….Kaitie was Niko’s photographer and Adam did the fun things with him (since I was 9 months pregnant and not so comfortable anymore).

We let Niko see and do all the fun things while it was light out. There were pig races, which he thought was hilarious. They had goats, cows and sheep to look at and pet….Niko now says goats eat pumpkins whenever we see a pumpkin

Niko watching the pig races…I love that some adults look just as excited about it as the kids. I thought it was quite hilarious!

 

Haha, it took a while for Niko to understand what we were doing sticking our faces in a piece of wood. He was walking away and I stayed and showed him and then he thought it was funny and would go back and do it again.

In this game you have to step over the colors in a certain order until you can get to the exit. This one was broken, but Kaitie kept trying! Haha and Niko would walk around in it for a bit then out the end and exclaim “I did it”

I don’t really know what this is….Niko liked it as long as Adam was on it and holding his hand. I didn’t dare even try it at 9 months pregnant.

I’m pretty sure the slide was his favorite…we had to convince him to leave and he was smiling every time. It scared me some….because of older children who did not know how to behave! I’m sure every mom (and dad) who reads this will know what I’m talking about.

And of course he  wanted to ride all the train things and do the hay ride. But the cows made of barrels were definitely his favorite.

                                                                                                                   They had a chain link maze that had some red and green changing lights and Niko was amazed and wanted to just stand and watch the lights.  Then he would try to walk and watch them and stumble around. 

He also played play in the corn kernel box, he mostly just liked the trucks .

Then we did the regular corn maize. When we came out at the halfway point Niko did not want to go back in! But once we did he just settled in(since Adam was carrying him) and we finished it quickly.  After we were all finished we decided to just get our pumpkins at Albertson’s. Niko picked out his own cute little pumpkin!  The first one had a squishy side so we were able to talk him into a better one with a long stem. He also insisted on riding in the cart with them even though there was not really enough room.

Waterton!

The week before my sister and brother-in-law started school for the semester we took a trip to Waterton Lakes in Alberta Canada. My mother-in-law has a cottage there and she let us stay there for our little vacation. This place is beautiful! There is a waterfall almost right behind the cottage and the downtown are is about three blocks away. It feels so secluded but is still right in town!

To sum up our trip, we went hiking a lot and took the boat tour around the lakes and drove down to the Glacier part of the park and drove the Going to the Sun road. Niko learned to say hike (and the men brought him out almost every morning and I got to sleep more=that alone made the vacation for me). He also learned what a boat was and thought it was really fun. The Going to the Sun Road= terrified me a bit!

Now some highlight pictures!

I let Niko sit forward for the long ride so he could watch movies in grandma’s fancy magic car with movie player

Niko starting his first hike Red Rock Canyon

And playing in the creek in the canyon with grandpa and Trevor, he liked throwing the rocks…such a boy

 

 

Checking out the neighborhood deer!

So grateful for the help with Niko while hiking!!! I forgot the backpack carrier and was having enough trouble hiking with the baby I had to carry and I was a little slow chasing my toddler!

There was construction on the Going to the Sun Road so we were able to take pictures, but I didn’t trust Niko out of his car seat so we took one of him waiting in the car. This is also where I fought a wall of rocks and lost.

LOVE this face!

In Glacier at some fancy hotel on the lake

Everyone except Kaitie (our photographer) at the Prince of Wales Hotel

Just cute with the Lakes and mountains behind

And our boat tour:

We were able to see this guy swimming across the lake! The guide said it’s very rare for them to swim across the lake so he must have been chased by a predator. It was very cool and Niko really enjoyed it.

I’m almost done I promise! Niko was a really great trooper, he ran/walked (and had to be slowed down since he almost fell off an edge once, my mom was like a ninja and caught him!) a lot of the trails (a lot for a 20 month old anyway) and he even climbed up hills and crouched under trees.

I have so many awesome pictures because my sister was there and is far better about keeping the camera out than I am (but I blame having a toddler)! But I will end with Niko’s first s’more experience. We roasted marshmallows over the grill(because of all the fire danger this year) and then ate them at the fun picnic table in front of the cottage.

Okay I lied, I’ll end with a good group shot