Christmas Tree Hunting

 We convinced the farmer at a tree shop to actually take us into the fields with him to find the perfect tree and cut it down. Never under estimate the power of our adorable children. It was muddy and a bit wet, but we had a great time picking out our tree and racing the sun going down.

We did have Thanksgiving--I promise!

This is literally the only picture we took of Thanksgiving time this year. :) I made 75 of these guys for a couple different things, and I didn't want to assemble another one ever again by the end!! :)

Wood Crafting...

 We decided to venture into the land of wood crafting this year and do a stall for the Christmas Fair held at the kids' primary school. Overall not a lot of shopping on the night of the event, but plenty afterwards, so we are pleased we did it. :)

Working at the Car Wash

 Cameron's first time going through a car wash, poor thing was terrified.

This was him telling me off for taking him through it while we were waiting for the dryer to cycle through.

The Candy Corn dilemna

Candy Corn is an American thing my friends. I enjoy myself some candy corn, but when the base gets the one shipment sometime in September/October is is gone before one can blink an eye. I'm pretty sure there is one person who buys them out completely, they should have a ration card for seasonal items like they do for alcohol. This year I planned ahead for my Oreo turkeys I like to make for the kiddos and had my parents send them in a box with a few other things. When my parents send something, they don't let the moment go wasted! Mason is a big fan of those lovely priority mail boxes that come through the door, and I'm pretty sure he knows my dad's writing now.

He would not let me say, "there is nothing in there for you." Generally I can get away with this tactic and he s fine. I even pulled out just the paper and told him that was all, but he was not fooled! He knows a Grandpa and Grandma box!! He sat and asked nicely in every way he could think of to get some Candy Corn. He was such a sweet guy we had to crack one bag open.

Cameron popped into the lounge and discovered very quickly that he was missing out on something. He didn't waste anytime in trying to eat them.

Thanks Gma and Gpa! One set of Oreo turkey's already done for a Cub Scout presentation on Thanksgiving.

The bowl is broken...

 Cameron was very upset when he dropped his bowl of oatmeal and the bowl broke right in half. he just kept saying, "broken, oh no?!" It took him about 15 minutes to get over it. We took the kids to school, and when we got back to the house he immediately went back to the spot it had been and started asking for the bowl again. I love the little things that children stress over.

Final stop on our Wales adventure

This castle was literally about a quarter mile from the slate museum, and it was also free(can you sense a theme), we again had to stop. It was the perfect end to our trip. We were the only ones on the hill for most of the time and the kids ran, played, and tried to get rid of energy. Dolbadarn Castle is a tiny castle in comparison to some others we had seen this trip, but the view was spectacular!

We are big fans of our self portrait for our family. We were going to get some photos done this Autumn, but we might just stick with this one because it is perfect.

There was a forest area near the castle, and we had to explore some more before leaving. The kids found lovely trees for hiding. They also ended up with sticks and were sword fighting, I told you..sword fighting is a must in this family. Mike wasn't going to bring Mason up the hill because it was quite steep and we thought his legs might be getting tired. Mason had a different mind that day, found a trail that none of us had seen and started his way up. On the way up Mike found him a sword and told him to go save Taylor who had been captured by bad guys. Well, if you know Taylor she did not like this idea. She fought Carter and Brennan herself and ran away from the game that sweet daddy was trying to make up for Mason's benefit. So I stepped in as the damsel in distress and Mason saved the day. He was very proud of himself, but he still wouldn't give me a hug as his final act of rescue.

Mike then tripped on this random stone and went down completely. Mason laughed while running the opposite direction when Mike asked for help up.

Then he tried to push him back down when Mike did get up. All the while he thought it was a great game.

What a great family trip! One of my favourites in terms of exploring and relaxing all rolled into one. Cameron about sums up the feeling of us all, done and done. He was fast asleep before we got back down to the car.

The National Slate Museum

So throughout this time is Wales we were in love with the mountains, and scenery. Snowdonia is a gorgeous area. Mount Snowdon is one of these peaks along this ridge. I know I am very precise in my direction. ;) However, Mount Snowdon is the highest peak in Wales, and will one day feature in this blog as the place where Hollie finished the three peaks challenge. So stay tuned for that, it could be years. :)

These two could snack ALL day long!! They have so much energy and need to be sustained throughout it all. Good thing they like almonds, pistachios, and dried apples. I don't think I am ever going to be able to get a stock of dried apples for the winter with these two around.

The slate museum was actually a lot cooler than I expected it to be. However, it was recommended and it was free, so we decided to take advantage. It was not a busy day at the museum and we were first sat down to the slate demonstration, where they show you how they split and also design slate objects. We have the youngest children in the small group that was there and so when Carter answered the gentleman's question he was selected to have a go at slate splitting. You'd think it was Christmas! Carter was nervous, but excited. He was shown how to score the slate with the wedge and then he say in the really 'uncomfortable chair' that is over 100 years old. At that point he got to hammer the chisel in and split the slate.

Then the moment of true joy came for Carter. The demonstrator said, "Well, you split it, so you keep it." Carter told us later that his heart stopped and his breathe was taken away because he just couldn't believe how lucky he was. I just love this kid!

We were then shown how they design different objects. Taylor was given a heart shaped piece of slate, and Cameron was handed a small square to 'keep this little one quiet'. He wasn't being naughty, the man just said that he had young grandchildren and they always need something to hold. :)

There is a massive watermill on the grounds. The kids really wanted to see it after we had had lunch. We knew Mason was more interested in taking 30 minutes to eat a bowl of chili then we was seeing the watermill. This particular wheel was built in 1870 and is 50 feet high. It was actually kind of impressive. I then switched with Mike so that he could see it as well. Mason really enjoyed that warm chili. :)

This was a neat place that we could have spent all day at, but we still had a four hour drive home. So we hit the road after lunch, but we did have to stop at one last castle....