Wee Witches Weekend

I think I'm the only person in my family that has never been to Gardner Village. Even my little brother has been dragged to Gardner Village during Witchapolooza. He is still complaining about seeing all the women wearing sweaters with witch buttons. When we found out it was "Wee Witches Weekend," I couldn't pass it up! I found this great costume online for Anders. He is a HUGE Mickey Mouse fan. It's really hard to get him to take it off once he puts it on. It was fun to walk around and see the other kids in their costumes, but I have to say that Anders rocked the house. We had kids stopping and saying, "hi Goofy." It was so cute. Gardner Village is a fun place, but it's not really a shopping place for kids. The shops and things aren't set up for kids and could make a person crazy if they attempt to take a 2 year-old in them. I found it interesting that they would designate a weekend where everyone brings every kid they know. It created a very kid crowded place. The witches were cute and Anders loved looking at them. If you plan to go this weekend with your kids, don't plan on shopping! It's way too crazy.

Here's our little Goofy champion!..or as Anders calls it, "Foofy."
There were lots of cool fake witches, but we were lucky enough to find a REAL one!
This was a really difficult picture to take. Anders could see a man on the top of a building that he was sure was a pirate. We tried everything to get him to look at us. Was a silly kid!
One of our resting stops.
Anders was so funny getting his face painted. He sat completely still. He was so proud of the pumpkin on his cheek. In this picture, he's relaxing watching a witch on the lake. He could have sat there forever. Sometimes I'm lucky to have such a mellow kid (let me emphasize that it's only sometimes!).

*As a little side note, I had my post-op appointment today. I found out that my ovary had a benign tumor cyst on it that somehow made it heavy enough to twist and prevent blood from getting in or out. This is what made it about 10 times the size of a regular ovary. Who knows why this happens sometimes! I just happened to be a lucky one. The baby is still doing great and there's no reason to expect any different at this point. For those of you who have been waiting to find out how heavy my ovary was, be prepared to be disappointed. The pathologist didn't weigh it! What a bummer. It had to be a couple pounds because I'm 16 weeks along and still have not gained a pound. So it probably weighed however much you should gain in those 16 weeks. I now have permission to pick Anders up quickly, but not carry him. I can put him in the car seat or highchair now. Yipee! You don't realize how important that ability is until you lose it. We finally got a chance to thank my doctor for following her "doctor's intuition" and prioritizing me as a patient. It really validated my pain that she trusted that my description of my pain was accurate enough to cram me in to her schedule. We feel so blessed that she followed her intuition and figured out exactly what was wrong and took care of it. Who knows what could have happened to the baby or me if she didn't. She's amazing. We have felt so blessed throughout this whole process and couldn't possibly put it all in to words. We feel like the Lord prepared us for what was going to happen in so many ways. The support we have received since my surgery is amazing. We have an amazing ward that has really stepped up to make this as easy on us as possible. These last few weeks have flown by so quickly and it's because of all of the support we have received. I'm so grateful for the many hidden blessings inside our trials in life. I just wish it didn't take an event like this for us to recognize them all.