Tuesday, December 10, 2013

October Fests Part 3

On October 25th, James was awarded the prestigious title of Honors by his company. This is a high achievement because you are voted by other people to get this award. James is very well liked and has been very taken care of by his work to which I am very grateful for. It was a fun event, hosted by the La Paloma Resort Hotel. It was a semi-formal event so of course I had to get a new dress *wink* There was a delicious dinner, which I almost needed to remove my belt to finish, and a guest speaker. The guest speaker's name was Todd Barber and he is "Propulsion Engineer in NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab." He told us all about his current work on thee Cassini mission to Saturn and the Mars Exploration Rover mission. I thought it was really interesting! I've always been fascinated by space and the heavens (I used to want to go into that when I was younger) and so he had my attention the whole time. I loved the whole event. I was and still am proud of James for his accomplishments and his hard work, proud that he is appreciated by his work, and enjoyed the time seeing him be rewarded for it. Good job James!


This is Laura McGill - the Engineering Deputy for Raytheon Missile Systems. She presented all the awards.

All of these people were Senior Engineer 1 With Honors. James is the cute little head in the very center :)

His plaque


What he gets to put on his cubicle.

As is customary in October, we finally got around to carving the pumpkins we got at the patch. They were getting pretty soft so they didn't take long to carve. I think that was the quickest we'd carved pumpkins. I think they lasted a day before they started shriveling up haha!



So, this next part actually happened on November 1st but it was for Halloween so it counts as an October Fest.

Our Ward decided to push it's Trunk or Treat to Friday, November 1st because Halloween fell on a school night and it was just easier to switch it. It was a lot of fun and I had a great great time getting our costumes ready. I searched DI for my shirt and I thought the planets had aligned just for me when I found it. I also found James' sweater at the DI and his glasses from the dollar store and his bow tie from Saver's thrift store. The most expensive part of the costume that we had to buy was the balloons! We decided to go the Disney route this year. I was so excited Boomer could participate!

















Monday, December 9, 2013

October Fests Part 2

The Marana Pumpkin Patch! It's about a 45 minute drive away right off of I-10. Its worth the drive. It was so much fun! We did it last year and I think we'll do it every year. They have a Straw Mountain, jumping bubbles (like the bounce house things but they are long rectangle shaped thingys and seem to come right out of the ground), two corn mazes, a petting zoo, a zip line, food and treats, a little train ride for kids, pumpkin and corn canons, and a little playground area. Then of course there's the tractor ride out to the patch. And the patch is huge! All around its a fun place for adults and kids. We had a great time just the two of us!


King of Straw Mountain!

Queen of Straw Mountain!



Kiss?

I rode the zip line. It was fun! The last zip line I rode I had a rather interesting experience on but this one wasn't near as big or long. I had fun!


This was stopping at the end. Wearing the helmet is a good idea...
 

Tractor ride to the patch!

Found our pumpkins!


Tried to take a picture in the corn maze....didn't work.


It was a great night to go. Clear sky, that's Venus in the picture, and it was just the right cool temperature.

 
After the patch we went to Coldstone where I got their pumpkin flavored ice cream with graham crackers and caramel and whipped cream. H.E.A.V.E.N. Heaven in a cup.