Catch up to October 2012

The Carvings of 2012...

The first of October brought us some much needed visitors!! Gramma and Papa McDonald. They had tried to come see us for months, but because of other family obligations, weren't able to. We were so excited when they were finally able to make the 11 hour trip to see us {letting everyone know that we are 11 hours away from our families will never get old...just sayin'}. We just hung out. It was SO nice. Took them on a tour to the Sundial Bridge where we explored the trails. Griffin's highlight was throwing rocks into the river with them. Games, treats and good food for 4 solid days. It was a wonderful weekend! Love you guys!! XOXO

Griffin and I had lots of fun making {October} cupcakes for his preschool class... Hope they enjoyed them as much as we liked making them!

Yes, this is year #2 for Mr. Pirate. This year we were at Costco, where all the popular avenger costumes hung on display. We chose the "Captain America" costume and thought that would be it for this Halloween. Well, the week of Halloween came and someone did not even want to try on his C.A. costume... "I want to be a Pirate"... alrighty then. Back to Costco we go, hopefully they'll return it for us {thankfully, they did!} So, once again, "A pirates life for Mr. G-man". Of course you can tell he was thrilled! Stinker.

Usually we all dress up as a family for Halloween with our "themed" costumes. This year, I guess Tyler just wasn't feeling it. We were in Redding, which we are usually with family out of state, and it was pouring rain. I guess I give him some credit for low enthusiasm. However, I was not going to let the Mr. stop me from my Halloween dress-up tradition. And, since I had no one to have to "match" this year, I decided on an old princess costume I had in the costume box. For some reason our ward here doesn't really get into trunk-or-treat and with the yucky drizzle out, we decided to go hang out with the crowds and trick-or-treat at the Mount Shasta Mall! {Okay, really, it was seriously crowded, but to be honest this was almost the better way to go! The kids walk from store to store, gather tons of candy and you don't have to worry about them being cold or walking for miles and miles to accomplish their Halloween candy stash...*Note to self* if it rains again, Go to the Mall!} However, to keep up with "tradition" we did end up hitting a few houses in our friends neighborhood when the rain let up a bit. Halloween, done and done.

 Yes, this is Effie Trinket. She is in our ward. And, honestly I have never known anyone else, besides my Aunt Patti, who loves Halloween more than me and my family does. It was so much fun to go see what she had come up with for a costume this year! They were generous to have chili and bread too, for really almost our whole ward. She is a crazy, over productive, fun loving lady who we have the pleasure of calling Gramma Cindy... aka Effie Trinket. We sure love you cute lady! XOXO