Happy Birthday Jake!

Towards the end of October, we celebrated Jacob’s birthday – TWELVE!  Wow! 

For some reason, the camera wasn’t working very much this time of year, so there are not too many pics of this great event!

He got lots of cool presents, and he really wanted the KNex roller coaster, which he promptly spend the next day putting it all together.

Jake also had a party where he had a bunch of friends over, and we had pizza and went to play some fun Laser Tag. Everyone had a great time! 

He also had a ‘play date’ with Jake, and Jacob & Jake went to a local race track and raced cars. We were the only ones in there so they had the whole place to themselves.

Jake and Jake Racing

Jake & Jacob

Of course, no birthday would be a birthday without ice cream!  So of course Leatherby’s was calling our name.

Each kid, on their bday, get to pick if they want to go to dinner to a “special” (more expensive) place with mom and dad and just them, OR they can choose a “normal” place and take the whole family.  Jacob choose one of our family favorites, Red Robin and we all went there for a very yummy dinner. 

Here’s a nice family photo with Gma & Gpa Gwilliam:

Happy Bday Jake!  We love you!

Aloha!

Marissa told me today that I need to update the blog!  She is right! I have let it slip!  Time to catch up.

Way back in October, we went to the Hawaiian Festival at Cal Expo. Free entertainment, games, etc.  It was our first time there, and we had a good little time.

This guy was doing a “Stick on fire at both ends baton throwing thingie” demonstration. It was hot that day, and the fire was really making him hot!

Fire dancer

Jacob and Hannah loved playing in the “Human Hamster” balls. They told me they wanted one for Christmas.  Maybe next year.

Hamster BAll

On the way out, they had to climb up on the California Bear and do a nice pose.

 

Apple Hill

The first weekend in October we headed up to Apple Hill, as we didn’t go last year and the kids have been asking to go this year.

It was a nice day so we thought we’d go!

Apple Hill is up in the foothills towards Placerville and is actually over 50 different apple farms and ranches.  During the early fall, they all become a destination and if you wait too long and go anytime past mid-October, be prepared to be in a line of cars and crowds!  We went early in the season so it was perfect.

Many of the farms have pumpkins to pick, and the bigger farms have carnivals, stuff to buy/eat, hay rides, etc to try and get you to stop at their farm.

We liked petting and feeding that Alpaca’s at one of the farms. Marissa is determined now to have a pet Alpaca! 

We got a little sticky eating yummy caramel apples!

This was our pick for the farm that looked the most inviting!  They didn’t have much to do there, but it looked so nice we just had to stop at this one.

We had a great day and will definitely keep going early in the season! Much more happy with less crowds!

LOOK! Dancing Elephants!

 

So I ‘won’ some tickets to the circus.  I love the circus. Such an escape and good times. Not any circus, the REAL circus..Not one of those mall circus either. The Ringling Bros Circus. We hadn’t been in  a few years, and it always comes around this time of year.

We told the kids we were going to a movie to surprise them. Then when we pulled into the arena parking lot, Jacob figured it out because he had heard commercials on the radio and he knew it was at Arco Arena.

We had some good seats and it did not disappoint! (The pics I took did disappoint a little though. Seems as my phone camera doesn’t do well in dim lights…and then it amplifies the bright lights and makes it too bright as you will see in some of the videos. I need to hack my phone camera and fix that)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Wire Shenagins

Anyone up for a bike ride?

The Wheel of Death was pretty cool…..but the lights played havoc on the camera..so the video is not that good, but I think you can get the idea of what was going on:

Let’s go walking on a fast spinning wheel!

Didn’t get enough? Here’s more!

Here is a shot of Jacob & Hannah intently watching in amazement on the edge of their seats!

 

 

 

 

And FINALLY!  What you came here to read about and see!

DANCING ELEPHANTS!

DANCING ELEPHANTS!

As soon as these guys came out, I knew Jacob was going to like it. He turned to me and said, “Dad, I want one of those thingies for Christmas!”

How do I get me some of them new-fangled shoes?

 

 

 

It’s all fun and games!

 

And what circus wouldn’t be complete without someone flying through the air? Here is the Human Fuse or Human Torch or something like that:

Human Fuse!

Somehow, on the way home, we ended up at Leatherby’s where we got our traditional treat, the ‘Gwilliam Mess’ which is a Daddy Dave’s with 2/3 vanilla and 1/3 Swiss Milk Chocolate, all caramel topping, nuts on the side, no banana, all chocolate whipped cream, and a side of hot fudge. YUM!!!!