by Joe | filed under 
This year Halloween was crazy. Both Daniel and Elizabeth had school parades. Dan had a school party. And both of them picked costumes that couldn’t be bought so we had to make them. Sandy is room parent for Dan’s class so she spent most of October finding activities that would keep a classroom of six-year-olds busy and having fun for their Halloween party, and making the costumes from scratch. I helped with the Dan’s costume. After parties and parades, there was trick-or-treating to be done. This year we went with some of the neighbors. It was great to have some older kids to lead the little ones up to the doors. Shelby even helped Elizabeth carry her heavy candy bag. Lots of candy was brought home, and since it was rainy, there weren’t many kids coming to our door once we got home, so we get to keep most of the candy we bought to hand out. More pictures can be found here.
So we unexpectedly got to visit with Jeanine and Wade when they came up to Carmel for a wedding. We drove down to meet them at Monterey and went to the aquarium. It was great to spend some unexpected time with them. After looking at all the fishies we went to lunch at a nice restaurant on the water. Lots of otters in the bay. Often we go and don’t see any.
One thing this visit has shown me is that I still need to carry my camera around. My Iphone just doesn’t take acceptable quality pictures for putting on here. They are fine for quick emails or loopt or twitter posts i guess, but the Iphone is no replacement for my regular digital cameras.
We decided to head on down to Santa Cruz for the the day. We started at a UC Santa Cruz museum/aquarium. We got to see a blue whale skeleton, lots of little aquariums and exhibits and then got to see their dolphins that they use for research. Elizabeth and Daniel also got to touch sea stars and crabs in the tidepool exhibit. Later we went for lunch on the Santa Cruz pier. We ate at Stagnaro’s for the first time and it turned out to be very good. Large portions and good quality. After looking at some of the very loud sea lions that live under the pier we headed on home.
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So we’ve been trying to keep up with the annual traditional gifts for anniversaries. You know, like paper for the first anniversay, cotton for the second, tin for the fifth, crystal for the fifteenth. They are really meant to for others to give the anniversary couple, not for them to give each other, but we’ve been kind of keeping to that list anyway. So this year, number 16, was “silver holloware.” I didn’t know what that even meant until I looked it up and it means like silver pitchers or urns. Nothing very romantic or practical. So I just punted and got Sandy silver jewelry, not very hollow. But Sandy thought it out and got me the perfect gift. It’s silver, hollow (well it is now, anyway) , and just what I’ve always wanted….
We also bought each other the most romantic of gifts…video games. Then the whole family went to celebrate with dinner at Outback Steakhouse.
We can hardly believe it. Jocelle turns 14 today. Here’s hoping she has the best day ever. Maybe she can come out and visit us sometime. Daniel and Elizabeth would love to show their cousin all the fun stuff there is to do in the Bay Area.
Yesterday was my first day at preschool. I went with Mommy and Daddy. I got to play in a box of rice that had lots of toy bugs in it. I played outside with all my friends. I made snakes with playdoh. I made a new friend named Haley who had the same shoes as me. My teacher’s name is Mrs. Marcia. And I looked at a goldfish, it was the same goldfish though, but it was fun. I’m excited about going to preschool tomorrow.
Today we celebrated Joey’s birthday, hard to believe we have celebrated 20 birthdays together. Daniel was at school so it was a very quiet day. Eliza-B had her first day of preschool today and then decided after class that she was hungry and demanded that we have a burrito from the Tacos Bell. Not wanting to have a repeat of mom’s birthday, Joe very wisely decided that we would go to El Balazo and have somewhat real mexican food. The food was good and the Supreme Overloard was satisfied….all is right in the world. Needless to say, the SOL did not take a nap today because she was so ‘cited about having cake and icecream. Dan and I did manage to sneak out and pick up the said treats and we were able to have our birthday fare and open presents. Hope you enjoyed your day, we love you!
When we found out we could watch Hawaii play Florida on the internet, I got excited and hooked up the computer to the TV and settled down to watch. We even had portuguese sausage, eggs and rice, a favorite breakfast from Hawaii, in preparation. The first quarter was great. Hawaii kept the score to a 0-0 tie and the teams looked evenly matched. But that was it. For the rest of the game the Gators romped, winning 56-10. This is not the same Hawaii team as last year. But there is still hope for them to win the WAC. Honestly though, I think they will have a hard time even doing that. I am holding out hope that Florida is the number one team in the nation and that this will be Hawaii’s only loss. That would let Hawaii claim to be at least #2. I don’t think so though. We’ll see. 12 more regular season games to go. Next week is lower division Weber State at Aloha Stadium, so hopefully the Warriors will get a chance to romp over someone.
Today was the last day of my Twist & Shout class with Mommy. We had to wait to go in and we couldn’t peek. When we did go in, there were balloons everywhere. I played with maracas. I also did the parachute. I had really, really, really lots of fun. So fun I can’t even tell you, that means. Now I’m excited about going to school. When we took my friend Ryan to my school last year, we saw ice ants. They were in a little glass box that looked like ice. School starts next week.
Dad set it up so I can write stuff on here like Daniel can. I was so excited that I wanted to make a special drawing just to celebrate. I picked Eliza-B as a name because it is the same name on the sign on my bedroom door.