The Strickland Beat: November 2010

Showing off trophies...

These are just pictures of the boys with Chase's football and basketball trophies. They were having fun taking pictures with them. 2010

Well, Halloween weekend is over and I can truely say that I am pooped. The amount of walking was terrible.
Saturday we took the boys to Burton's annual Fall Festival. It was fun for them. Chase got to see a bunch of his friends from school. Got to visit with some neighbors and enjoy good food. I liked playing 25cent bingo and winning three times. Chase dressed up as Mario from the Mario Brothers and Brendan was a Fire Fighter.

The next day we went to church and the boys could not stop asking when we were going to go trick or treating. Nathan made the boys take a nap. Chase just laid on the floor in Brendan's room and never fell asleep. About 5pm we headed out to the Washington County Fairgrounds where we had another Fall Festival to go to. This one was put on by several churches in the community and other organizations. I think they had a pretty good turn out. We did not stary very long because it got crowded. Sorry Butch I did not see Independence there this year unless they were hiding in a different spot. Kind of sad. After we left there went to go knock on doors. We go to a neighborhood in Brenham where we have several friends that live. I was telling Nathan that I thought there were more houses built over this past year because it was such a long walk around there. They both had big pumpkin buckets and they were both filled to the rim. We did not even go to all the houses. We were so tired that we called it quits. They were happy they had full buckets of junk food. This night Chase was still Mario, but Brendan went as Flash the superhero. The best part is we only had to buy Chase's costume this year. The Fire Fighter outfit was Chase's from when he was younger and the other costume Brendan found in a bag of clothes handed down to us by friends. Yeah! Saving money is great.

Blurry because of action. The first four pics are from Saturday.

Chase and Brendan waiting for their cars to race down the track.

This was the race track. Chase and the kids of Burton Elementary get to race cars on this when the get S's on their report cards.

Brendan waiting. He actually won one race and he won another car.

Chase and Brendan on our way out for Halloween.

Some of Brendan's friends from Church. Trey is in Brendan's Sunday School class. Mrs. Natalie is his teacher and Trey's mom. She loves Brendan.

This is just one of the games they had at the fall festival in Brenham.

Here is Chase in full costume.

Getting ready to go trick or treating.

The mustache did not stay on long.

Our Cruise of Alaska....

Okay, so like I was telling you in the last edition we got to experience another trip while in Alaska. While the little ones were hanging out with Pammy and Memaw at the zoo, Butch and Pam sent all the older kiddos on a little cruise. It was so beautiful. We started out early and drove into Anchorage to catch a train to Whittier. On our drive we actually got to see three moose on the road. I was so excited about that. The whole time we had been there we had never seen them out and about in the wild. The train ride was very cool because it was about two hours long and it was slow enough for us to see a lot of wild life and the beauty of Alaska. Once we reached Whittier we caught our ship. This was the first time I had ever been on a boat this size that I could remember. We got to enjoy a good meal and amazing sights on our trip. We got to see eagles, seals, we almost got to see a whale, but it had other plans. The glaciers and waterfalls were breath taking. I think we all had the best time and to be able to do it as a family was even better. By the way did I mention that it was summer time and we were freezing. I bet that would make some of you a bit jealous when you were sitting in 100 degree weather. I have to take a second and say......HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Okay that is better and out of my system, wait.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Better.
Chase had such a great time and he was so proud of the pocket watch he got from the train station that he had me taking tons of pictures of him with it. He also got to see starfish, halibut, plankton, shrimp and I think something else under the microscope that the crew scooped up for everyone to see. Thank you Poppy and Pammy for the amazing trip you sent us all on. Here are some pictures of our trip...