Here are some pics from our Halloween experience. Anders LOVED walking around and seeing all of the people. He didn't seem to bothered by the Scream masks or spooky looking pumpkins. The top picture is of James and Anders at Mommy and Me class yesterday. They got to try out their costumes before the big day.
The first house we stopped at tonight was Philip and Abby's house next door to my parents. Philip and Michael Posey and another friend were having fun passing out candy. After going to about 5 houses we came home and Anders played with his "loot" for a while and then lost interest. He doesn't know yet that those bright crunchy wrappers hold yummy treats!

Quick post to plug the latest updated "Life Behind The Picket Fence" blog. We're trying to put some new stories up so check it out.

I received a call from Chris' dad today and he was wondering whether we were affected by the fires or not. Sunday morning we got up as usual to make our hour long trek to Malibu for church. We were listening to "the Jesus Christ show" on KFI which we always enjoy on Sunday mornings. We made it all the way to almost past Santa Monica when the news reports started coming in about a pretty bad fire that was getting worse in Malibu. Malibu Presbyterian Church had burned to the ground and that is just up the hill from our building. So, we turned around and went to get breakfast at a local diner and then made our way back. We ended up going to Granada (the church where I grew up and where my parents go) for church.
Since Sunday the fires have increased although some containment is happening. The air here is pretty retched though and it is HOT. I will look forward to the end of this bad fire season. Hopefully there won't be more homes lost than there have been up till now.

I finally found my camera in the cushions of the couch so now I can finally post pictures from our trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific. We had a blast with Laura Blackwell and her two girls, Abby and Megan. Abby is at the age where she can really enjoy all of the sights and although Anders and Megan had fun they will enjoy it even more in a year or so. Actually Anders had almost more fun climbing on the window frames. As you can see in the top picture other little boys had fun doing this also!

Here are some fun pictures that my mom took when Anders and I visited the other day. That day was the first real fall weather and it was so fun to sit outside and feel the crisp air. Actually it's still warm during the day but the nights are getting quite chilly for California.

In the bottom picture Anders was finding great joy and excitement in lifting my foot off of the pot.

Next Friday is Chris' birthday and we'll be in Ohio for the weekend. To celebrate, my parents took us to little place called "Panda Rice" in Whittier. It looks like any Chinese fast food place with the orange chicken and chow mein under heat lamps but if you come in and sit down and tell the owners that you want "the special food" then they go to the back and make some amazing and fairly expensive Chinese food. (we learned about this great place from Kristy and Simon Caver). We had filet mingon with port sauce, kung pow chicken and green beans with chicken, a huge plate of the best fried rice we've ever tasted and a really good cabbage dish. My parents had never been so it was fun to share the experience with them. As you can tell by the picture of the table we did the meal justice although we do have some leftover fried rice for dinner tonight.
Tomorrow Anders and I will be visiting the Long Beach Aquarium with Laura Blackwell and her girls. I'm sure pictures will follow.

The main reason I clean my bathrooms.

This morning Chris was getting ready to leave for work and part of that process involves checking the favorite traffic web site to see how the freeways look. I just charged my camera battery and so I thought it would be fun to take a picture of Anders doing his best to get up near Daddy. Lately he's been finding anything to stand on to get up higher and this little bucket is a handy one. This is the same bucket that was his bath for a few months when he was a new baby.