Parade Drivers, Last Looks, A Visit from the Torturer, A Revealing Letter and Much More!

 In this little town that has become my home we seem to have a lot of parades. They usually begin at 10 AM to a loud beat of a drum. We couldn't miss them even if we wanted to because they pass right in front of our house. This plethora of parades has sparked in my children a desire to be in as many parades as possible. For awhile, we created our own parade. It ran for four years and was called the "Popsicle Parade" We decorated our bikes, invited as many friends as possible and rode around the block a few times before we chomped on tons of Popsicles! It was fun.

But this year, my kids got to be in the "real" parade- all but Raia that is. Kai was asked to drive the Mayor's car and so all my kids piled in as well. I think that the Mayor of Mesquite might not ever let that happen again. It seems the majority of the Mesquite community was calling out "hellos" and "Hoorahs" to the Davis household instead to Mr. Mayor. BUt we are so thankful to him for help our little ones fulfill a life long dream!

 Raia was so excited to see her family pass!

 This was actually the High School Sponsored Parade  for Homecoming. The floats were so cute this year!

 Some were a little loud, so Raia looked like this:

 Shortly after the parade, we were honored to have a last visit from my little brother, Ryan as he worked his way north on the I15 headed to Provo, Utah where her would enter the MTC to learn how to become a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! He has been called to serve a mission in the Portland, Oregon Mission and we are so proud of him for choosing to serve others and help those who are looking to develop their relationship with Jesus Christ.

Sadly, we got the idea to take pictures after my big girls went to school . . . so here are the little ones . . . there is a lot of movement in these pictures . . .:)

 My parents are now officially empty-nesters . . .

My and Ry, oldest and youngest . . .

 Kai invited the kids to superhero dress up day at the high school. it was part of spirit week and Bubba loves superheroes! He even dressed Raia up, though she wouldn't put her mask on for this picture!

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 Raia was so tired afterwards that she couldn't bear to finish her lunch before she shut her eyes for a little siesta.

 We were also excited to have a visit from the "Torturer" aka Uncle Kim and my Aunt Wendy and my cousin Tiffany. We so rarely get to see my side of the family and it feels like such a treat when we do. They were also headed to Utah, but for very different reasons than my brother, Ryan. My uncle Kim, successfully tortured all the kids. You can see him below locked in a mighty battle with Malachi.

 Tiffany ran to the rescue of the children knowing full well what it is like to have the torturer pull on your toes!

 Later on in the night I left the rambunctious scene to put Raia to bed and when I returned this is what I saw:

 Everyone was asleep except Bubba . . .Kai and Uncle Kim included. Bubba thought it was so funny. The torturer slpet on the couch all night long, while Kai eventually moved to our bed.

 I wish I could rotate this picture . . . why doesn't blogger have that option? Anyhow. Kai came to pick me up from physical therapy and left the big girls at home to do their homework under strict instruction not to open the door for anyone . . . when we got home we found this note taped to the door:

"Dear Reader,
Kai and Amy are not home.
If you think we saw you, well sorry we can't open the door for anyone I mean anyone!
(unless its our grandma)
Kiera
Cambria
Bubba (Malachi)"

We won't be leaving them home again anytime soon, but we sure got a good laugh!

For Halloween me and the kids made some crafts out of baby food jars.

 We ended up making the Frankenstein in Kiera's class for her Halloween party. It was so fun to see each student put their own individual twist on their "Frankie."

 I made lots of festive wreaths . .

 And snapped a picture of Raia to prove that on special occasions he is fully clothed . . .of course she does have a chip bag on her head  . . .

We made this during General Conference . . .

Here they are . . . hard at work . . .

 Then, we did this . . . it took us 2 hours this time which  is an hour and a half improvement from last time!

 She loved it!

 Kai has begun making milkshakes . . .

 Yummy!

 And one more picture of a fully clothed Raia!

 Kiera was in her first dance performance of the year for the First Annual Gold Butte Festival! She did so good! She smiled through the whole performance even though she was so nervous she could hardly speak! I was so proud of her . . . i even got a little teary eyed watching her.

 These are their "out door dance" costumes. Their in door dance costumes are a little cuter.

 We also made "monster hands before Halloween with plastic gloves, candy corn and pop corn.

 It was fun!

And that is all for today! I still have to document my birthday trip to California and though Thanksgiving is almost here, I haven't posted about Halloween! 

Nellis Air Force Base Air Show 2012

 The day was so cold that even Frosty, the snowman had to stay indoors . . . okay so it wasn't that old, but for people who had temperatures mainly above 110 degrees all summer, 45 degrees is a big change! We bundled up in our Winter gear (long sleeves under jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, blankets- we might not make it in the snow) and headed south to Nellis Air Force Base to celebrate Veteran's day  by watching the air show!

We were first entertained w ith the Budweiser Clydesdales. Mostly we got to look at their bums, this is the only horse that would turn enough for us to see it's face. When I was going to snap a picture, Malachi said, "Mom, don't take a picture of the bums!"

 Love this little face!

 I don't know why blogger doesn't have an option to rotate pictures, but this is the fam infront of one of the huge cargo planes. These things are massive! Hard to believe they can even get off the ground!

 We got to walk inside and check out the empty cargo hold. The whole time we were walking around, it's all of kinds were flying over head doing complicated flying patterns, dropping flares and even shooting things on the ground. It was all very impressive. They even had an old fighter jet that flew in WW11 in formation with some other jets. Call me crazy, but I got a little emotional watching the planes and the pilots that keep our country safe, do trick in the air.

 It was very cold though, which slightly tainted our good time. I also found it very difficult to walk up the steep ramps that lead inside the aiplanes

 They got to take turns controlling an gun . . . one wheel spun the weapon left or right (mostly they just went in circles like they were on a merry-go-round) and the other wheel controlled the gun causing it to move up or down.

 There was this man standing in camo. Some people could decide if he was real or not. While we were taking this picture a woman walked in front of us and tugged on a piece of fringe near the guys face saying "is this thing real?" to which camo man responded rather loudly, "Yes!" and scared the woman to death. I wonder if he smiled for the picture? Raia said, "scare me." Translation, what ever that large thing in fringe is, it makes me nervous."

The only real (big) disappointment of the day was that we waited an hour in line (braving huge Raia tantrums) to get a chance to climb inside the cockpit of one of the cargo planes. Right when it was out turn, the man in charge said, "Sorry guys we have to close down. I said, "What? After an hour of waiting?" (really they could have given a 'in 10 minutes we will be closing' warnig then we would have just gotten out of line and gone along our merry way). He said I am sorry, mam. I said "Can my son at least stand right there peek up in side to see what it looks like?" He sad, "No, mam, I am afraid I really can't let you do that." I said "You can't let my son stand right there and look inside?"  "Oh, yes mam, of course I can let you do that." "Thank you."
So my kids looked up inside and we went our unmerry way. I know I wasn't really nice, but after enduring some really good Raia tantrums to stand in that dumb line for an hour knocked the niceness right out of me. I have since recovered back to my normal levels of "niceness."

My three oldest children were still talking about the unjustness of being denied the right to climb inside the cockpit this morning. It is funny to think that such a little thing could be such a disappointment!

All in all, it was a fun trip and I really enjoyed the air show.