Halloween 2018

My parents and sister joined us for Halloween this year--we enjoyed fairly nice weather, new neighbors down the road who went all out for Halloween with their decorated yard/garage, and of course the house down the road that serves hot chocolate, wine/beer, and juice boxes.  Our group theme this year revolved around the girls wanting to dress as cheerleaders.

Abby's school party was a 50s theme, so I recreated my 6th grade poodle skirt by cutting off the poodle my mom had sewn on my skirt onto new fabric for Abby.  For a "no-sew" project, it turned out pretty good!

We have been visiting my uncle's pumpkin patch in Iowa for the past couple of years, but his pumpkins weren't as plentiful this year, so we visited Barten's Pumpkins this year:

Grandma's 90th birthday!

We pulled off a surprise carnival-themed birthday party for my grandma's 90th birthday, down at Miriam's.  She had had an open house the weekend before at her favorite coffee shop (on her actual birthday), so wasn't expecting anything the next weekend.  Greg and Rose Mary were even able to fly in.  Everyone had fun surprising her and playing carnival games!  I typed up and put together her gift from all of us--"90 Things we Love About You" (a gift inspired by one a good friend had made for her mother-in-law).

"Fall" camping

We couldn't find time in our busy summer to do a camping trip, so we opted for a September trip, thinking we would have perfect "fall" weather.  Instead, it was an unusually HOT weekend at Wild River State Park!  We made the best of it, and hiked early, cooled off at a snake show and in the river, and tented without the rain fly (risky move, but we lucked out with no rain and really enjoyed waking up to feeling slightly chilly with the breeze coming in the tent.  All in all, a great weekend camping!

First day of school 2018

We were all a little (okay, a lot) tired during the girls' first week of school/my first week back for workshops, due to bad jet lag after our South Korea trip.  Luckily, the girls at least had a couple of days to ease back into it.  This year, Norah is in Mrs. Westall's 1st grade class and Abby is in Mrs. Sneen's 5th grade class.  They are both excited for a great school year!

South Korea trip--day 11

Day 11 was a sad one...we had to say goodbye to Tracy!  We headed out of the apartment early, then went to the train station to catch the train to the Seoul airport. 

After checking in, we had time to eat lunch with Tracy at the Lotteria (like a Korean McDonald's) and shop at a couple of the airport shops that were outside of security.

When it was finally time to go through security, the goodbyes were sad, knowing that it will be a year before we get to see Tracy again.  After saying goodbye, we found our gate and had lots of time to play at the Porro-themed play area, check out some of the shops, and even interact with the airport robot.  The Seoul airport is definitely the most amazing airport I have ever been in.

Our flight home was pretty uneventful--we again LOVED Korean Air, and this time the girls were given a Porro stuffed animal and blanket to keep.  Norah was stubborn about falling asleep, so we eventually had her lay on the floor and she fell right asleep.  It was great until the flight attendant told us she couldn't lay there, so then she continued to sleep for most of the flight spread over our laps.  Back in LA, it was a little bit stressful to go through customs, wait for our luggage, recheck it, and find our new gate.  Luckily, it wasn't as tight of a time frame as the way to Korea, but we didn't have much time once we got to our gate before we boarded.  We were so fortunate to have our good friends waiting for us at the MSP airport to pick us up and bring us home.

We had an amazing time, and are so fortunate to have had this opportunity!