Halloween 2010

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I don't think my aunt Sheila is competitive at all : )

                  This is our annual Halloween party that my mom goes to a lot of time and effort to put together, thanks Mom for all your work!!  We had dinner, games, musical chairs, a fishing pond, decorating cookies and of course sloppy joes, potato salad, chips and root beer with dry ice, a classic family get together meal good for feeding large masses of people.  My mom even found some spooky straws to slurp it down with skeletons on them that all the kids loved.  I love it when we can all get together as a family and every time a new someone has been added to the mix.  My Uncle Lynn and his wife Janet just got their mission calls to the Dominican Republic.  This is him with the "large hat" on, I don't know how to spell it okay??  He usually likes to sit in the background, I think you will see him like this a lot as he watches his kids and grand kids and prepares to leave them for awhile while he serves people on what might as well be another planet, I am sure it is a sacrifice that will bring many blessings for everyone involved.  I really appreciate their example.
                You know how it's easy to take things for granted...I think it's really easy to take for granted that I get to live by my mom and dad, brothers and sisters, lots of aunts and uncles and cousins.  I think I have such an awesome family and extended family.  It has been a lot of fun to be able to see everyone more since we moved back  and fun to have opportunities to strengthen friendships whether through being able to work with my cousin in the OR, see my other cousins house in my sisters backyard when I visit and watch her children jump on their trampoline or run through the alfalfa field that separates the two and watch their kids play together just like we used to do.  I love that I can go hang out with my aunt because we both work at the hospital and plan our next bike ride together or early morning workout, or when my grandma calls to say she has her potato salad she wants to share then watching her take off in walking shoes to lap the pond on the golf course with a neighborhood friend, a nightly routine for both of them.  I also really love being able to spend time with my sister, she is so easy to be around and is such an awesome, cool, hip mom that I want to be like when I grow up and have kids too.  I'm glad we can hang out together whether we are DI'ing, decorating, reconfiguring furniture in a room or fun weekend trips to the city with mom and the kids, yea, I'm just feeling really happy today.