Autumn & Kalina

Despite the mid 30 degree weather we headed down to the Colorado Pumpkin Patch for some fall fun!  It’s a good thing we had Mom and Dad with us because we were all over the place, but never together!

Rope a cow Autumn!

Slide time!

Now it’s my turn.

Autumn are you lost in the hay maze?

You found the way out!

Which way do we go Ry Guy?

Ponies!

Autumn climbed up on the stool to get on her pony.

Duck race.  Pump the water and race your duck down the shoot.  Mom, Dad, watch your fingers.  You shouldn’t smash them when you are helping!

Sunflower!

This is an interesting thing.  Note to self-next year don’t let Dad push to hard.  You fly right out of it if he does!

Hay bale mountain.  Here I go!

Success!

Queen of the mountain!

Time to launch some pumpkins

Pull

Pull!

Smile!

Chill laxin’ in the corn box.

Ry decided to bury Autumn.

Help!  Our hands are buried, how will we get out?!

Cousin slide time.  Here they go…

Autumn mastered the tummy slide while Ry took a potty break.

Alright, back together again!

Oops, losing a passenger.

Let’s try again, but this time we’ll hold hands.

SUCCESS!!!

Face painting- a must do whenever they have it.

Autumn and Ry went up to master the hay mountain.

Their turn to sling shot some pumpkins.

Time to choose a pumpkin.

Hmmm, this one might be a little to heavy.

Keep looking…

Autumn got Daddy hugs while I searched for the perfect pumpkin.

Last summer we went to the Denver Obon and did some dancing.  We had a lot of fun, but this year Mom wanted us to get dressed up and do the dancing in California.  It was also the first Obon service for Pony.  Allie did our make-up, Jane and Grandma dressed us in our kimono’s, and off we went.

First we had to take the picture people take every time in the front of the house.  It takes a few tries to get all 3 of us smiling, eyes open, and looking in the same place.

Pals!

Then we were off to church for the “dance party”.  For as long as any one can remember our family has always sat in the same corner at obon.  Here it is!

Here are the lanterns to light up the area after dark, and the taiko drums that were played.

We got there early and had to wait for it to start.  Robin took most of the pictures the rest of the night.

Then the taiko drummers started to play.

And the singers sang some songs.  While they were singing, Autumn was doing her own interpretive dance moves.

And then Ry Guy did his interpretation of Little Bunny Foo-Foo bopping her on the head!

Finally, the dancing began.  First the teachers came out with lots of dancers following them.  The teachers dance on the stage so everyone can see them.

Now we got to watch and dance too!  Sometimes we used our hands, the fans, and clickers called kachi-kachi.

Even uncle Jeffrey danced!

After awhile Autumn got tired and took a break.  She sat with mom and entertained herself.

Mom did some dancing with Autumn’s arms and cousin Shana did some dancing with her doggie’s arms.

Here was a dance that used a towel.

We took a quick picture with Mom between dances.

The last 2 dances of the night are always the same.  The first is uncle Jeffrey’s favorite, it’s the coal miners song.  Even Grandma, Grandpa, Diane, Auntie Cait, Shana, and her dog danced!

This was the last dance of the night.  Autumn even joined us for this one.

After all that dancing we got to have the traditional hot dog snack and visit with people.

This year we went up to Vail for the 4th of July. This was Autumn before we left.  Is she wearing a scarf and hat because it’s cold when we go to the mountains?

Wednesday night we just played at the hotel and walked around.

Thursday morning we got up and headed to Vail Village for a parade!

I got photo bombed by my sister!

Now what are you doing Autumn?

Did you know at this parade they through lots of candy at you to catch?  That was lots of fun!

Near the candy store was a fountain that shot out water.  We sat and watched that for awhile.

Then we hit Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!  Yummy!

I chose chocolate covered cherries.  Autumn wanted a humongous chocolate chunk with peanut butter inside. Mom got a caramel apple but it was all stuck to the paper when we got back to the hotel.

My hair was a little harder to do in a star today since I cut it shorter, but mom did it.

After we walked around Vail Village we headed back to the hotel to go swimming.  The pool was very crowded and the water was yucky.  (mom says they don’t use chlorine, they use something that makes it salty!)  Before dinner we went to a park to play.  We weren’t big enough to make this teeter totter go, so dad helped us.

Swirly staircases

Tunnels

Slides!

These bouncy things are kinda baby, but we love to ride them.

This time Mom sat on the other side and bounced us.  She even took this picture while we were all bouncing!

After dinner we went back towards Vail for the fireworks.  We stayed out of the Village where the fireworks were being shot off, but we could still see them just fine!  This was Autumn’s first time seeing fireworks.  While we waited for the shuttle back to the hotel she fell asleep, but she got to see the fireworks first!