Now that we have our book nook up and running I thought I would share some of my favorite Halloween books. This is still a work in progress, not all of my favorite books were in to be put up and I think we need another shelf!

Bonaparte Falls Apart 

Pig the Monster

The Good, the Bad, and the Spooky 

Pick a Pumpkin 

Room on the Broom 

Bone Soup 

 The Scariest Book Ever

Little Blue Truck’s Halloween

How to Make Friends with a Ghost 

B Is for Boo

Pete the Cat: Trick or Pete

You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie

Gustavo, the Shy Ghost

I LOVE picture books and add some to our collection every year but also don’t want to go broke so we check out lots of these from our library as well. Visiting the library and getting themed books is one of our favorite things to do!

Monthly Book Nooks:

January – Arctic Animals/Winter

February – Love/Valentines Day

March – St. Patricks Day/Spring

April – Easter/Spring

May – Emmy’s birthday theme

June – Cannon’s birthday theme

July – Camping/summer

August – Back to School

September – Fall/Harvest

October – Halloween

November- Thanksgiving

December – Christmas

Emmy has grown so much since she turned three in the spring!

Even with all the Covid restrictions Emmy finds joy every day!

Her little buddies are very important to her.

Over the summer Emmy loved our adventures together the most!

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The pool being fully open this year was also a favorite thing!

Being outside makes Emmy the happiest.

Over the summer Emmy gave up her nap but still would catch car naps some days.

Our original plan was to put Emmy in half day preschool where Cannon went to school but when Covid numbers kept rising and constraints we decided to do preschool at home and Emmy is loving it. Surprisingly so am I!

Emmy played her fist season of soccer and found that she loved it.

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Emmy loved kicking off the Halloween season in Disneyland.

And she loved all the fun fall activities at home.

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The years are rushing by and I try to just hold her tight as long as I can while she is little!

Past Updates

1 Month

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15 Months

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21 Months

2 1/2 Years

3 Years

We woke up a little sad knowing we had to leave Buena Vista and head home.

We had so much fun and there is so much left to see.

We packed up the trailer and visited the river one more time before leaving. Cannon had school in the afternoon and Cory was working a half day so we needed to get moving.

The kids also had appointments to get flu shots, they weren’t huge fans but were brave.

In the evening I did some online shopping for the kids holiday wish lists. Trying to get those done early!

Because of soccer and school, etc. we only had one full day to enjoy Buena Vista. There is so much more to do and see, just a great excuse to have to come back! We spent the morning exploring St. Elmo.

We found a short hike called Agnes Vaille Falls Hike that was beautiful and easy enough for the kids to do.

Some climbing, but not too bad.

There wasn’t much water in the falls due to the time of year, but still a great hike!

After our hike we drove back to town, found ice cream and a playground to enjoy.

We spent the late afternoon exploring the canyons around our campsite.

Then back to town to get dinner.

We don’t actually eat out often but there were lots of restaurants with big open patios (still not eating inside). We had the best time and had delicious food!

These times together are my favorite!

What is your ideal day? This was pretty much it for me.

It seemed very appropriate near Halloween to visit a real life ghost town. We have visited a few before but St. Elmo is the biggest and most preserved one I have seen.

It was fun to walk through town and see how people used to live.

The kids loved exploring the buildings and imagining what it would have been like to live there during the gold/silver boom.

There was a little ice and snow around but still easy to get around.

Have you visited any ghost towns?

We started our Saturday out nice and early, we packed up Kermit (our camper) to be ready to leave for a little mountain adventure. The kids had soccer games and we wanted to leave immediately after Cannon’s game was done.

Emmy’s game was first, I love watching her play and get more and more independent.

We had about an hour and fifteen minutes between their games and the camper was the perfect place to hang out, relax and read books. When Cannon’s game was done we drove south to Buena Vista for a couple nights.

Just a 2.5 hour drive and it feels so nice to be out in the mountains.

The drive into our campsite was amazing! I love finding all these cool places we have never seen before in Colorado.

We set up camp then explored the area a little.

The campsite was right on the Arkansas River.

It’s cold in the evenings and we are feeling very grateful to still be out camping in October.

Today I got to take Cannon on his very first field trip.

His class got to visit a pumpkin patch after learning about pumpkins all week.

And while Cannon had a great time, he was a little disappointed that he didn’t get to ride a school bus. One day soon hopefully COVID will be more of a memory and we can go back to things like riding school busses and indoor playdates.

The rest of my day was spent doing adult things like going through Cannon’s old clothes to see what Emmy could use and buying Christmas mugs that I don’t need before they sell out.

Are you already buying Christmas things?

A morning date with the Treadmill to try to make some progress with my running.

I keep telling myself, one day at time, I know one day I will be back to running 50+ miles a week.

Emmy and I visited the library, I am so into Emmy pink, crushed velvet high tops!

Cannon’s entire class walked out wearing these little crowns that they made, it was the cutest.

And in peak adulting I was excited to pick up this larger Corckpot, we have a small one but with the kids eating more and holiday meals coming up we needed a bigger one.

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What recently had reminded you that you aren’t young and cool anymore.

We are trying to stay on top of things for the holidays so I took the kids to Target to look at toys. The idea was that they would look for things to put on their wish lists, if they found something they liked I would take a picture for them.

They basically started pointing to everything begining me to take pictures.

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It got so ridiculous that I started pretending to take pictures. So I guess that idea didn’t work. What I do know is that they will be excited about anything they are given =)

After shopping we went to a playground for some fun before school.

This year Cannon’s teacher is super into crafts, and I LOVE how proud he is of his work. He asked me to take this picture of him with it.

We got a tiny bit of rain (it’s been SO dry here) and the kids insisted on going out to play in it. Maybe some of our Oregon roots are in these kids after all!

We decided to visit the pumpkin patch after school on a Monday to avoid the crowded weekends. This was a great idea as it wasn’t crowded at all but we did not have enough time to do everything we wanted to do before they closed.

Now that the kids are older there is so much more they want to do!

They were so excited and loved visiting the patch!

We ran through the corn maze.

And visited the patch.

My parents were able to join us which was awesome, we loving sharing memories with them.

Next year I will be sure to give us more time there before closing!

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In 2020 the didn’t have the cornucopia out so we will have to use a different photo. I can’t believe how much the kids change each year!

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What are your favorite fall family traditions?