Yo Ho Yo Ho....

We had a pirate party to wish the Russell's smooth sailing back to their British Columbia island...

Captain Cassius and a not so Caribbean six string:) James wanted to be a scary guitar for half the day.

The boys wanted to walk to the scary houses down the street about a hundred times this week. It became the best bribe. "You want to go see the scary house, put on your shoes." or "Stop hitting if you want to go to the scary house."

Ahoy Maties, time for an old-fashioned pirate treasure hunt...

First step: sailing over Crocodile Lake to Treasure Island

now wade through skull swamp

and climb over the pirate planks

X marks the spot. Captain Cassius discovered the treasure chest

Arrr. Check out the pirate's loot.

During the day, Kimme and I slaved in the galley over a treasure stew. We combined our two famous chili recipes and called it our chili baby.

We all agreed, the chili turned out shiver me timbers good! The night was bitter sweet since we had to say goodbye the next morning. But it gave us new motivation to work like captains so we can party like pirates again real soon (I can't wait for our Caribbean sailing trip in 2012!).

And speaking of Pirate Loot and Parties...

Look what arrived in the mail today! My good friend Alison has the worlds funnest Halloween party every year in Utah. (When we were deciding to move, we made a list of pros and cons for staying in Utah and Alison's party made the list for reasons why we shouldn't move:) But since we ended up moving anyway, she sent the party to us in a package (or at least what she could:) Thank you Alison! This made our Halloween!

We hope everyone has a spooky safe Halloween!

Dear Catie and Tim: Good luck with the delivery of James's newest cousin today. We can't wait for the news!

Meeting my Man for Lunch...

Remember visiting your dad at work when you were a kid and not having a clue what he did there but thinking it was the coolest thing in the world? I guess I forgot, but it was fun to be reminded on a cloudy Friday afternoon...

On Our Play-date to Paris...

We bicycled to a pumpkin patch in the French countryside

Fed the goslings in the Gardens of Versailles

Dined on strawberry tea and cheese crumpets

And visited the great temple of our Lord (where we didn’t even have to pretend)

C'est la vie make believe:)

Devil Andy and Minnie Me

My aunt just sent this picture and it made me smile because I was talking about this to Kimme today. We were going through my Halloween costume box for the kids and she joked that we should dress up and go trick-or-treating right then at ten a.m. It made me think of when we were little and my little brother, Andy, would runaway (notice the grip Heather and I have on him in the picture for this very reason:). Sometimes we would find him trick-or-treating in the middle of the summer or months away from Halloween. Our kind neighbors wouldn't really know what to do, so they would load him up with soda, pop tarts, money, movies, or anything they could find (you can see why this became a regular activity for him:) He would come home with quite the haul. One time we found him trick-or-treating in the above devil costume, but he accidentally put the tail on the front instead of the back. Ha ha. Sorry if that isn’t appropriate. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but looking back, it’s pretty dang funny:)

Andy: I miss you so bad it puts a pit in my stomach. I wish you weren't so scared to fly on an airplane so my Andy withdrawals would subside. I miss our brother-sister dates so much. Please call me ASAP:).

Aunt Cheryl: Thanks for taking time to send this picture today:) How I love and miss all my Aunties.

XOXO, Jess

P.S. Heather: I think you made the pretties little eighties pumpkin on the planet:)

Road Trip, Take Two...

San Antonio, I can't take my eyes off of you

Your atmosphere is just too good to be true

I was so thankful I was alive

when at your River Walk we arrived

Your food is like heaven to taste

That's never too good for my waist

You're just too good to be true

I can't take my eyes off of you...

Probably one of my favorite family videos ever:)

Beautiful old church we checked out

Davy Crockett rests here in peace.

I love the art and architecture

Monument for the men who died in the Alamo

Hotel pool

This is Chris's first rodeo. I guess there aren't a lot of cowboys on their Canadian island;)

Kimme said it felt just like Friday Night Lights

This guy made it to 8 seconds! Yippi ki yay!

The Alamo is right on the River Walk. There is so much cool history here.

We can thank these men that the West was won for the U S of A.

Tres Leches baby!

Shrimp wrapped in a blanket of bacon. Beautiful!

I can't wait for many more weekends with you my sweet San Antonio. XOXO. Jess