Septober (In pictures)

 What, you've never heard of Septober? The phenomenon known as Septober occurs when life becomes so busy that September and October seem to occur simultaneously. A similar phenomenon might occur around the holidays and is known as Nov-cember, and for those in the accounting world, there is the phenomenon known as Marpril.  Here's what we did in Septober:

Antonia's 2nd birthday, celebrated at one of our favorite spots, Crazy Pita

Antonia at Chuck E. Cheese, driving with her eyes closed...a harbinger of things to come in about 14 years?

The great thing about Chuck E Cheese is that for about 25 cents, you can see your children turned into zombies. I guess maybe you can see this at home for free, if you have video games of some sort.

The best thing about this picture is the look on Antonia's face. She was not really a fan of most things she encountered at Chuck E Cheese, ESPECIALLY not the Chuck himself. She kept saying "Don't like it, big mouse. Don't like it!"

The best thing about THIS picture is the look on Charlie's face. Seriously, where does that fierceness come from? Not from watching Little Einsteins and Sesame Street, that much I know.

My kids aren't that into dressing up, so when they do, we have to do some character shots. Again, Charlie exhibits his inner warrior.

Preschool swim party and performance of "Five Little Ducks"  My favorite thing about this picture is the boot camp in the background running around the park carrying pipes. Yikes!

Charlie does NOT love the spotlight, but when he's with his buddies, he really lets go of a lot of his inhibitions. Should that make me nervous?

Nothing cuter than diaper bum, except diaper bum in a swimsuit.

In order to experience the season most people recognize as "fall, " we drove up to Zion National Park one Saturday. It was lovely. I highly recommend it.

This picture was one false move from ending badly (in the pond to our left.) Was it worth it?  Maybe we'll never know...

Literally the second before I snapped this shot, Charlie had his arm around Antonia. Darn point-and-shoot cameras...

The Air Force base in Las Vegas has a spectacular air show every year, which we were able to attend on Family and Friend Day. I think every American needs to attend a function like this at least once. It was an eye-opening experience, and I had many insights about wars past and present and what the military means to this country.  And the kids loved it, for the most part.

Antonia didn't really love this guy, but only because she's just too young to really appreciate how fun good camouflage can be.

I generally try to avoid toy guns and weapons, let alone actual artillery, so let me point out that all Charlie is doing here is turning the mechanism that rotates the platform.

Charlie would have sat in this Jeep all day if we had let him.

If you've been a longtime reader of this blog, you'll recall the Ragnar Las Vegas relay race that Will and I ran last October. Will was eager to do it again this year, and I was eventually convinced...

But, oh, was it tough! The mileage was longer and the runs were more intense this time around. Can you not see it on my face?

In spite of the permanent damage I inflicted on my body, it was still an awesome experience. Our team was "Runnin' on a Prayer" so it was a given that at some point we had to dress up like Bon Jovi and at some point so Will had to pretend I was his electric guitar .

Not anything to do with the picture, but a word of advice for anyone thinking of doing a 24-hour relay race: the BEST snack to have on hand in your van is candy corn and peanuts, but you might want to check and make sure none of your van-mates has a fatal peanut allergy beforehand, just in case.

I'm so glad I have a built-in running buddy with whom I can do these races, it's a fun way for us to spend time together. Especially when I beat him.  (For the record, this has only happened once)

Happy Halloween!  I'm sure it's obvious who Will and I are supposed to be, because you must have heard how much we enjoyed a movie released recently about a certain detective...so I won't insult you by telling you.  Really, it's elementary, my dear...never mind.  Charlie was an angry ninja. Our cupcake was, well, a cupcake.

Charlie's already enamored with 'staches, I can only hope he is unable to grow one for a long, long time. And I should probably keep him away from Coen brothers movies...