October Highlights

October has been a busy and fun month for us. Aaron coached his girls varsity soccer team to the state semi-finals! He has been really busy with practice and games, and now that the season is over he may even get home before me on some days. We still love BYU football, and have enjoyed some exciting wins the last couple of weeks.

Julia came into town for one last Utah visit before she has her baby, so we threw her a baby shower. I made this blanket with sock monkey flannel prints. It wasn't super complicated, but I did use a sewing machine (which isn't a common occurrence) and searched extensively to find just the right fabric. I thought it turned out pretty cute...mostly because of the fabric, not my amazing sewing skills.

After Julia's visit and remembering how much we loved Disneyland in October, we decided to make a spontaneous three day weekend trip to California because Aaron had Friday off. We drove down Thursday night to spend Friday at Disneyland. After a few hours of sleep, we headed to Disneyland around 7:30 and started off the day on Dumbo. Then I suggested Thunder Mountain, but Aaron said he wanted to ride Pinocchio (a bit strange, I know, but he must have been inspired). So we went to Pinocchio and as we get off the ride, there is the Disney dream team handing out fastpasses to people as they exit the ride. The Year of Million Dreams blesses us again! We have won Dream Fastpasses 6 times! Since Disney's annual attendance numbers are above 14 million...I figure you have about 1 in 14 chance of winning one of the million dreams...so Mickey Mouse is definitely rewarding us for being some of his biggest fans.

I love Disneyland around Halloweentime. It's actually a toss up between Halloween and Christmas, I can't decide which I like more. But the Halloween decorations are fabulous! California adventure has an area called Candy Corn Acres that is really cute.

And, of course, we love the giant Mickey pumpkin head!

We spent Saturday in Torrance visiting Julia and Stephen's home. There are a few things I have come to love about this town...and most of them involve food. They have a great beach bike store, a huge Forever XXI, and best of all two of my most favorite restaurants--The Original Pancake House and The Lazy Dog. The Original Pancake house is definitely the best breakfast restaurant I have ever been to, and I'm a big breakfast fan. This place is seriously good. Now Ruby's may have it beat in the ambience category. But if you just want great breakfast food, this place is the best! The omelets are huge (see Julia's plate) and the apple Dutch pancake is huge and delicious (Aaron's plate) and the strawberry pancakes are my favorite! And don't worry, if you don't live in California, they have one in Salt Lake!

I know, I'm probably a bit too old to enjoy these movies, but I'll admit that I've enjoyed High School Musical 1 & 2. So, we decided to go to High School Musical 3 last weekend. I guess I should clarify that "we" doesn't include Aaron. He had absolutely no interest in the movie. Here is my quick movie review. As the sequels increased, so did the cheesiness. There were a few moments in this movie that were just over the top, even for a musical. I could appreciate them for what they were and get a good laugh, but I think Aaron would have walked out before the movie was over. The storyline was a bit lacking because they were trying to cram so many songs in...but there were some great dance numbers as always and we had a good time.

My mom has a great tradition of having a Halloween chili and cornbread dinner. This year we actually did it the Sunday before Halloween as our monthly cousin dinner. I think this year was her best year ever! She used my aunt Jimae's chili recipe, but instead of ground beef we used slow roasted shredded pork. It was fabulous! And I made the cute halloween tablecloth (the second use of my sewing machine in a month).

Aaron decided to be Gregory House from "House" for Halloween. He had gray hair, a scruffy face, walked with a cane, and was sarcastic all day.

I opted for the easier, more traditional route of being a witch. The coolest part was my purple hair and striped tights, which you can't see very well in the pictures.

Now the Halloween decorations are put away, and the pilgrims and turkey are out. We are looking forward to a busy November including my first trip to Disney World! And hopefully more frequent blogging so I don't have one really long one at the end of the month.