Welcome to Walmart!

One purchase on ebay, a few trips to the thrift store, and a little time spent by Dan on the computer creating nametags and "flare", and our costumes were ready to go: Meet Sam and Ethel Walton, your friendly neighborhood greeters! (actually Dan was a shift manager and I was just a greeter:) We had so much fun putting these costumes together and playing the part . . . . thanks for the inspiration Mike and Amy!

Our friends, the Comins, threw an awesome couples Halloween Party on Friday night. They dressed up as Barack and Michelle Obama (so incredible-they covered every inch of their skin with dark foundation and black hair paint!), and invited everyone to the "White House" to celebrate. We played fun games, ate yummy food, and got to know some of our friends even better than we might have liked! Dan and I won the Jekyll and Hyde costume award - our costumes were the most different than our real personalitites. Well, we were glad that our friends thought so at least!

Here we are with Wayne and Garth . . . . aren't their costumes totally excellent? Unfortunately our camera ran out of batteries before we could take pictures of anyone else, so go here to see pictures of the amazing hosts and other party-goers! Thanks for the fun night Ben and Kiki!

Just the girls!

Cupcakes

Dan's 30th Birthday!

I can't believe I am now married to a 30 year old! Well, no worries . . . . he is still as hot as ever! Here are a few pictures from his big day today.

The girls were so excited all day for Dan to come home from school. Here they are giving him his birthday kisses!

Annie is explaining the picture she drew for him. She is really into drawing pictures for people these days.We gave Dan a BYU hat. He placed it on Leah's head and she went cross eyed trying to look up at it!After presents it was "tackle Daddy!" time. So, I planned a surprise dinner for Dan with his fellow 2nd year Ortho residents, and it came off just as smoothly as I could have hoped for. He had no clue. I asked him a couple of times the few days before his birthday, very nonchalantly, where he wanted to go for dinner on his birthday. He would always just say, "Oh, I don't know, we can just figure it out then." Well, as of this morning, he still hadn't decided, and I really needed to make a reservation and to tell everyone where to meet. But I knew that if I pressed the issue, he would become suspicious. So thankfully he finally called me and said he thought Abuelo's sounded good. So, Abuelo's it was. I told the others to meet there at 6:45, and we would be there a few minutes later. Well, we got to Abuelo's and as we're pulling into a parking space, Dan says, "Hey! There's Helm's car! That's funny . . . . I wonder what they are doing here?" "Hmmmm . . . . that IS funny," I replied. "Maybe they are just shopping." (Abuelo's is at Easton, the big outdoor mall.) Well, I thought for sure Dan had put two and two together, but he hadn't! He said later that Nathan had asked him earlier in the day what he was doing tonight for his birthday and that Dan had said probably going to Abuelo's, and so Dan thought that the Helm's had maybe just decided to go there too. Also, he didn't pick up on anything when I insisted he bring the camera, or when I gave my name to the hostess and she said, "Oh, the big party outside?" I just shook my head, and said, "no, just two of us," and she is replied, "OH . . . .yeah . . . . right." Anyway, I thought I played it all pretty good, and he was definitely surprised. It was a fun night! The group: the Randalls, Springers, us, Helms and Ames.

Happy Birthday Dan! I love you!

Leed's Farm

Last night we went to Cold Stone, and upon seeing Dan's California driver's license, the cashier asked Dan which state he liked better, California or Ohio. Hmmm, really? But while we were eating our ice cream, we came to the conclusion that there is one month that we can honestly say that we enjoy being in Ohio more than in California. And that month is October. We just love fall here in Ohio. The leaves actually change color, the air is crisp and cool, and there are so many fun fall activities to do here. Of course we miss our San Francisco October activites like Fleet Week and the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, but we are having fun participating in the Ohio agritourism that is popular here. Family operated farms are transposed into autumn wonderlands, and the people love it.

Today we went to Leed's Farm with the Gustafsons and the Teeples. For those of you who live in Ohio, this place was so much fun! If you don't get a chance to go this year, put it on your list for next year. Our girls both got in for free, so that was nice. And they had so many activities, we were there for 4 hours and definitely could have stayed longer!

First we ventured through the corn maze (although due to the dry summer, the corn was a little pathetic).

Then we drove the pedal carts,
rolled around in barrells,
and took a ride on the banana train!
Annie LOVED the zip line!
The corn box was a HUGE hit. How do we get one of these for our backyard?That sure is a lot of corn!
We fed the goats,
posed for pictures,
and played on the big red tractor. (And yes, those are bangs you see on Annie. We had another friend cutting her hair incident.)
And of course we played in lots of hay.
Lots and lots and lots of hay! I really need to vacuum out my car.
And one last picture just for fun:)

Apple Picking

Girls

Pedicures

Kristie, Nollie, Katy, and I had a Girls' Night Out last night to celebrate Katy's upcoming 30th birthday! Her birthday is 2 days after her October 18th due date, so we thought we should celebrate before the baby comes! Nollie, our pedicure expert, arranged for the 4 of us to go get pedicures at the Aveda Salon in downtown Columbus. Can you believe this was mine and Katy's very first pedicure EVER?! I'm glad I wasn't the only rookie:) It was nice and relaxing and I got used to the idea of being pampered very quickly. I'm not sure if I am completely hooked on pedicures yet . . . . like I don't think I would just go and get one done by myself. But it definitely was fun going and doing it with friends!The classic post-pedicure picture . . . . we just had to take one:) My foot is on the far right.After our pedicures we went and got ice cream at Jeni's . . . . a well-known ice cream shop in Columbus that serves all kinds of gourmet flavored ice cream. Despite having lived here for over a year already, and much to the dismay of my friends, this was my first time going to Jeni's! (It was a night full of firsts for me!) I got the Belgian Milk Chocolate ice cream . . . . so good.
It was a great night out with some great friends. Happy 30th Katy!