October and November

Every time I say I'm going to post more often, life gets crazy!

So here is a summary of things:

In October, my aunt came out for a visit. We had a very nice time! We spent time at Longwood Gardens - with the understanding that we won't be going there again. We've seen it in the spring and now in the fall. The boys loved the pumpkins, the hay bales, and the flowers - but Kory's allergies started to act up afterwards. After listening to much coughing from him after, we decided that is it for Longwood Gardens. It was a lot of fun though.

While she visited, she and I also go to spend some quality aunt and niece time doing our favorite thing: shopping! I love shopping with my aunt. She and I have come up with quite a system. We have over 20 years of shopping together - going back to shopping trips before school and our birthdays. We got some good deals on clothes for the boys, but not much for either her or I. But it was fun! And she even treated me to a "grown up" meal at a real restaurant! Of course there was a lot of Starbucks stops too :)

The rest of her visit, we just chilled at home with the boys. Mostly because we had rain almost every day of her visit thanks to a Nor'ester.

Then in October we had Halloween. The night of trick or treating was rainy and dreary but we headed out with the boys and the double stroller. Of course while we were walking around the neighborhood, the rain started to pour - even sideways - so we were drenched when we got home. But we laughed and giggled all the way home.

In November we packed up for our annual trip home to MN. I love this trip. It is always so great to get away from East Coast craziness to slow down our pace for a bit. I mean going from active towns to the quiet country!

On our drive out, we stopped at my aunt and uncles for showers, a change of clothes and then out for breakfast. The boys had fun chasing around their cute dog. And Cade tried to feed her cherrios :)

From there we drove the rest of the way to my parents. Yes we drove straight through - about 22 hours or so! We have a good (and safe) system down :)

Our stay in MN included hunting for Keith, visiting with family, going to the local orchard - where the boys played in a boat of corn to only once again act up Kory's allergies with coughing. AHH!

The boys and I also had great time with my neice and my sister. It was so much fun to watch the three kids play together. Cade learned to say "I need..." from his cousin. I taught my niece how to tell her mommy she had "pretty eyes." And Kory just enjoyed being with his cousin.

Kory even got to "help" my parents build their new home. He had some special alone time with Grandpa and Grandma on that one. Keith got a buck so we have plenty of venison in our freezer. No pheasants this year but that is okay. Then we packed up to head back home.

Again we drove it straight home. The funniest part was when I was driving through Chicago at 10 pm at night, Kory and I were the only ones awake and Kory was determined that I needed to pull over (while driving straight through Chicago) so he could find his toy he lost in the van :)

Oh I did post about some sadness in the month. Some friends of ours lost their little boy who was 3. He died while we were in MN, but we were able to make it to their celebration service for him. It was a beautiful service, but we sat in the back and cried the entire time. It was just brought back so many memories of Aidan. But we are so thankful we had gotten to know him and the boys had playdates with him and his sister.

For Thanksgiving, we stayed home this year. Keith's parents, our family friend who is like an aunt to us, and my brother and sister-in-law joined us for the holiday. It was a lot of fun. I was so excited to be able to make three different things in crock pots :) We had lots of yummy goodies to eat too. Kory, Diane, and I made "turkey hand" cookies the day before Thanksgiving. That was fun. Kory was covered in flour but had a great time! And the cookies turned out great.

The day after Thanksgiving us girls did some Christmas shopping. It was great. We all worked off each other's Christmas lists and helped each other out. We had a trunk full! And we went back out on Saturday for some shopping with Cade but that didn't last as long :) ha ha We also went out that Sat. night to look at a Christmas light village. That was cool! And the boys were so excited to see the lights. My mother in law wasn't so crazy about the cold though :)

And then it was back to life as "normal."