October [second half]

Dahlias have always made me think of our old neighbor, John. He grew them every year for his wife, even faithfully years after she passed away, and they always adorned the same large flower bed on the west end of his front yard.

Now Dahlias make me think of my dad as well. And I'm even more fond of the flower than I was before, because he grows them. And aren't these stunning?!

He and Janet harvested a lot of them at the end of October; this is only a small portion of what they grew.

The kids loved spending time in Grandma Janet's garden this year, too. She grew some really beautiful purple colored green beans that were so flavorful!

Ben really enjoyed playing flag football this fall with his two good friends, Elliott and Henrik. We parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles had fun watching too. It was pretty cute to see them practice and then scrimmage and try to make sense of what was happening. The boys did great!

And we lucked out with a lot of beautiful fall mornings! Some were foggy and some were sunny, and thankfully it never rained.

This Halloween the kids were interested in creating their own costumes and I was pretty hands off... until Selah told me she wanted to be an Empoleon. A what?

It's a pokemon character. So we did our best to whip one up a few days before Halloween, with felt, cardboard and a hot glue gun. ;) But after the day of trick-or-treating was done, Selah said that next year she'll choose something simple without a face mask.

My mom and I took the kids downtown Corvallis to walk around with our good friends from church.

The downtown sidewalks were pretty packed with kids, but I always love when downtown is bustling with activity. It's a nice feeling. And we always enjoy walking by the Inkwell and thinking of my Grandparent's business and my parents working there as teenagers.

From downtown we went to the farm to trick-or-treat at Bob & Tori's! Love them!

While we were there we got to see the 83 (or was it 86?) year old sequoia tree tree that got cut down. We were pretty amazed looking at the rings.

From there we met up with Matt, Gina and Caleb and some other church friends, to trick-or-treat their neighborhood.

Paul and Stephanie always dress up. They are kids at heart and know how to make life fun!

The kids ran ahead of us with excitement, from house to house. After an hour we headed home with loads of candy! Josh was missed as he was in North Carolina for a business trip, but thankfully it was a short one! What a blessing it is to be able to see so much family so often.