A Puzzling Halloween!

We won't be in town for Halloween this year.

But I didn't want to miss out on some of the fun,

 so we did a lot of Halloween puzzles!

Here are some that we did along with some fun Halloween photos:

"Elizabeth is Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Sarah is now a pirate.  It's a gypsy costume but everyone thought she was a pirate."

"Darth Vader, Padawan (Jedi in training), Death Maul, Cat, "Emma" a girl from a game the kids played all summer who has fire power."

Michael's jack o' lantern won first prize!

Daniel won for scariest costume with Darryl doing the makeup:

Jacob working on a puzzle that we did as well!

Police Officer, Wizard, Medieval Queen, Harry Potter, Pizza:

Jim, Becky and Me!

Make good choices...Lily's on the beat!

Camille is decorating her pumpkin like her favorite character from a book!

   

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Flapper Costume!

The dress that keeps on giving...

(or is it getting....candy?)

I told Heidi that one of my favorite costumes growing up was a Roaring 20's Flapper costume my Mom had made for me.  

I offered to make her one and she enjoyed wearing it for Halloween 1985:

Then Amanda wanted to wear it ...

...and so did MaryAnn!

A few years ago Heidi asked if I still had the costume and
could Elizabeth wear it.  

Then Sarah wore it:

And just the other day Heidi sent me this photo of Camille wearing it for 

Trunk or Treat!

That's a lot of mileage out of one costume!

(1985-2017)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

October 26th is a special day to remember my Mom!

I didn't find this picture until it was too late to post on the previous blog post but this is a picture at the Oakland Temple on the day I received my Endowment.

My Mom didn't like to have her picture taken but sometimes we got one:

Jeff's and Suzie's wedding reception:

Darryl's and Amanda's wedding reception:

A fun memory of my Mom:

It was Fall of 1998 and my Mom would be celebrating her 75th birthday.  My sisters and I wanted to do something to surprise her.

Two of my sisters flew into Sacramento.

Here is what I wrote in October 1998:

I had a glorious week!  On Friday (October 23rd) I put a turkey in the oven and headed for the airport.  It was so great to see Kathy!  I got to visit with her for about 2 hours before Becky's plane landed.  Wow, was Becky surprised to see Kathy!  That was so fun.  We started talking and I don't think we stopped for the whole weekend, except for a little sleep.   We had the turkey dinner because it seemed like Thanksgiving to me to have some family here.   Before dinner on Friday I called my parents and told them I was coming Saturday evening and that I would be bringing "the two girls." (MaryAnn and Heidi?)  They sounded excited we were coming.  

 At 4:30 Kathy and Becky and I left for San Jose.  On our way we bought a bouquet of helium balloons.  As we pulled into the driveway, my two sisters jumped out and I opened the trunk, and they got behind it to hide and get the balloons.  I knocked on my parents' door, and they both came.  My Dad started coming out to load in suitcases.  My Mom waited at the door.  I told her to come out too as "the girls" had something for her.  So she reluctantly came out and then she saw Kathy and Becky.  She was absolutely shocked!  She was soooo happy.  She started laughing and crying and dancing around!  I have never seen my Mom so happy!  

She said she was so excited she wanted to party all weekend.  So as you can guess we had a very fun time together.  Monday was her actual birthday.  We went out to breakfast and dinner and went to a movie in between.  My Mom kept commenting and laughing the whole weekend about different food she had bought because she thought Heidi and MaryAnn would like them.  At 7:30 p.m. we left to come back to Folsom after a very wonderful weekend.

Outing #10: Oakland Temple!

We've had a temple here is Sacramento for 11 years now!

Prior to that we made the 2+hour drive to the Oakland Temple regularly.

 What a treat to be there again this week and to do a session before it closes in February for major renovations.  I have many fond memories of experiences on this property including attending the Dedication in 1964, receiving my own Endowment in 1972, Baptisms for the Dead, Temple Pageant, the Sealing of two of my daughters to their spouses, 5 of my children receiving their own Endowment here, and babysitting Courtney in my trunk full of toys while Heidi was in the temple and of course, meeting Vovo and Grandpa on many occasions where they took our van load of kids to their house and we drove their car to their home a few hours later to make an exchange--we took the kids off their hands and they gave us some yummy food!

We were able to spend some time in the Visitor's Center when we first arrived:

 Then the Bates arrived!

 We were able to be in the 3:00 Session together.

Here is the door Reid and Kathy came out 35 years ago after their own sealing:

Of course we had to get some pictures!

Some kind Sister Missionaries helped us with this one:

 It was also Reid's birthday, so we made him choose a restaurant and then we made him order for all of us!

It was fun celebrating!

Favorite picture of the day:

 Thanks to my handsome chauffeur for making this outing possible!

Pumpkin Patch

It was fun to meet the Perrys at Roemer's Pumpkin Patch!

The kids especially enjoyed a Hay Bale Maze:

Then we got a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where you get a wagon
and start looking!

It's hard to find the perfect one and then you do but

there's a creepy shadow monster on the path!

It was lots of fun on a beautiful Fall day!