Thanksgiving

We had a lovely thanksgiving dinner in our home this year.  We invited our good friends, Steve and Julie Busco and their children.  Julie's parents, Skip and Sandy Worrells, were also visiting for the week, so they came to dinner also.  We had stayed at their house in Seattle 8 years ago, so it was very nice to catch up with them.  We had a nice dinner, then played a fun game of volleyball before eating dessert.

Halloweeeeeeen

For Halloween this year, we chose the theme of Little Red Riding Hood.  Gabe wanted to be the wolf, and Allie volunteered to be Little Red.  I was the Granny and Jeff was the Huntsman.  After Halloween, I reflected on the brutality of the story, basically we all kill each other.  But in this particular instance of the story, we are a loving family.  I was voted best Grandma at the ward party, beating all of the other "real" grandmas in the room.

Skipping Halloween:  I have been waiting to post this until I could put pictures up, but somehow we lost the pictures that we took!  I will keep looking for them.

A Frightful Evening

I took Allie and Gabe to Frightfest at Magic Mountain on Friday night.  Allie and Gabe were a little aprehensive about going to Frightfest.  I took them there 4 years ago and they did not like the ghouls, zombies and monsters.  But I thought that 4 years of maturity would help them get past the fear.  We arrived a little early for Frightfest, and spent the time going on some of our favorite rides.  Then, at 7:00, the ghouls came out.  It was very fun.  As I predicted, Allie and Gabe were not afraid of the zombies, they would defiantly look at them and just tell them to go away.  There were "scare zones" corridors through the park where the zombies hung out.  There were often black lights and fog machines to create an air of mystery.  The zombies/ghouls would sneak up to you and often jump right in front of you with their face in your face.  Gabe didn't like them invading his personal space.  I thought it was very fun to see the creative costumes.  There were ghouls on stilts, some had clackers on their shoes to make a loud noise when they lunged at you.  Others had special knee pads that would send out sparks as they slid across the sidewalk towards you.  It was very creative and fun.  We also enjoyed going on the rides in the dark.  They didn't turn on the spotlights, so it was much darker on the rides.  Maybe it was an illusion, but it felt like the rides were even going faster in the dark.

A Fall Visit

This week my sister left the beautiful fall colors of Colorado to come and visit our Indian summer in California.  With her came my three nephews.  They did a lot of falling around the house, especially the youngest who is crawling and learning to stand and walk.  But we loved having them here.  Allie and Gabe were worried that after a six month absence, they wouldn't remember us very well.  When they arrived, the oldest bounded out of the car, leapt into our arms and said, "I am so happy to come to your house!  I really wanted to come!"  It just melted our hearts.  We didn't do anything spectacular, just play with the marble tracks, do puzzles, build lincoln log towers, and chase them around the house.  We had a great time, and miss them already.

A Trip to the Islands

For many years, our ward would host a luau as a ward activity.  It was always held at the home of one of our ward members.  As that couple grew older, they asked not to continue with the tradition of having it at their home.  At that point, it seemed that the tradition would die, as we did not have a luau for several years.  But this year, it returned.  It was held in the pavillion behind the church.  First we had a delicious americanized island dinner complete with roasted pig.  Then we watched the dancers perform dances that were simple and graceful, heartpounding and enthusiastic, terrifying and amazing, and all mesmerizing.  it was a fun evening as we took a "trip to the islands"

The Road to Eagle

The road to becoming an Eagle Scout starts out humbly with becoming a tenderfoot scout.  Gabe has made a goal to become an eagle before he is 14.  Becoming an eagle requires 21 merit badges, and going through the rank of tenderfoot, 2nd class, 1st class, Star, Life and then Eagle Scout.  Since Star, Life and Eagle scout have time requirements he was hoping to attain the rank of 1st class quickly, while working on the many required merit badges.  He was finally able to finish his Tenderfoot requirement two weeks ago when the troop went on a campout to the Little Steamer's Train Club.  The boys had a great time riding on the trains, and even were able to perform a service project for the club the following morning.  This week, we focused on finding wildlife in our neighborhood.  We have been actively looking for animals, then hoping they will stay still while we rush for the camera.  In addition, we also completed the swimming requirements.  We selected the hottest day of the week (this is fall in Southern California, temperatures will range from 60 degrees to 105 degrees), and went to a friends pool to practice swimming and lifesaving techniques.  He only has a few requirements left, but among them are two more campouts.  Hopefully they will be able to go soon so that he can start the clock ticking on those time requirements!  In the meantime, he has finished 11 merit badges, has 3 more nearly done, and 2 more that he is interested in completing.  We are really enjoying scouts!

Allie playing football?

This week, Allie's band class played alongside the high school band at the varsity homecoming football game.  She was very excited to be playing at the game, it was so much fun for her to sit with her class and enjoy the game.  Most of the time they played at the same time as the high school, but during the end of the second quarter, the high school band departed to prepare for the halftime show.  The team happened to score two touchdowns while they were gone!  So the middle school class was able to show their colors by playing a celebratory song without the support of the high school band.  It was very exciting.  Another small personal miracle occurred prior to the game.  Jayd allowed Allie to borrow his volleyball sweatshirt so she could be warm and spirited at the same time.  Unfortunately lightening didn't strike twice, we lost the game in overtime when we failed to achieve a two point conversion.  It was a disappointing end.