Happy Halloween

I had the best intentions of blogging sooner than this, but here it is, a month later.
I have a lot of photos. I'll start with Halloween; those pictures are the most fun. :)

Willow, Josh and I went over to our friends the Vendlinski's (their blog is listed on our home page) house to carve pumpkins. That was a lot of fun. Willow drew the face and and Josh carved it. Here's Willow checking out the finished product on our front steps.

Willow and I wore matching tights to work and school that day.

It seems like it's becoming a tradition to go over to my parents' house in east Hancock for trick-or-treating. We don't get any trick-or-treaters where we live (in the student ghetto), and east Hancock is a trick-or-treating mecca. I dressed up this year, too. I am sure you can figure out what I am; Willow is a ghost (it seemed obvious to us, but we had people ask if she was a bandit, and an angel). She had a pretty good time, despite cold (about 40 degrees, I think) weather. We basically went around the block. She learned the routine of saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you".

Here she is with her spoils. I'm thankful that she has pretty much forgotten about the candy already. We've given her a piece here and there, but she hasn't insisted on keeping the whole bag to herself or anything.

Here are some more fall photos from the past few weeks.

Helping rake leaves:

And enjoying the result of all the raking:

I had to take a picture of this one. Scrubbing the floor.

Josh's parents came up last weekend (I think...or was it two weeks ago already?) We were bad about taking pictures of them and Willow - it's terrible! Anyway, while they were here, Josh and Jack went down to our garden and did a final harvest:

The thing I am most proud of is that those carrots and beets have been cleaned, blanched, and frozen. I think that's the hard part. There were many times this summer where we'd harvest something and then let it go bad in the fridge due to lack of time and/or motivation, which left me with a lot of guilt and frustration.

All 5 (6, counting Scouty) of us went up to Copper Harbor that Sunday and went for a hike in the Estivant Pines (another hike from our book!). The weather was chilly but not too bad. It was beautiful in there and I took a lot of photos. Here we are by the trail head.

We stopped and sat on some logs to have lunch.

We saw this huge hollow tree and had Willow go inside it for a photo op.

I went in too, and took a photo looking up. It was hollow all the way to the top.

Willow hiking. She did hike most of the way herself, and later got tired and Josh carried her. The hike was a few miles.

Tree hugging.

I thought this was really pretty - a small white pine with red maple leaves stuck in it. Sort of looked like a Christmas tree.

Willow and daddy:

After the hike, we met my parents at Fitzgerald's for dinner. So delicious and a nice change from the restaurants in Houghton.

OK, switching gears entirely..A week before the Jensons' visit, Willow and I and my friend Anna and her daughter Maisa went on a girls' trip to Duluth for two nights. The only reason was for fun, and so that I could visit Sharon. We stayed at "The Edge" waterpark hotel. The girls had fun. I guess they are still a *little* young for most of the slides and stuff. Maisa got into the little slides by the second day, but Willow didn't want to do those. However Willow was very into the lazy river, which Maisa didn't want to do. We all spent a lot of time in the hot tub (don't worry, I just sat on the side and put my legs in). :) It's hard to take photos in the water park, with the water splashing around and chaos everywhere, but we did get this cute one of the girls, though it's a little blurry.

The experience itself was a little more hectic than I had expected. I guess I'm naive, but I thought the girls would play and entertain each other a lot more, and Anna and I could relax a little. It didn't really work that way. Our small hotel room was covered with toys and they bickered a lot over sharing and stuff. But don't get me wrong, it was still fun and I'm glad we went. The weather in Duluth was terrible while we were there, so we didn't do much outside, but we checked out the Duluth children's museum. It was more of an indoor play area than a museum, but it was still a great diversion. One area had costumes the kids could wear, and the girls had fun pretending to be raccoons.

It was great to see Sharon, of course; I was glad I got to see her before her baby is born. She is 20 weeks ahead of me in our pregnancies. How fun that we are pregnant at the same time. She hung out with us in our hotel room a bit, and we also went out to breakfast one day.

In this photo, she is 36 weeks and I am 16. As of today she has not had her baby yet. I am now 20 weeks - crazy. So far, so good. My next appointment in Wausau is on Wednesday.