October Update

Things got really busy after we came back from Kansas City. Didn't even get to blog our last day! Oh well. Pretty much we just ate at Cracker Barrel, shopped for a second in Zona Rosa, ate lunch at the airport (Tequileria - yummy margarita), then flew for the rest of the day (1 stop @ LAX) until we got home at 8pm. So that's that. Flying back was much less exciting than the rest of the trip. ;-)


Now, onto the second half of the month! We were quite fortunate that Drew's parents were called on by the marriage healing program they volunteer for (Retrouvaille) to come to CA for a few weeks to help with some training. So they came out about one week after we returned home. Yay! This was much cause for both celebration and activity planning! Dionne and Vito invited the family to go on a trip together up to Apple Hill. We were blessed with a beautiful day together. The weather was just right, and we managed to luck out with parking and patience even through the heavy crowds. A majority of the Sacramento fams was there.



APPLE HILL

Family Pic: Maria, Vavo, Jocelyn, Vito & Dionne, Vavu, Heath & Angie, Gina & Alyssa, and Aiden and Jeremy in the front

Aiden liked moving pumpkins around. He especially loved picking up large ones.

Vavu pretending to throw Aiden's pumpkin down a hill (Aiden thought stopping him was hilarious)

Apple Doughnuts courtesy of Vito (thanks, Vito!)

Jeremy and Aiden with their pumpkins

Aiden and Jeremy sitting on a HUGE pumpkin

Boo!

Angie and Heath with the traveling bear

Aiden on the pony ride (look, ma - no hands!)

Alyssa on the pony ride (look ma, I'm a pretty pony princess!)

Jeremy on the pony ride (cheese!)


The kids made their own "creatures" at the fudge shop. They "glued" candy onto marshmallow "bodies" with chocolate to assemble their creations.

Alyssa making her creature

Vito helping Jeremy make his creature


Aiden concentrating highly on his creature

Jocelyn joined in the creature fun! Her method was to pile as much candy as possible on top of the marshmallows.

Apple Hill was great. We were so glad we went and were able to spend time together.

Last week, Aiden had his very first school pictures taken! He wasn't too sure about it at first, and told us that he didn't want to do it. We had a little practice session at home that got him excited for it, tho. We got the proofs back and ordered a small package of photos. Can't wait to see them! For now, here are some pics from our "practice" session at home. Of course, Jeremy wanted to practice, too!

PRACTICE SCHOOL PICS

Over this past weekend, we went shopping with Angie for her wedding dress. We being Mom Pascoal, Erica (maid of honor), Dionne, Gina, Maria and Alyssa. Of course it wouldn't be right to SHOW the dress (duh), but here's some evidence of our success:

ANGIE'S DRESS

Success, thy name is Angie

High Fives all around!

We celebrated Halloween with a party at the Mason's, dressed as a pirate family. We spent the evening there, eating dinner and playing games. The kids had a really good time running around with all the other children. They have boundless energy, it seems! Vavu made a special costume just for Jake: fru-fru (sp?) coffee!

HALLOWEEN PARTY

Pirate Aiden

Pirate Jeremy

Mr. Clean (Vito) and Dionne

Pirate Family

Alyssa the Butterfly

Wilma and Fred (aka Laura and Jake)

We closed out this last weekend with a visit to San Andreas to see Grandma and Grandpa. Drew wanted to get some yard work done, so we decided to get out of his hair and go for a little ride. It was nice to just go up for a visit and no special reason. We visited a park where Maria used to go to Girl Scout Day Camp back in the day. The park is in the town of Angels Camp. There's a much more sophisticated playground there than there used to be! And the boys sure did take advantage of it!

The boys swinging with Grandma

Rural, thy name is San Andreas

Whew! I wasn't kidding when I said a lot happened. Note to self: blog one time per event, and don't let them store up til the end of the month. It makes for a long entry. Next up...H a l l o w e e n !