We're savoring our sunny days at the beach. They're coming to an end. In less than 3 weeks, we will no longer call California home. We're beginning a new chapter in Washington. I'm at both ends of the spectrum emotionally. I'm excited about Washington, happy to be closer to family and I'm in love with the home we're buying. And I'm going to miss California something fierce - the place, the people, the whole dang thing. Living in California has been an amazing gift. Our family, our marriage has done a lot of changing while we lived here. We climbed so many mountains here, our most known one was paying off our debt. California is the only home our girls can remember - they were too small when we left Colorado. We are going to miss just about everything about living here (our dear friends are at the top of that list!) and I'm already planning next summer's vacation in this golden State!

Being sisters is extra special at Christmas time!

Yesterday, Holly had the day off of school. I really wanted to have a great, memorable day with my girls. I miss having Holly home and often I feel exhausted by the time we get to the weekend. Not without a couple Momma melt-downs, we made it to Santa Cruz to see the monarch butterflies. The butterflies stop in the eucalyptus groves on their migration course. We walked down into the grove in the morning and then again in the afternoon before we went home. The butterflies were much more active and showed more movement in the afternoon than in the morning. In between these two visits, we played at the beach. It was a lovely day.

Halloween was lots of fun this year! As per usual we had lots of Halloween-y type things to attend - ward trunk or treat, joy school party, friend party, parade and carnival at Holly's school, trick or treating in Willow Glen and finally trick or treating around our own block with friends. Holly was Astrid for all the events, except for Halloween night. She decided to be Elsa and match Greta's Anna. Greta was something different for most events - Snow White, Unicorn, Mermaid and Anna. She made me laugh! The girls have traded their candy for a toy, but Greta's still throwing fits like a sugar-crazed three year old... so... maybe it's the cold virus she caught...?

Every year, our church puts on this great big Halloween party followed by Trunk or Treating. It's super fun (and totally safe) for the kids. They love seeing their friends in costume and they love wearing their own costumes. This year, Holly was Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon. I made her costume (thank you internet!), but it's a good thing we had this test run because all the skulls fell off of her skirt. We'll be fixing that this week before our next event. Greta was Snow White. She's been very indecisive and I haven't wanted to make or buy another princess dress so she just gets to choose from what we have. One of her ideas was to be a "unicorn mermaid." So ya, we stuck with what we had.