Happy Halloween, ya'll

Tonight in our neighborhood we decorated our driveways and just sat out front to give out candy. I just got in the spirit last night, so I had a lot of last minute stuff to do, but fortunately my sister was here to help me out.

After last night being so cold, I put Marlo in a little Russian outfit Lane got for her. And our little babushka had so much fun.

The most fun, ever.

We went to Trunk or Treat at Lane's church tonight.

Everyone comes dressed up and eats a big potluck dinner. Then they go in the parking lot and give out candy to the trick-or-treaters out of their trunks, which are all decorated and lit up. (Maybe some of you have heard of this, but I hadn't.)

It was so much fun...Marlo was running all over the place, trying to get in on all the action. It's funny, day to day I think she's so big girl, but tonight with all the (mostly) bigger kids, she was my little baby again. I loved seeing all those kids in costumes, so excited. It melted my heart.

She didn't really get the trick-or-treat thing. She got about 4 pieces of candy and then just ran from me because she thought I was going to take it away.

She's a fairy, by the way. Missing is her heart shaped antennae but she was NOT having it. I got real lucky with the tutu.

the elmo cupcake

yes I stripped her down to her diaper to eat that it. It was a good thing too because that red frosting left a mark, I tell ya.

for an even better video, go to my mother-in-law's blog (Grandma link at left).

poses

It's the deal...she holds still for a few seconds so I can take a photo, then she instantly wants to see it on the camera.
Kids today will never know what it's like to wait to get your film developed. Isn't that crazy?

Fall fun...

Today we went to Bates Nutes Farm in Valley Center. Marlo loved the petting zoo and the pony ride. They have a gift shop where they sell not only nuts and candy, but tons of holiday decor. I didn't have much time to look as it was about 90 degrees and Marlo's nap time.

We'll have to go back...

I'm torturing myself

doing "vintage Christmas" searches on ebay.

18 months old

Here's Marlo camped out at our hotel with her sippy and her snacks. I asked her to smile for me and she did.

So she's officially a year-and-a-half. I can't believe how fast the time goes.

She probably weighs 27 pounds and is about 34 inches tall. She has 12 teeth, four of which are molars that are taking forever pushing through. She's always got her hand in her mouth, checking them out.

She is really talking a lot. She says just about everything, including: "queen", "galaxy", and "something". Not always perfect, but I can always understand her. We keep trying to get her to say "I love you" but she just won't. I guess she wants to make us beg for it.

Here's a list of Marlo's favorite things:

• her blankie (she calls it her "mee")
• einstein videos
• puzzles and shape sorters
• coloring and crayon-eating
• trying to put on clothes and shoes
• looking at herself on my camera
• playing at starfall.com on the computer
• looking for the neighbor's cat
• music and dancing

last night's sunset

We're home...

and it's perfect (well, just like we left it) but there's no damage, it doesn't even really smell smoky. We feel so incredibly blessed and relieved, I can't even describe it.
Many, many people weren't so lucky and there's so much damage that it can't even really be documented yet. So many people can't go home, even if they have a home to go to.
And we didn't have much to evacuate. Just Mark and I, and Marlo's easy; she's happy anywhere. I think of the people who have three or four kids, and the elderly who may not have anybody. We saw a lot of dogs at our hotel. Much of the evacuation was rural, and people had to move their livestock to one of a couple different places in the county, if they had the time.
A home is home, no matter what it's worth, or whether or not you can afford to rebuild. I really realized that when I saw a box of VHS home videos in the backseat of a car in the parking lot of our hotel.

Here's some photos from our drive home today of the fire at Camp Pendelton. Some of it may be a controlled burn, but it looked pretty scary to me. I just heard on the news that it is 50% contained.

On the way out Monday morning...

Just getting onto I-5 north from Lane's. We were really only in traffic for about 20 minutes.


Just getting into Encinitas. Our house is northeast of there.

This was looking back toward La Costa. After looking at all that smoke I thought there was no way our house was ok, but thankfully it was. It was all smoke from the fires further inland.

More news...

Well we had to evacuate from our home at about 2:30 this morning. We went down to Del Mar to Mark's aunt Lane's. Then they got evacuated at about 8 this morning so we all headed north.
So now we're up in Laguna Niguel at Cecilia's, a friend of Lane's. We've got a hotel room in Laguna beach...we're lucky because everything is really booking up.
My sister just told me that they've removed the mandatory evacuation from our area, but we're not heading back just yet. The air quality is really bad (it's bad here) and there is just so much going on that we just want to stay out of the area all together. I'm trying to get her to get out too...
Last I heard 265,000 people were being evacuated and they think that the fire will make it to the coast. I don't know where everyone is going to go. San Diego freeways can be a mess at noon on a Wednesday. I can't imagine what they're looking like now.
I can't help wishing I had grabbed more stuff...I'm thinking of all the things I left behind...photos and momentos that can't be replaced. We just have a change of clothes and some toiletries. I grabbed our important paperwork and SS cards and stuff like that. I keep reminding myself that we're together and we're going to be ok, and that some people have already lost their homes.
We've had just a few hours of sleep, Marlo included, but she's thinking it's some kind of party! So that's all for now and I'll try to keep posting.

Fire!

This looks like smog, but it's smoke from the fire burning in Witch Creek 50 miles away. I took this just up the hill from our house. The wind nearly blew the door off the car when I got out.
That's what's so bad about it...winds of almost 30 miles an hour with strong gusts. The predicted humidity for tomorrow is 7. Just 7.
There is another fire down by the border too. I just heard on the news that it's estimated that 40,000 acres are burning in San Diego county.
Ramona, which is 30 miles away is evacuating now. Thankfully we aren't in any danger. But I can't stop thinking of people having to evacuate, about the wildlife that is probably terrified, about livestock and horses having to be moved. So scary.

Friday night

We went to the bookstore to see Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary sing and sign his Puff the Magic Dragon book. He really involved the kids and had them singing and laughing. It was really cute.

However, Marlo may have been a little too young and she really couldn't hold still for longer than five minutes. So we gave it up and went to Chuck E. Cheese instead.





I forgot how fun that place is! Marlo loved it. She's too little for a lot of the stuff, but don't tell her that. Her favorite thing was getting tickets out of the games.

*she was jumping around on our bed and I think a zipper from a pillow scratched her by her eye. It's a nice touch for Halloween.

She's a maniac, maniac

I left Marlo (and my camera) home with Mark while I ran errands yesterday.

Never had more fun

than she did today. She was a ball of energy till she went to bed.
And I know these may be blurry but I've given up on getting a perfect photo.

Pumpkin patch

We went yesterday with Mark's aunt Lane, uncle Tom, and cousins Sean and Taylor. Marlo isn't smiling in any of these...I don't think she quite knew what to make of it all.
How cute is Sean riding the train with her?

Cousins

I have the cutest videos from our visit to Utah but I'm having trouble posting them, of course. Marlo has been asking about Estee every day. They had so much fun together.

How cute is Simone? Lane made that dress for Amy's blessing when she was a baby.

St. Martin, Oyster Bay beach resort

Here's the lobby, through that was the courtyard, then restaurant and pool:

The view from our balcony (we could even see fish):

Cheesy poses at the restaurant by the pool:

Sunset (I like how the ocean looks red):