All About October

Disclaimer:  still in summary mode...

I love October.  Fall is my favorite season.  I love the changing leaves and the smells of cinnamon, pumpkins and hot apple cider.  Of course, Alexander and I got married in October, so there’s that to love too!  And this anniversary happens to be extra special… it’s our tenth.  That’s right; ten years ago I married my best friend.  We’ve been through  the birth of our four kids, the loss of a pregnancy, three states, two apartments and three houses (two that we’ve owned)  together.  I wouldn’t change any of it.  Because all of it has brought us closer together.  

standing this close to each other in all our post-hike sweaty goodness?  now that's love, people!

We had talked about going to Europe for our tenth anniversary, but having just moved recently we opted to stay closer afield.  Instead, we went to the Adirondacks.  It’s a beautiful place and Alexander had never been before… it seemed like a good choice.  Plus, we hiked (in Zion’s National Park) for our honeymoon so it seemed very circle-of-life to hike for our tenth anniversary.  This time we hiked Giant Mountain, one of the 46 high peaks of the Adirondacks.  It was a beautiful hike with plenty to see on the way up and down and a gorgeous view at the top.  Totally worth the climb!

relaxing at the summit of giant mountain, adirondacks

Alexander’s parents came and watched the kids for us while we were away.  It gave them a chance to see our new house and gave the kids a chance to see Pa & Nana again.  They are missing living (relatively) close to them!

On the Saturday before Halloween, I ran another 5k, this time in Rochester.  And this time… in costume.  Mine wasn’t as crazy as some of the folks there (one guy wore his clothes flipped around and then ran the whole race backwards… crazy), but I still got some grins and giggles.  My sister and her husband were both able to run this one with me.  And this time the kids ran too.  There was a free kid’s race after the 5k, so I registered all the littles.  They even got their own race numbers, which they were super excited about.

And finally, what October would be complete without carving pumpkins and celebrating candy Halloween.  The boys all decided to be the Three Musketeers this year (hooray for a theme!) and Maddy wanted to be a Princess – a pink Princess, of course  (so that sort of fit with the theme too… they guarded a Princess, right?).  

If you look closely, you can even catch a glimpse of Nicholas’s green cast.  Its slimmer profile allows for long-sleeve shirts (first time in a month!) and doesn’t make his arm resemble Hellboy quite at much as his splint did.  We’re glad he's got something a bit more stable on his arm now, though cracking the splint open to cast his arm had this Mama feeling trauma-queasy all over again.

And finally, a pop quiz:  Can you tell which pumpkin the boys were in charge of and which is Maddy’s?

Yea, I totally let you off easy!  Tis the season of sugar-comas and all.