November

November was full of family time, fall leaves, starting Pandemic Legacy 2 (Spencer, Bonnie and Audrey playing; it's an ongoing board game), Thanksgiving, and normal life. It's starting to feel a lot more like home the longer we are here in Washington.

 

Halloween

 We hosted our annual Halloween party, even though we had a brand new guest list. We missed our Monterey friends and we were grateful that our new Olympia friends have a lot of Halloween spirit. We're looking forward to making the party even better next year! The kids had fun dressing up and going trick or treating with friends, and the ward trunk-or-treat party was fun as well. I didn't get a picture of Declan in his scarecrow costume (same one Ian wore last year), but he wore a different costume to school because the scarecrow one relies heavily on the mask to look cool (no masks at school).

Fireplace mantle, just one of many ways Halloween takes over our home.

Spencer as Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls

Me as Winifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus

My sister Kelley and bro-in-law Patrick came as the Incredibles.

My dear friend and roommate Kristin and her husband John came as Addams Family siblings Wednesday and Pugsley.

We had about 11 other couples from the ward and neighborhood show up too, all great costumes!

Here's some of the food:

Declan dressed up as Dipper from Gravity Falls for school (and creepy scarecrow for parties and trick-or-treat).

Ian dressed up in a steampunk outfit.

Audrey was President Loki again. I'd vote for her!

Declan let me suck some of his life force, so if I'm looking younger and more beautiful lately, that's why.

Pumpkin carving

My amazing sister Kelley invited us to the annual Rood pumpkin carving night--so much fun! Our kids carved their own pumpkins for the first time (usually Spencer does most of the work), and we got to hang out with our people, eating good food and having fun. My brother Kenny was up for participating, and it was so lovely to see him enjoying himself. Kelley painted a beautiful skull on Jamie's very pregnant belly (Jamie is my niece, my sister Laura's daughter). Lindsey surprised us by flying in from Texas, so my parents had all their grandchildren together!

Grandkids plus Jamie's husband Avery and Lindsey's boyfriend Cameron.

October

Audrey had a busy start to Fall--Homecoming dance with her friend Nico, playing at every football home game, sometimes in the rain, and helping backstage with the fall school play. We had fun going to her games (although it's too cold for this wimp) and seeing the school play, Dracula. 

Declan did cross country for the first time and loved it.

We enjoyed seeing the leaves change colors and fall, and the weather cooling enough to enjoy walks outside and finding frogs in our yard.

I worked on some Halloween projects--got a black Christmas tree to hang my cross stitch ornaments on. I had fun wrapping some boxes in Halloween paper and trying to make it an homage to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

(The ornaments I've stitched so far--more to come!)

I got to go to my mom's quilt show and see her beautiful work on display. I love hanging out with my beautiful, talented mom. She is my rock, my go-to person, my confidant, and friend. I'm so grateful to be her daughter and consider myself extremely lucky and blessed.

Speaking of awesome people, my youngest brother Ben moved to Yakima (about three hours from where I now live) to go to grad school. The kids had a day off of school so we spent the weekend visiting him and finding fun fall activities to do together. We can't wait to see him at Thanksgiving, and we're definitely going back next fall and repeating the experience.

September

 

September came and summer ended. Ian and Spencer went on a last summer church activity--kayaking. I hope we will do a lot of kayaking next summer!

Spencer and I tried a new restaurant on a lunch date. Realized our outfits matched. 

Labor day we got up super early and drove out to Mt. Rainier to hike at Paradise. It was beautiful!

First week of September we started school--Audrey 10th, Ian 8th, Declan 6th, and me as a substitute teacher. Slowly looking to get back to public school teaching...

One hot Saturday in September, my sister's family and mine went on a Clued up adventure (virtual scavenger hunt). It was fun, but the kids wore out in the heat very quickly. I made silly little hats for us to wear since the theme was Alice in Wonderland. We took a lunch break and then a few of us adults went back to finish the puzzle. 

I love being close to my family here in Washington. That and the incredible beauty all around us has made this move a lot easier.