October

October started off with some rough world events that frankly made a lot of us just snuggle in with our families a little more than normal. Blogging took a back seat....or wasn't even in the car.  Just when we had some space from hurricanes and Vegas, the Napa fires hit. For those who don't know, Brian works for AAA.  He use to be on the emergency road service side of things, but for the past few years has worked on the insurance side. AAA is the main insurer for that area (he gave me the statistic, but I can't remember).  While he mainly deals with customer service surveys, it has been a "all hands on deck" situation. He spent time on the phone calling insured customers in the Napa area to see if they are ok. He comes home regularly with horrible stories of claims that are coming in. AAA insures not just cars, but homes, and lives. Each claim has a detailed account of what happened, how events played out for that individual.  One thing that has been made clear over and over is that people just had no time. All the homes you see with the cars still in the driveway, everything burned, there was just no time to react. So, he's really just begun dealing with the aftermath of the fires daily at work. It'll be a daily part of his life for a while.   As a family we finally sat down and made our 'Go Bags".  Still need a few things, but at least we each have a partially stocked bag and could grab something and run.  Other than that, we took our final Disney trip with our annual passes.  We had them for 2 years, but decided to give them up this year. And the dogs. 3 dogs is a lot of dogs. Kind of like kids, going from 1 to 2 was easy, but going from 2 to 3 is chaos.  So much love, though, it's worth the mess. Most the time. The newest thing is they pull everything out from under my bed. Sigh.

 Above, Myles had Brazen Racing at his school running his Walk-o-Thon. Pretty cool!

 Brian and I have given up on the Tea Cups. The kids are on their own!

 The train is back up and running and has been updated. Also, there are just totally new areas now, with the building of Star Wars Land, the back half of the park has changed a lot. There's new areas, and bridges, and the back part of the river is totally new.

 Above, it's hard to tell what's happening, but this is a pic of a secret hall way that goes behind the shops on the right side of Main Street. So during parades when it's super crowded on Main Street, they sometimes open up the back hallway.  This was only our second time ever seeing it open.

 Disney is pretty much his life, and he was having a hard time with this being our last trip for a while.

 Above, line boredom.

 BTW, this was the day before the Anaheim fire started. The day after this some amazing pictures came out of Disneyland with the sky looking dark orange.

 Above, a new area on the river.

 Above, that's all new back there. You can see a bridge, which the train now goes over.

 And above, later this day the Napa fire started.  We didn't hear about it till the next morning.

 Below, this is what we came home to, and the air stayed like this for days. The kids had school cancelled for 2 days, except for Emma, who's school isn't part of the district.

 Above, trying to take a pic while driving of the neighborhood down below and how smokey it was.

 Kona regularly tries to stay hidden in the pillows.  He's still not a fan of younger pups.

 Above, sweet Sam. He feels like clouds, or cotton, or marshmallow puff. He's so soft, and so sweet, and fancy with his freckles and red eyelashes.
Below, this is what I see when I'm cooking at the stove and turn around. Every time. Duke. The silent beggar who stares you down.

 Below...it dried into rubber and hurt so bad to pull off. Wont be doing that again.

 In the evening I wind down in one of those swing/hammock chairs.  Sam jumped up to chill out with me. Keep in mind he's almost 40 pounds, so when he jumps up and you don't expect it, it's quite the impact.

That's about it. Coming up we have Sophie registering/applying for high school, Myles registering for middle school, a boys, dads, grandpas, uncles camp out in our back yard, a "He shed" for Myles being built in the yard, a visit from Auntie Mo....and the usual daily fun!

Just Smiles

Not much to say other than hopefully at least one of these will make you smile!

Note that he's in a dress shirt, tie, and suit pants.

Snake bones

Sam suntans for about an hour everyday.

I spy the tip top of the water tower

Sam smiles a lot