Halloween!

Quick post tonight.  No narrative needed when you have a picture of a bunny helping to carve pumpkins, right?

Trick-or-Treat #1:  Coventry business district, Thursday October 29.

Steampunk Wizard and Princess

 Ivy was thrilled to push baby Sally in the stroller up and down Coventry.

Cutest reindeer ever.  

These boys sure have a great time together. 

 It was a leeetle bit windy.

 Trick or treating in Big Fun.  Too cool.

Trick or treating #2:  Somerton, October 31.

Cleveland Heights Gothic.

Picking up more friends on the way. 

Sorting the loot. 

Brave, indeed, to face the sugar-rush of the rest of the weekend, tied right in to daylight savings time.  Whee!

Boo!!

And a few updates on non-Halloween happenings...

 Your random chicken picture for the day.  The chickens continue to amuse but are currently not in our best graces.  Plymouth (pictured, left) successfully laid 4 eggs for us and has now stopped, even with the addition of a coop light to extend daylight to 14 hours.  No one else has laid an egg yet.  And now Brahma (not pictured) has developed an ailment that is causing her to walk in circles....  Sigh.  We thought this would be a simpler proposition.  At least they're cute.

 Yarn.  In ever-increasing abundance.  Since Nat has successfully created his working spinning machine, and two bobbins so that he can pair the yarn more easily, we suddenly have an excess of homespun (literally) wool.  Anyone want to knit something???

The completion of soccer.  A make-up day for rain earlier in the season, making this feel like the LONGEST soccer season ever.  And we are only at the once-a-week Rec level!  Despite a somewhat disappointing game today, Jack says he is happy he played fall soccer.  He's come a long way this season, moving from a defense-only player to one of the stronger scorers on the field.  I'm so proud of how hard he's worked and how he is challenging himself. 

Boo!

Time goes so fast around here, it's scary!

A week ago today I was wandering in the high plains of Wyoming after a memorial service.  Today, after a blur of a week at school, I am cleaning house, taking a breather, and getting ready for soccer and Halloween.  So fast!

A quick catch up for you now, and then a full Halloween post tomorrow after we make it through the festivities.  I am sure that this is a temporary phase, but right now, at this moment in my life, I am feeling holidays festivities are quite a bit more bother/clutter/fuss/pain than they are worth. Le sigh.

At any rate.  Here are photos from my trip to the West, which was both disorienting and comforting. I am glad I went.  It was so good to be with Anna, and wonderful to spend some time getting to know a cousin who I'd barely met before now.  Plus, a bonus day of wandering alone in Denver so I could spend some time with my friend Leigh before heading to Guernsey.

Visiting old haunts...

My friend's old neighborhood. Memories of pre-kid ski trips and free-time stopovers in Den.  Another lifetime...

Best thai restaurant in the world.  About to enjoy Vietnamese iced coffee.  As good as I'd remembered.

New discoveries in old houses..

The Denver arts district.  In the rain.

The lake by Leigh's current house. Not a bad neighborhood here, either.

 Much of my time in Guernsey was spent making this album, a collation of pictures from my own albums, Anna's, and  a few from cousin Rob.  We drank wine, arranged photos, and shared stories. It was good.

One of my favorites.  This was from when my dad played a drunk professor in "Bus Stop".  :)

 Memorial service setup at the Guernsey Presbyterian Church.

After the service, which was very nice and well attended, we had lunch at the church, which was an exceedingly awkward event full of well intentioned strangers wanting to share their recollections with me.  I am rarely one for small talk and even less so, it turns out, at my father's funeral. But it was nice hear how well loved and respected he was, by all the people in this tiny town.

We emerged to a shining Wyoming day, and the blue sky commanded us to get out for a walk.

As we walked along the river to  the Trail Ruts, my cousin Rob entertained us with his constant search for fish...

Up at the Ruts.  Neat to be here in the fall, with all these tall golden grasses.

Visiting the Castle.

We had not just one but two amazing family dinners with entrees of Wyoming beef-- filet mignon on Friday and prime rib on Saturday, finished off with blueberry pie and some good wine.  I could get used to this treatment.  We toasted to my dad each night and poured him a glass-- a man who enjoyed wine and conversation if ever there was one...

Sunday-- a trip to Fort Laramie to see Rob and Kathy on their way back to Colorado, and a quiet afternoon at home with Anna, wishing like always that we could teleport across this huge country in time for Sunday dinner every week..

And... home again.  A gray and stark lake on Tuesday...

... Ballet observation night on Wednesday...

...carving pumpkins once we got home... (with a bunny!)

... and Halloween, here we come!