Pumpkin Patch

On Wednesday, we went to the pumpkin patch with the girls!!! Hannah absolutely loved it. Kind of like last year, she found the biggest pumpkin in the lot and wanted to get it. I told her to bring it to me and she could have it. Of course it was "too heavy momma" and we had to keep looking for a pumpkin just her size. After fifteen minutes or so we found the perfect pumpkin. It is short and round and has a big stem. It still took her a while to carry it to the cart, but she made it. Then we had to find a pumpkin for Elayna. That proved to take a little longer since she was tired from carrying her pumpkin and needed to find a smaller one for Elayna. She picked up and dropped her pumpkin about ten times before we made it to the cart, but we eventually made it there. We will have a fabulous pumpkin carving tonight right before trick or treating!

Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium

Monday after the game, we got up for breakfast about 11 am. AHHH vacation, time seems to slip by! We went to De Lucca's as recommended by Man vs. Food. Once finished we headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. It was much larger than it looked. As you can see, there are many pictures of the boys and the animals, but there were NO pictures of Amy and me. I guess someone has to man the camera.

After stopping at a photo booth (we didn't want to pay for a picture, so I took one from the outside) and playing on the kids toys, we went into the zoo. The first thing we saw was the Asian Forest. Of course Ed felt right at home and decided to hide in the bamboo like a panda! There was a monster praying mantis sculpture that attacked Ed and Rob...how did they ever survive??? On the way out, Ryan decided to join the meercat family and climb into one of the pods.

Here are some cool pictures I took while there. They had two baby elephants. One was big enough to roam outside, while the other was still inside with the mother. The tiger was literally fifteen feet from us with no protection! It was a ravine ~15 feet wide and about 20 feet deep that he had to scale to get to us...a little unnerving if you ask me!

The aquarium was the last thing we passed through before we leave. The first thing you see is a Sea Dragon. It looks like a piece of seaweed floating in the water, but if you look closely, you can see its head. I especially liked the shark picture. We were in a shark tunnel and the shark turned and headed towards us. Quite scary!!! If you look closely you can see the rows of teeth! We ended up spending three hours there! I don't think we ever wasted time. If you are ever in the area, I would recommend stopping there.

Steelers/Vikings game

Yesterday we went to the Steelers/Vikings game in Pittsburg. It was AWESOME!!! The only down part was that the Vikings lost. It was quite fun going in a mixed group of fans. Amy and I are Vikings while Rob, Ryan, and Ed are Steelers. Getting dressed in the morning proved to be interesting since neither group wanted to share the bathroom with the "enemy". Danny, a Raiders die hard, tried to stay neutral throughout (although I think he secretly cheered for the Steelers). Our seats where way up the stadium Section 512, Row Z, seats 9-14. They were quite high, but the view was still amazing. We were between the 25-30 yd line on the visiting team side. It was a good view for the whole game. Right when the Vikings had the Steelers heading for their third loss, Favre threw an interception (albeit not his fault) on the 19yd line and the Steelers ran it all the way back for a TD. There was only 1 minute left in the game. The score shows 27-17 in favor of the Steelers, but it wasn't until the last minute when the Steelers fans thought they won. I am glad we came all this way and it was a close game. All-in-all the experience was worth it. We even saw a celebrity...Bumblebee from Transformers!!! Yeah, yeah, it probably wasn't him, but it was still cool anyway.

Labor Day Camping Trip

Labor Day weekend we decided to take a small camping trip. We drove to one of our favorite spots in Montana. Hannah enjoys it since she can catch a fish with almost every cast. Elayna seemed to enjoy it as well. We had her completely bundled for most of it. It was a little chilly and she was only 4.5mo old. While there, we caught several fish, went for nice hikes, shot our shotguns, caught a snake, and ate smores. In the middle of the night we also had a nice little rain storm where our tent collapsed on us (with a little pushing from the inside it popped back out) and the other tents rain flap tore off. All was fixed quickly and the rest of the night was uneventful. Holly and Maggie always run to the point of collapse. It was then that we noticed that Holly's tail wasn't wagging. We had to take her into the vet and it seems that she kinked it. It is still cold to the touch. The vet thinks that it may be dead. We were worried that they had to amputate, but as long as she doesn't chew at it, they will let it be. Hopefully that day never comes.