Halloween pics, a small rant, and some running stuff

 Hope everyone had a great Halloween last night! We made six stops and they got a huge sandwich baggie full of candy at every stop.  Sugar overload! Here are the kids and my sisters kids with my parents.

Sunday night we took the kids to the Boo at the Zoo apparently we should have gone Friday or Saturday.  There were only 4 trick or treat booth when we went and I heard from others that there were over 20 the other nights.  A little disapointing but we all had fun still.  Avery wanted to be an evil princess.  No idea where she got this other than my parents got them some face paints and they wanted to be painted up scary like the pictures on the paints.

Cade was an evil spider.  or at least that was what he was telling everyone.  I am a mean mom and made them utilize costumes they already had.  I hate spending 40 dollars on costumes that are worn one night.

Are you scared?

And here ate the kids last night.  Pretty scary once again!

I grew up on a family ranch. I have had the amazing opportunity in my life to work with 4 generations of my family. My 81 year old grandmother still rides her horse and helps work cattle. She has been blessed and has worked on the ranch with 6 generations of family. I have so many great memories of working on the ranch with my family. Summers spent on horseback, swathing hay, fencing. Lots of time on the tractor. I learned to drive the big hay trucks when I was 13. I bonded with my parents and siblings. I learned about hard work and the satisfaction of a job well done. Some of you reading this may have grown up on farms and ranches or have family that lives on them.

At a time when the average age of the American farmer is 57 years old and going to want to think about retiring and handing over over the reins to younger generations the Department of Labor is looking to tear children out of the farming/ ranching operation and sideline them until they are 16 and in some cases 18. There are exemptions if the farm is owned by the parent. But forget working for an uncle, grandparent, or if the farm is a family corporation like mine is. I want my kids to grow up being able to have the same opportunities to work that I did. If you are at all interested you can comment on it HERE
You can read more about it HERE and HERE
Both are very good articles and are much easier to read than the government document.

I know they are proposing these for safety but really what is next? High school sports? Seems like at least once a year there is a death in school sports. I know in Montana a high school cross country runner collapsed at the state meet and I just heard on the news yesterday that he died. Point is quit over regulating us! okay done venting, on to other things in my life!

 I threw in some speed work this morning for the first time since the half marathon I did in September.  It felt really good.  I love me some speed!  I could also feel that I had not done any in a while though I was sucking some wind at the end.  The colors are so pretty right now.  I love fall!

 Today is the first day of my birthday month!  Yay!  I love birthdays!  Today I am thankful for fall and continued good running weather.

What are you thankful for today?