October Fun!

Hello from rainy Elk Grove. We have been getting the first rain of the season and it is coming down in buckets. Our trees are loving it and now it feels like fall. I even made Kale Soup to celebrate our garden spoils. This is my favorite time of the year!

Tanner and Parker have been loving the season. It was really hot at the beginning of the month, so they spent every afternoon with the neighbor kids eating Popsicles. We love our street. The kids are out almost every evening on bikes and scooters. One evening the kids came up with "eat the alligator" game. It really meant chasing Darryl all over the back yard because he was the alligator and the kids tried to catch, tackle and eat him all up.


We went to a pumpkin patch with Tanner's preschool class. It was called Fog Willow. They had a giant pyramid made of hay and tons of pumpkins all over the lawn area. When it was time for our group to tour the farm we got to see lots of animals and the workers were very good about engaging the kids and getting them involved in the care of the animals. We went on a hay ride and Tanner sneezed his guts out. I think he won the prize for the longest booger of the day (there were many competitors). After all of the festivities the boys got to pick out a small pumpkin to take home. Tanner scoured the field and found just the right one. Parker's favorite part of the day was the ponies. He wanted to ride on them so badly. He climbed up on the fence and watched the ponies eat for the longest time. It's cute that he can say so many words now. He says things like,"pony, soft" or "all clean". His favorite things to have an say are, "blankie" and "OH!" He is a fun kid and loved every minute of playing at the pumpkin patch.



Darryl and I had some fun times with parties and events this month. We went down to Merced, CA to play with the Murphys and celebrate Heather's 30th birthday. The party was great fun. Tanner and Parker loved the bounce house and chocolate cake. They also loved seeing their friends and dancing all evening. We always love to see the Murphys and try to get together any chance we get.

Darryl's boss was recently promoted to Partner with KPMG and he was gracious enough to host a party at his home. Darryl and I has a great time meeting many of the other managers and partners of the firm as well as family and friends. One of Darryl's co-workers has some interesting ideas about astrological signs and baseball cards as well as investing. We enjoyed talking to him about his theories and ideas. It gave us a new perspective. Unfortunately we had to leave a bit early in order to head down to Danville for a wedding reception for Dustin and Emily Seely. Dustin is Darryl's second cousin and married a wonderful girl from Danville so they were married in the Oakland Temple and we got a chance to party with them for the evening. The reception was beautiful and we had fun taking crazy photos, eating lots of delicious food, catching up with the family, and lighting giant sparklers to send the couple off on their honeymoon.


The last great event so far this month was our block party yesterday. I organized a block party to meet more of the neighbors and celebrate Halloween. When I planned it, we had 90 degree weather and perfect afternoons every day. Unfortunately, winter decided to show up yesterday at 3:45 when our party started at 4 pm. Undeterred by the rain we put up canopies and had our potluck anyway. All the kids got their costumes on and rode their bikes around in the rain until they got too cold. They we did a upcake walk in the garage and made craft masks. We danced to Halloween music and bobbed for apples. We met a few more of our neighbors and had fun with the ones we know pretty well. By the end of the evening the rain was really starting to come down so we busted out the hot chocolate and a lamp and kept right on talking until we were too cold and wet to stay outside any more. We live on a wonderful street and we are so glad that we can have great times right here in our front yard.
We hope you are having wonderful times too! Happy Halloween.