12 November 2009

I unexpectedly was approved for ten days off work at the beginning of November, so we have been out of town enjoying sunshine and warm weather with Gia in Oklahoma. I'd requested the second through the 11th off, and my leave request was approved on October 29, so it was all very last minute. We debated leaving on the 31st, but decided instead to stay home and celebrate Halloween. Mr. Brown started packing Sunday morning before church. We packed til 8:30, then rushed through breakfast and into Sunday clothes and dashed to church, arriving only two minutes late to discover an empty parking lot... daylight savings time. So we went HOME! TO PACK SOME MORE! We finished loading the car and came back exactly an hour later (yes- late again!) but then left from church and spent the afternoon in Iowa City and drove on to Des Moines where we spent the night. We were certainly eager for this vacation.

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I bought a camera the day before trick-or-treating because our kids' costumes were too cute NOT to photograph. We went to Wal-Mart and purchased the hundred-dollar Kodak model, because I HAD TO HAVE PICTURES. I actually like it quite a bit. It's not perfect, but for a hundred bucks, I definitely got my money's worth. Of course, the pictures are still on the camera, waiting politely at home to be downloaded, and the computer is now on the fritz. Sigh. But I do have pictures that I will post eventually. Maybe by Christmas.

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The kids had such fun trick-or-treating. Rose Pink went out with her friend Macayla and another little girl named Ruby, and Nut Brown and I hit a few houses together. He was pretty psyched about the whole thing, and even when he was shaking from the cold bravely maintained that he wanted to keep knocking. We also attended the ward trunk-or-treat and that was EXTREMELY CHILLY, thanks to a freezing wind. It went really well, though, and it was really fun to hand out candy to such sweetly-costumed children.

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Rose Pink had a Halloween party this year on the Wednesday before Halloween- a cakewalk, Halloween stories, bobbing for apples, and a pinata. It was a success. Anything involving a pinata is a success, right? We broke the pinata stick and had to borrow a bat from a neighbor, but everyone had fun and got to wear their costumes one extra time.