Oct. 31st - Halloween

After John got back from his engagement shoot, we were all set for Halloween. 

Nala's got her costume on

We love to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids (especially John).  Last year Nala wasn't too into it, but this year she assumed that every time the doorbell rang that there were visitors coming to see her.  She was so excited!  She would have run out and played with all the kids if we'd let her.

Waiting for the doorbell

Hi!

Where'd they all go??

I'll wait ...

Good job Nala!

Daddy's silly

Happy Halloween!!

Oct. 31st - John's First Engagement Shoot

John was asked to take engagement pictures of his cousin and fiancee this year on Halloween.  He was so excited!  It was his first full shoot and the pictures turned out so cute!  Please go to his SmugMug site to see them all.  Here's a sampling:

Oct. 28th - Pumpkin Carving

This year John and I both went to a pumpkin carving party at our friend Jimmy's house after work.  Everyone brought pumpkins to carve and we had a yummy dinner.  It was fun to check out how creative everyone was with their pumpkins.

John and Steph clean out their pumpkins

Can you believe it was Sam's first time making a jack-o-lantern??

Pumpkin with warts!

Jimmy had a hard time cutting it so he had to break out the power tools.

The Moogers!

The finished products!

Oct. 25th - Lazy Drinker

Sometimes when John and Nala come home from playing in the park, Nala is so pooped she lays down in front of her water bowl and drinks laying down.  It's so cute!

Oct. 23rd - Entertained by Taylor

We're all really busy and don't have a lot of free time so it was really nice to get to have dinner at my parent's house with everyone.  We sat around the kitchen table and chatted and laughed at Taylor's antics as she cruised around.  It was a great night!

We don't have one of these home ... check out all the buttons!

Cool! Mimi gave me a cell phone!

Comfy!

Oct. 22nd - Mickey's Halloween Party

John and I have been annual passholders at Disneyland for several years but have never attended the special Halloween activities they hold.  (Mostly because you have to buy a separate ticket to go and we're too cheap!)  This year we decided to give it a try to see what all the hoopla was about.  We're really happy we did because we had a great time!

This is the one time of year when Disneyland allows you to wear costumes in the park.  We didn't dress up but I wore a Halloween shirt and John wore black.

Here we go!

Right after we walked into the town square we saw a family dressed in the cutest costume!  I couldn't resist snapping their picture.

Disneyland goes all out with theming and decorations.

John and I can go on rides any time so we decided to walk around, check things out, and enjoy the atmosphere.  There were a lot of families with kids who came to trick-or-treat at the stations setup around the park.  We snapped a few pictures in front of the castle.

It's really tiny, but check out the full moon off to the right. 

The ranch area had a lot of really neat pumpkin carvings.

There were these really fun scarecrows stationed around the center hub that interacted with the crowds.

The Rivers of America were filled with spooky smoke.

We found that the lines for rides were really short so we started to go on them.  It was great to get onto so many rides in just a few hours!  The wait for the Haunted Mansion was even really short!  It's decorated now with Nightmare Before Christmas decor.  (Excuse the blurry pics - no flash.)

We survived!

Pretty tree!

The Halloween fireworks show was great!!

Video: Halloween Fireworks 1
Video: Halloween Fireworks 2
Video: Halloween Fireworks 3

We went on a very scary trip through Autopia ... I told John he shouldn't let me drive ...

We saw the Halloween parade.

By that time, we were getting kinda tired, we'd seen just about everything we wanted to, and we'd been on a bunch of rides so we decided to head home.  We stopped to get pictures of the giant Mickey jack-o-lantern though.

Overall we had a fantastic time and would definitely do it again.  Maybe not every year, but definitely again!