all hallow's eve

We started the day with heading to downtown for the annual Halloween parade. This year, we invited Alyssa' new friend and her family that are from South Korea for the next year (until next December 2016).  We started out sitting on the curb on one of the street in the sun...

... and then moved to the middle of the street which was in the shade as we realized the parade route had changed slightly.

Jaiden in all his blood and gore... again!

The very start of the parade. I think I have a photo of this sign every year we made it!

This year Jaiden and I paid close attention to the marching bands... mainly because he is very interested in continuing his tuba and we talked about marching band.

I love the costumes - this year we had a crazy cat lady with a pink robe, curlers in her hair and cats attached all over her robe. She was holding a litter box filled with rice krispies and tootsie rolls ... so very clever!

Love the ice cream cone!

Star Wars family

Wait, where's Waldo? This was a really popular costume this year. Poor Dennis didn't look so original anymore!

One of my favorites... Dorothy, Toto, Flying Monkeys... so love Wizard of Oz!

Sousaphone (aka the marching tuba) players... I wonder if Jaiden could really carry one of those?

Loved, loved the Chinese dragon.... so very cool to watch as a whole line of people moved the dragon through the street!

Vending machine... another clever one!

George and the Man in Yellow!

Awesome Star Wars Imperial Tie Fighter!

And then we did the business trick or treating...

I figured I better grab a few photos before Jaiden is no longer doing this!!

Later that night, it was out for trick or treating with our friends, Ellie, Sophie, Lilia and later we met up Emily and Ian.

Jaiden, on the other hand, went out with a few dads with his two Tyler friends and then came back to the house to watch Poltergeist!

Dennis enjoyed his birthday by handing out treats and drinking a beer!

zombie apocalypse

Hmmm... where do I start? Well, let's just start with I wasn't sure what to do about Jaiden's costume. I am slowly learning that middle school is very and I mean very different from elementary school. For example, Jaiden's school newsletter has been publishing for the past few weeks "Don't have a costume? Join the Zombie Apocalypse!" 

Jaiden decided to join the zombie apocalypse as a Boy Scout zombie. Okay easy enough, or was it? Because now I was torn. To really make him look like a zombie, I needed blood and gore but back in elementary school, the newsletter was stating costumes could be worn but no blood, gore, masks or weapons were allowed. And yet middle school only said to join the apocalypse if you didn't have a costume?! What to do...

I sent him out the door like this...

 He loved it. He was thrilled to look this and head to school.

Unfortunately though, I got called in at around 1 pm that Jaiden had a bleed in his hand. It was an interesting conversation with the health clerk because I could tell she was flustered and not sure what to do and felt bad because he had come in twice but the first time only asked for ice and she didn't realize he was the one with the IHP and she kept rambling, but I said it was okay. He needs to tell us when he needs help. And in I went.

Now let me preface this with I had forgotten about the entire Zombie apocalypse going on and when I entered into the first set of doors, Brooke (the attendance clerk) was completely decked out with black wings, makeup that was hideous and blood stains around her mouth. The first thing she says is I love Jaiden's blood, it is so real looking! I joked about how I was uncertain about sending him that way and then here comes the Health Clerk who I had never met before and she is decked out in blood and gore too!  It was hilarious... I am telling you middle school is very different! 

In the end, Jaiden was fine. He looked miserable and he was upset. He didn't want to come home early and miss the remaining classes and he had a few tears as he told me he tried to ice it and go back to class but then he couldn't hold the pencil any longer. Poor guy! Turns out it was his right hand and 3 fingers from middle to pinky. Middle had the brunt of it. It happened in P.E. when he lunged for another player and his fingers bent backwards. Anyway, I got him set up with his poke, ice, elevated and rest with a movie on to keep him entertained. Then, I headed back to school to grab a few photos of Alyssa and her school parade, which I am so glad I did.

This is when she first came out of her classroom to line up and when she first saw me!

 The wind was crazy as usual but I love this photo. Didn't her costume turn out beautiful? It also turned out a little shorter than I meant because I was more concerned about making sure it fit her that I forgot to check the length!

 Coming around the side of the building in the parade.

 And just looking sweet as can be!

 Then it was home to carve pumpkins...because we put it off until the last minute!

 Sophie came over to hang out but she told me her Mom said she couldn't carve a pumpkin because they didn't have time before they had to go to the party and I told Sophie then she can help me and my pumpkin!

 Which turned into her pumpkin! But she and I did finish before she had to go home so in the end, she carved the pumpkin she wanted to!

Alyssa chose a detailed pattern...

 And this close up, cracks me up!

I can't figure out why I didn't take a photo of the finished product but I will have to remember to do that later!

the good harvest

Every Fall I feel this huge sense of nostalgia. No idea why but I really love Fall - the leaves, the pumpkins, the Fall harvest, the final cooling of the hot, hot summer days. Today was the day that I felt overwhelmed with that I love Fall feeling as I drove to pick up my final CSA harvest.

I loved the pumpkins balance carefully on their road sign.

And then I opened the cooler and found this beautiful yumminess awaiting for me to dig in!

And then I was inspired to create this awesome dinner!

Actually, this has got to me one of my most favorite salads ever and I have to wait for Fall when I get that tart and slightly spicy radicchio!

I heart Fall!

boo bowl

I can't remember if I have ever posted about this or not... but it was a Boo bowl afternoon here today! It's an annual Girl Scout event that we have been going to since 1st grade. Not all of our troop goes but we normally have enough girls to fill our own lane. Boo bowl allows the entire bowling alley to be reserved for the Girl Scouts to come and bowl in their costume under black lights and spooky music. It's quite fun. I try to take photos but they rarely turn out. 

Alyssa took this one of me. 

I had an über creative costume - black turtleneck, black pants and Jaiden's Carnivale mask that Papi and Nana brought back from Venice! Yep, I was too focused on finishing Alyssa's costume this time!

Alyssa bowling in her witchy costume!

And then a photo that one of the parents took and shared. I don't know where I was or why I didn't take one but I am so glad she did. The girls were adorable and always have a good time together!

little guppy take 2

Take 2... but this time we leave the house at 6:15am to arrive for her 7 am warm up! The crazy thing is when I went in to wake her up, she was already awake and excited to go!

This pool was enormous! There were actually 3 pools. Parents were not allowed on the floor, only up in the bleachers. It was such a different meet than our previous meet. 

She is in down there against the wall either sitting or standing in the bleachers!

From this angle you can see the 3rd pool. Again, she's there! Look for the lime green shirt and then slowly move your eyes to the right. She has her bright pink swim cap on!

She's almost to the end. This was a 25 Freestyle for a relay she was part of.

And here she comes out of the pool!

This meet was also so incredibly long! We got there at 7am and didn't leave until 1:30 pm! Next time I need to remember to pack more snacks for Alyssa and a healthy lunch for me!!

old man extreme

One of the things we had planned to do while in Breck was some mountain biking now that both kids had had a week of mountain biking camp. The trail map was not as well marked as we had hoped but we figured we would figure it out as we went. I also lugged my camera and had Dennis carry the tripod so that I could capture a family photo for my Dad since he has been harassing asking me for a new one!

We stopped by this stream and the backdrop seemed like it might work so I took a test shot of Jaiden. 

I could tell I would need to adjust the white balance and overexpose slightly but for the most part I thought this could work...

... until I realized that I had to run across a stream, pull Alyssa onto my lap and say look at the camera and smile through gritted smiling teeth! This photo makes me laugh - I absolutely love it because Alyssa's hair is still swinging, Jaiden is about to fall off the log and Dennis is the only one who is sitting and smiling nicely! 

So I tried another one...

... where I didn't have to run across the stream and pull Alyssa on my lap. I thought this one might work but I wasn't sure.

This photo was actually the kids eating their snack as I packed up the camera and tripod. You can see the small creek, the multiple logs and river bed I had to cross to try to get those first two photos!

When we got to the top of the hill, we discovered this beautiful lake with benches and a lovely walking area. I thought this might work too...

... so I set up again but this time it was trickier because the light was dappled, we were in the shade and the background was so bright in the sun. To get the lighting right, I had to expose our faces which then really washed out the beautiful background.

Tried cropping in and that still wasn't working so much for me... and everyone else was ready to call it good and move on!

And move on we did! Alyssa wasn't too keen on the riding. It proved to be a little more difficult and steeper than she likes. We found a really cool Free ride Park as we were really trying to find another trail that we thought we could connect to from 4 o'clock run. 

Jaiden definitely wanted to try it but really you should have seen some of the narrow, high twisted turns. He went for it and Dennis followed him.

This is the easier part of the free ride park and Jaiden was cruising at this point. Dennis had not started so I was able to actually take a video of him. He nearly killed himself or I guess, really hurt himself! He joked about how I would post it on YouTube and that maybe he should create his own reality series and call it "Old Man Extreme". I was laughing so hard, I cried. The kids found it hilarious too and came up with all kinds of stunts he could do. While we were all laughing at his expense, he came up with this hilarious ending on how the clip would cut out and he'd be in a recliner icing his aches and drinking a beer!

The worst part was after lunch we tried to find another ride or two (I am telling you the trail map looked good but there was absolutely no trail markings anywhere!) but we ended up on a hiking trail. We had to cross a few bridges but this one bridge in particular was not meant for bikes. The kids and I apparently realized this much sooner than Dennis and had dismounted our bikes, pulled them between the two trees, up and over the tree roots, a huge boulder and onto the bridge... Dennis, however, thought he could ride it out. I happened to turn around just in time to see his front tire take a nose dive just over one tree root into the huge boulder in front of that tree root, heard him swear and watched the bike jolt back up and hit him in the groin. Needless to say, he was down for the count as I tried to calmly run over and ask if he needed help while stifling my laughter at the same time. He groaned "No, I'll be alright in a minute". I turned and let the laughter and tears roll while the kids heckled him with "old man extreme".

foxy loxy fox

Dennis spontaneously booked us a Fall weekend trip at Breck for the kid's 3 day weekend. 

We arrived in the afternoon about 4:30 or so and shortly after we started to settle in, the kids are out on the balcony and they see a fox... a very trained fox in the parking lot because the minute we made clicking sounds, the fox trotted over! It then became the joke that Alyssa has this super natural talent and speaks fox language.

A pretty thing he or she is!

Then we strolled down the hill through the downtown area and reminisced about where the kids played when they were younger.

I should have known this turkey was going to make a face when Dennis took the photo!

our little guppy!

Alyssa's first swim meet arrived... she was over the moon excited. It was not only a home meet but it was also an afternoon meet, which was equally awesome. I signed up to help be a timer, which turned out to be a lot of fun!

What struck me most about showing up and getting her ready was all the kids. This is a community swim team so there are no tryouts. You need to be able to swim the length of the pool using either crawl, breast or backstroke, and while they say there are no tryouts in a way there are. Last year, Alyssa was told they didn't think she was ready. It was heartbreaking but the up side of that was her determination to be ready this year. 

The other funny thing about all the kids were how excited they were and antsy about getting in the water. You could tell a huge number of them were fish out of water... literally!

Alyssa is sitting next to one of her team mates Dad getting ready for her heat. His daughter is a sweetheart. 

This is the only race that I was not timing someone in my lane so I was able to sneak a few photos of her. 

And she's off! I love the blur of this photo and her face!

Now she's in her rhythm! 

She did really well for her first meet. I was so proud of her and she was beaming about it. I love that. I love that she is so happy all the time.