End of October...

...my favorite time in the fall. With the cooler weather, everything keeps blooming, like the honeysuckle (above), and the leaves change and drop, with more color everywhere. John and Chris and I planted spring bulbs in the swing garden (below)--red tulips and yellow daffodils.

John finished the grape juice, and now the grape leaves turn yellow.

(Another gratuitous photo of the water garden, because I love it so much).

Then one day we wake up and snow is on the mountains like a visitation from God:

and all our places are transformed.



But don't worry. It melts off by afternoon, and we're back to autumn again:

Claudio lives outside full-time now. John is working on a cathouse for him. He has a heating pad to sleep on.

I made Blood and Bones for Halloween (tomato soup with bread sticks),

and John ate his when we went to SLC to trick or treat with the babes. He was not supposed to put goldfish in the blood though--ruins the effect.

Nicolle made Johnathan an incredible matador outfit.

Here we are--Colette as a flamenco dancer, Nicolle as a gypsy, and me as my natural self.

John was a miner (not the Chilean kind), and the horse-head guy (by Rob) is sort of a cross between a unicorn and The Godfather?

Rob welcomes trick or treaters at his house:

and we're off to gather the loot. Johnathan let me know that the witch below was not real.

We had fun visiting Colette's kindergarten teacher, Miss Tammy, just around the corner.

Ethan was sick with an ear infection, so they didn't go out. We went to visit instead.


When we got back home, several sleepy looking teenagers were watching "The Man Who Knew Too Much" on our VCR (our DVD player seems to have bitten the dust).

Then Sunday afternoon, John and I drove down to The Farm to see Damien and Kelli's new baby Liam.

As a bonus, Tena was there! She didn't tell anyone she was coming, but drove up from California Saturday and rang the doorbell trick or treating. Grandma twice now!


For your viewing pleasure, a Bullfight:

Whoa, I Wasn't Expecting That!

So we came home from Chris' concert and I went into my office to download the pix and video, and John said, come on out, it's time for the blessing on the food, and when I came out of my office, there were Chris and Niels (of course), AND Betsy and Ethan and Rob and Nicolle and Johnathan and Colette and -- over on the very left and last in my field of vision -- AMY! From Chicago!

I shrieked and hugged people for a very long time.

Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we went to Rob and Nicolle's house and then down to Temple Square to see the lights. It was very cold, and our trip didn't last long.
On Christmas Day we waited for Rob and family to come after Rob was off work, and we waited for Brett, Betsy, and Ethan to come after spending the morning with Brett's family. We didn't open presents until after 3 pm. How things change when the youngest at home is 16 years old.

Ethan and Brett:
What a stack of loot!
We were so glad to have Dave and Devon here for Christmas:
Grandpa and Johnathan cuddle Babar from Grandma Gene:
Watchers Rob, Colette, Nicolle, and Nicolle's sister Michelle (on couch), Betsy as photographer:
Johnathan Elephant and Colette Pony. Nicolle invented the elephant mask.

We Went to the Zoo

...to see the baby elephant. Johnathan was very excited.
We also saw three baby tigers,

and the giraffe family.
It was a lot of fun. Thanks R&N for taking us.

Sea World Redux

...in the dry seats with Johnathan (above), while Chris, Rob, Nicolle, and Colette got soaked. See Nicolle's blog for photos, hopefully.

Sesame Street is still a biggie for Colette.

And of course the Clydesdales. Everybody else got to stay for an extra day this time and go to the beach while I had to come home and work. It's OK though. That may be the end of Sea World for awhile for us.

Chris' Birthday Week

We went out to dinner Monday, John took him out again Tuesday, his friends took him to breakfast and lunch Wednesday, he went out with friends twice more to dinner and to a concert, and tonight we drove up to R&N's house for soupand cakeand to see Amy in from Chicago and the new baby (in from heaven).

John, who has been sick for weeks now with some kind of flu/ sinus/ bronchitis thinglooks happier once he gets to hold Ethan.

but he zonks out by the end of the evening.