Getting started....

October has been such an amazing month. We were in Minnesota at the beginning of the month visiting family, enjoying the cool weather and the beautifully colored leaves. (The pics in the slideshow titled "Family" are from our trip.)

It was so awesome to get to spend time with my parents and my brother's family. The girls ( Karlie, Chelsie, and Emmy) are growing so fast and are all amazing. Alex was in his element having three girls doting after him. In fact, by the end of the trip, he was calling them "sissy" instead of "my cousins".

We went to a pumpkin patch/corn maze on the Friday after we arrived in MN. It was a blast. We ate pizza, watched the kids run three-legged races, (ate dirt when Tracey and I challenged the girls to a race), got lost in the (two-foot-tall) corn maze, went on a hayride, and at last picked out a couple of pumpkins.

On Monday, we drove up to Duluth and visited a shop Mom likes and a playground that "red head" loved! (See Picture.)

The rest of the time, we mostly visited, which was perfect! (Some might say that the rest of the time, I took pictures.I'll admit, I do have paparazzi tendencies.)

We rounded out our trip at the Mall of America where I got to go to Archiver's. Heaven on earth for scrapbookers!!! Alex got to ride some rides at the amusement park, which he loved (the little thrill seeker!)

After getting back to Cali, we went to our church's food festival and ate to our hearts content while Alex jumped in the bounce house for two hours...I wish I shared his energy.

I was glad to be home after our trip. I sure do miss everyone though.

This last weekend, we decided (very spare of the moment) to go camping. Franky and I were having withdrawls since we hadn't been in about 2 months. So we loaded up the car, picked up the trailer then headed about one mile (from where our trailer is parked) to our campsite at Lake Success. I know, we are DORKS!

We had a great time though. It was very relaxing. We ate, hiked, ate, visited with the people in the camp next to us, watched a couple of movies and ate some more.

Alex was so funny, while on a hike, he noticed several tracks and things left behind by different animals. This was very exciting to him so when we got back to camp, he ran to our neighbors campsite and said ( in a very excited voice) "Guess what? We saw racoon tracks, Moose tracks (actually deer) and RABBIT POOP!!!" We all got a good laugh.