Pumpkins

We visited the Dallas Arboretum's Pumpkin Village.  There were over 60,000 pumpkins, gourds, and squash decorating the gardens!  The boys had a blast checking it all out.

Preston's RoboRaptor-X

I bought a new robot called a RoboRaptor-X.  It's got sensors on its nose and its ears.  So if you put a chair in front of it and press the forward button on the remote it will stop and move around it.  The robot is the size of Roger, my rooster.  It was $80.  I used my own money that I had been saving for a long time.

 



Gavin's Halloween Story

We went to Austin.  Owen and Ella were at school by the time we got to their house.  When they got home, we went to the woods.  They had a tree house and I found a scorpion on it.  For Halloween, I was a ninja, Preston was Hiccup, Adam was Toothless and Mason was a dog.  I laughed because Preston had to sit on Adam!  We carved jack-o-lanterns, and that night, some deer ate my pumpkin!  Mason's one got dragged away.

by Gavin

Houston Air Show

A couple of days after Halloween, we headed 3 hours east to Houston for an air show.  It was overwhelming the amount of planes and helicopters on display.  There were battle re-enactments and planes flying in formation, stunt planes and helicopters.  NASA had some of it's aircraft there.  We got to see a drone that is used in battle to drop missiles.  Gavin's favourite was the monster truck with a jet engine that is in the Guinness Book of World Records - it can go 360mph!  We saw it race a flying airplane and win.  Preston was in his element, but his favourite was the display put on by the Blue Angels.  6 planes fly in formation, and do lots of manoeuvres.

Aunt Sherry's friend Judd is an astronaut!  He has his own plane that is stored in a hanger at the same airfield as the show.  We were lucky enough to get to hang out there and try out his plane.  Preston had some good conversations with Judd about planes, and both older boys were able to talk about space with a real live astronaut (space topic at Hope School put into use).

Trick-or-Treat, it's Halloween!

The boys were SO excited to experience an American Halloween.  We headed 3 hours south to Austin to stay with the cousins, Owen and Ella.  Carving pumpkins is part of the Halloween tradition, so the kids got stuck in. 

Later that day it was time to get costumes on and head out for some Trick-or-Treating!  It was amazing how much some of the houses were done up for the holiday.
Preston was Hiccup, Gavin a Ninja, Adam Toothless, and Mason a puppy. 

cooling off

It was very hot for us, so we got the sprinkler going.

Mason is intrigued by the blinds on the doors.

Leaving on a jet plane...

We flew from Nelson to Auckland,  then on the Sydney, Australia.

We spent the night in Sydney at our friends Justin, Zach and Sienna's place.  They live right near the beach, so we had a good play in the morning before heading to the airport.

The plane we flew on was a A380.  It had 2 levels!  Our flight took 16 hours to go from Sydney to Dallas.  We watched lots of movies and even slept a bit.

It was super hot when we arrived in Dallas even though it is autumn here, about 28 degrees! 

Off to Texas

After hours of organizing, packing, and cleaning, we said our many good-byes and began our adventure to Dallas, Texas.