Benjamin's Preschool Halloween Party

Benjamin is going to preschool at Bellevue East High School for eight weeks this semester (1.75 hours, 3 days a week). He likes it except they don't give him enough time to play with cars and trucks. I think it will be good preparation for him becoming a "Sunbeam" at church in January.

Apparently Benjamin is very articulate... The high school kids (it's their child development class) get a kick out of the things he says.
They had a Halloween party today and are trick-or-treating in the HS offices. I had to tell Benjamin that he couldn't go trick-or-treating until we had taken pictures so he would stay in place during the photos.
I bought Benjamin's costume on clearance 2 years ago and he was scared of it and wouldn't wear it last year. He thinks it's hilarious this year. It seems to be a popular costume for 3-year-olds because two other boys in his class have the same costume.

A Smashed Finger

Today we were getting photos of the Bradley kids taken at J.C. Penney's before two of our group's families move away this winter. I was getting the stroller out of the trunk after we arrived at the mall while Benjamin was climbing out of the driver's side door. He slammed the door on his finger. I could see where it was smashed in the middle of the nail. I figured going to the doctor to get it drained and the after-care of trying to keep it dry and clean would have been as bad if not more traumatic than the original injury so I opted for shaved ice (which B. refused to use on his finger) and natural healing. Benjamin was inconsolable for the entire photo shoot, but calmed down at the end so we ended up staying at the mall the whole day. (Once we finally get out of the house in the morning, I figure there's no reason to go home until Ryan gets home from work.)
This is the only photo Benjamin was in. Tracy asked if a lollipop would help Benjamin feel better and her daughter heard the word "lollipop".

I'm amazed the photographer got this one of the babies. They were all quite squirmy.
A true entrepreneur created this train table. It's like the mechanical horse at the grocery store, but a quarter gets you a couple minutes of Thomas chugging around. A second quarter gets you two trains.
Benjamin was staying entertained in the J.C. Penney's dressing room with my cell phone camera. Luckily he didn't capture much of me with it.

Pilgrimage to Utah 10-14 Oct 09

Ryan had a psych eval in Provo and an interview in Salt Lake for the chaplaincy. I had a research paper due on Sunday, but have not been doing school work on Sunday so I needed to finish it by Saturday. Originally we were going to leave Friday afternoon when Ryan got off work, but I didn't have my paper done and we were stressed. It was probably better that we didn't leave then because there was a crazy unseasonal snow storm that evening. By the time I submitted my paper Saturday morning, the roads were no longer icy.
I took this photo at a rest stop in western Nebraska because Benjamin is wearing my crocs... although you can't tell it by the photo.
Alexander is showing off his first tooth!
We went to the Family History Library in Salt Lake before we went to stay the night at my Aunt Rose and Uncle Bob's house. Alexander was pushing around the stroller by himself for the first time.
Rose and Bob took us to a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner. Rose made us an amazing treat basket. I should have taken a picture of it. It would be a lot of fun to live closer to them and other of my mom's relatives if Ryan gets into BYU (but we will thoroughly miss living near Ryan's parents).

This was at the Wilkensen Center at BYU while we were waiting for Ryan to do his psych eval. A fire alarm went off in between the exam and interview and so we were a little delayed. In Salt Lake, we were supposed to meet with Elder Robert C. Oaks, but he was in the hospital, so we met with Elder Craig C. Christensen. Alexander was really good on the trip considering how much we were in the car and how much he wanted to play with the plant in the reception area outside Elder Christensen's office, but was thwarted.
Benjamin had fun with my parents while we were gone. This is the VW Spider I didn't have a photo of from the 16 Sep posting.
On our way back to Colorado at about 2230, I-80 was closed due to a Semi full of Hazmat that had crashed and caught fire. We were directed off the interstate at an exit in the middle of nowhere that had one gas station. There were hundreds of semis around. We parked on the shoulder of the road and tried to get a little sleep. I couldn't get very comfortable as I was in the back seat with the baby and Ryan was in the passenger seat. At some point a couple hours later, the semis started moving and I guessed the road was open again. I got in the drivers seat and headed to Ft. Collins. We got in around 0330. We would have gotten there a half hour sooner except I got lost. The MapQuest directions we had took us through Cheyenne and not Laramie, so once I got into town I was a little turned around because Ryan was driving on Monday when we left and I'm not very familiar with Ft. Collins. Ryan let me sleep in on Wednesday morning and took the boys out on a walk with my mom. We had to drive home that day because Ryan had to be at work in the evening. It was a lot of driving in a short time.