October

What is it about October that is so magical?  Whatever it may be, I feel like this month is one long flurry of activities.  I know this post has a zillion pictures, but trust me, I really only posted about 1/4 of what I wanted to.  It's that kind of a month, I guess.  And how lucky we are to have such a fun month filled with visits, harvest celebrations, Halloween, and our attempts to soak up as much warmish weather as possible before winter sets in.

 The first week of October we were paid a visit by Grandma and Grandpa Sainsbury!  We loved having them come visit us.  In addition to spending time playing and sight-seeing, they also helped us install laminate flooring in our kitchen.   The above picture is of Claire and her grandpa at Rolling Hills Park, a beautiful, intimate little park no more than a five minute walk from our house.

 We visited the Minnesota Zoo while the grandparents as well.  They may not thank me for it later, but I love putting Mckay and Logan in matching outfits.

 While at the zoo, we visited the Wells Fargo Farm, a section of the zoo I'd never been to.  It made me miss my parents' farm in Payson.

 No harvest time is complete without a visit to Minnetonka Orchards.  They have a hayride, apple cider donuts, a playground, and lots of beautiful orchards to walk around in.

 Here we are again at Rolling Hills park.  Aren't the fall leaves just beautiful?

 We have a beautiful maple tree in our back yard.  I've loved the shade it's given us, and now we love the beautiful pile of leaves we can jump in!

 Colder weather means cute hats!

 Our ward Halloween party is always a huge hit in our house.  The kids enjoyed the haunted galley, donuts on a string, the fish-pond, and finding their soul-mates (Mickey found his Minnie!)

 Poor Logan got the worst case of pink-eye I've ever seen.  This poor boy was out of commission for a week. I blame the severity on his super-long, thick eyelashes.

 We went to a friend's Halloween party (minus our sick Logan).  It was so fun.  We are so lucky to have such great friends here in Minnesota.

 Logan's preschool had a Halloween party, where he found another Minnie Mouse to hang out with!

 On Halloween morning we went to the Chaska Arboretum.  I'd never been there before, and I absolutely loved it!  It was a combination of Thanksgiving Point and Gardner Village (for all my Utah relatives), and I think I'll make a tradition of visiting every year.

Here we are Halloween night.  I know I'm biased, but I think I have the cutest dinosaur, Mickey Mouse, and Tiger in the entire world!  We went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.  It was so much fun, our neighborhood pulls out all the stops and makes it a really great experience for the kiddos.  Chase and I are happy to take them out, but we do demand a candy "parent tax" . . .