Halloween Party

family photo

check out the tattoos on that guy! :)
cool eyelashes

the spider princess

Johny Storm or flame man

Trucker Tom

Our ward Halloween party was last week. We had a fun time dressing up and trick or treating around to the rooms in the building. The kids had a fun time picking out dad's costume for him. We had to do something with a wig, and sure enough, people didn't recognize him at first. We can't wait for Halloween.

Unexpected guests

We were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Brodine stay at our house unexpectedly when they had to evacuate from their hotel in Escondido. We got to take them to school in the morning, play the wii, and read books. We were sad to say goodbye Thursday morning when their hotel was cleared to reopen. Thanks for coming, and we are excited to see you at Thanksgiving. The last picture is from our house monday afternoon when we saw the fire creeping to the top of the mountain, not cool. But the two black dots in the sky are the planes that drop the fire retardant and it was out within 45 minutes. Great job guys!!

Holy Smoke!

My cousin Mary goes to Pepperdine in Malibu and this is her picture. Much more dramatic than mine, luckily.

Saturday night the winds kicked up and we prepared ourselves for the 80mph gusts they said would be coming over the next few days. I fell asleep with the window open and woke up around 11pm and smelled smoke, turned on the news and saw a fire had started 50 miles north of us. When I tuned in Sunday morning to check on the fire I found that Malibu was on fire, and not just Malibu, but Malibu Canyon. We live on the North end of the canyon 8 miles away. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Santa Ana's were blowing so hard out to the ocean that we didn't even see too much of the smoke and it kept the fire on that side of the canyon. We will miss seeing the "castle house" and church as we drive down the canyon to the beach.

My parents are vacationing in Escondido this week with some friends. Well, they were in Escondido until their hotel was evacuated Tuesday morning. They weren't planning on coming this far North, but when you've got a free place to stay, away from the major fires, and you get to see your grandkids, no brainer. So we lucked out and get them for 2 nights possibly 3!!

Today the winds finally died down, but that actually makes for a lot more smoke in our area because it is settling instead of blowing away. No outside time at school and soccer practice canceled. Looks like the fires are done around us for now, but looking at all the news reports gets pretty depressing. More pictures of Gma and Gpa's unplanned visit coming soon!

Back on the trail

The first picture on my blog is on the same mountain top that my friend Katrina and I were hiking last winter and spring. We saw our first snake in May and gave up for the summer. It wasn't a rattlesnake but we weren't going to wait around to see one. So now that it is cooling off we started again. We hike it once a week and man what a feeling of accomplishment. It takes us about 40 minutes to get up, on a good day, and half an hour to get down. But the view is amazing. On a clear day you can see the ocean toward Santa Monica and the ocean out toward Ventura (not many of those days). So we are back on the trail!!

Happiest Place on Earth

FamWii Night

We got a Wii in June and have been having a blast with it. We play it almost every night as a family and pick a "family game" to play. We love the game it comes with "Wii sports" and have found a few more fun games like Carnival, Cooking Mama, and Mario Party 8. There are quite a few dud games that we luckily rented first and are not worth buying, but we have had a lot of fun with it. Come over and play with us!

We'll miss you Keith

Wear your helmet!!! Keith is Paige's friend Nicole's dad. He was biking on Mulholland Dr. when he fell, they think going 35mph, and did not have a helmet on. He was recovering but in an induced coma. He started to make improvements, but even after being taken off the drugs he wouldn't "wake up". He took a turn for the worst last week and passed away this morning. He was in the hospital just over a month. He will be missed. So like I said, "Wear your helmet"!