Main Street Trick-or-Treat in Moscow

Our kiddos got to celebrate Halloween yesterday as Moscow's Main St businesses were hosting an afternoon of trick-or-treating. Jason & I had been debating whether we'd "do" Halloween in general as a family, but we'd been given costumes for both the kids and Moscow's Main St is one of the things I love about this little town. I'll admit, I'm super glad that we decided to go. Luke was SO into it and it was really fun to be with other families downtown. (As a kid living basically in the country, trick-or-treating consisted of our parents driving us to homes of people we knew ... being able to walk door-to-door was a totally different experience)

Luke had a dragon costume from his Aunt Mel and Mabel had been given a candy corn outfit from some of our sweet friends here - the Otto's. 

This is Luke when we got home (after having ONE starburst square during the whole evening) -- running around the yard like crazy. So thankful to have a yard!

This is home ownership ...

... getting a letter from your homeowners insurance company (who's been insuring you for months) giving you two weeks to re-roof your garage and scrape/repaint all the peeling paint under the eaves of the house. Gotta love it!

Jason and I had been looking forward to the first weekend since August where he wasn't working out of town and we were also without visitors. Suffice it to say, although he was here the whole weekend, he was on the garage roof for all the daylight hours and then at school working and doing homework for some of the night time hours. Not what we'd imagined of course (but that's sort of how life works, right?).

To be fair, the garage did need a new roof very badly and it's unlikely we would have gotten around to it before this winter. So I guess we should be thanking our homeowners insurance company??

Jason was able to spend an hour with us at the UofI homecoming parade (which is apparently THE parade for Moscow ... there were more people there than I thought lived in Moscow!) which was great to at least get that time together -- and so fun to watch Luke collecting candy that he probably won't get to eat :)

Old roof coming off ...

New felt/tar paper on

We even hired a friend to help get the new shingles on ... unfortunately, after working on it all weekend and 5-6 hours yesterday, it's not finished yet :( Getting close though.

The difference between boys & girls

SHOES of course!

This is the ONE pair of shoes Luke had before he started walking.

By contrast, these are all Mabel's shoes just for her first few months of her life!

Hello October -- what did you do with August & September?

Wow, I am having trouble realizing it's nearly the middle of October already!! Between leaving Priest Lake, moving back to Moscow, home ownership, family visits and a new baby, the past two months have zipped by at amazing speed.  The dropping leaves and cooler temperatures (boo!) give me a daily reminder of what is to come -- WINTER -- which I am definitely not ready for.

Here's what we were up to the past two months (other than fixing up our house and having another kid)

Reconnecting with Jason's cousins and their awesome kids when they stopped in Spokane during a massive summer road trip.

That same week ... moving from the stunning Priest Lake, back to smoke-filled Moscow.

Popsicle days in our backyard.

Home renovations with my parents --
The only way the wheel barrow would fit - on top of the car! And my Dad ... always working!

Plus, trips to our favorite Moscow coffee house, Bucer's and getting my Mom & Dad's Dutch Bros fix!

More afternoons enjoying our backyard.

And then, Mabel!

... getting to know grandparents and ...

... Aunt Melody and cousins.



























Fall foliage coming on before even before my Mom left.

Mabel's first real bath -- not an immediate fan.






































A few fun outings before my Mom left. Ferdinand's creamery on the WSU campus - amazing ice cream! And, a trip to our Moscow farmer's market.

Luke gets a little attention of his own -- being a big brother can be a bit unsettling with the shift of attention. We're fortunate to have many people who've remembered this and worked to make him feel special. It's really nice for him to have Jason's family so close. They've visited many times since we moved back, helping with house repairs, hauling things down to us and spending time with Luke.

Our first non-family guests -- friends from working in China that we hadn't seen in over four years. Kenshi & Richelle were on an incredible road trip and decided to stop in for a couple nights. It was awesome to reconnect with them after so long. Ken is a great cook and in China, he introduced us to a variety of home cooked Japanese cuisine. This visit was no different. He had come prepared to make Okonomiyaki -- a delicious savory pancake that we hadn't enjoyed since visiting Osaka.

Yesterday was Mabel's one month birthday. The month has flown by ... it still seems crazy that she's now part of our lives.