We have been back in CA for about a month now. Hooray! While Lester continued to finish up a few of his rotations in Fresno, my FIL flew out to Idaho Falls to drive back with us. We took it slow, stopping for breakfast and lunch and several bathroom stops along the way till we finally made it back to their house 2 days before Halloween. And the best part was that Lester was able to come be with us that weekend for a few days. It feels so good to be a complete family again-we just weren't whole without him.

One of the first things we got do was spend some time with my Hanaike family remembering Grandpa Don, my cousins Grandpa, at his memorial service. Because of this, the kids got to play at the park, and we got to visit with many loved ones. Then, the day before Halloween came and it ended up being even better than the day itself I think. We took our time getting ready and having breakfast with my inlaws before we headed over to their church building for their Halloween get together. The Dobbins were in town so they, along w my parents and Sam joined us and for a solid few hours we ate, played games, did parades and trick or treated there. It was so fun. From there, we went to our second party of the day at my parents ward. The Samoan ward was hosting and it was so good. Again, so many games, costumes, food, dancing and fun. I loved seeing people I grew up with and that my kids remember and dancing along w all the other grownups and kids. I think the world needs more dancing and good food. It just makes everything so much better. After that, we made a pit stop at the beach at sunset [bc who doesn't need more of that? I know I do!], crashed at my parents to recoup before we headed back to my inlaws. It was crazy and fun. The next day we spent some time grabbing our favorite gelato and running around Ocean Beach with Luke and Dakine till we went back to my parents to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos with a beautiful Ofrenda my Mom and sister had set up, with a delicious feast prepared to go along with it. Then, after visiting with my inlaws again for a bit, we carpooled with Lester to take him back to Fresno and spend some time with my sister and her family who live there. It consisted of a lot of fun, low key park days, cousin play time, staying up and talking/watching stuff together, cooking and baking and cool activities my sister had planned. Plus a good time for us to figure out how the home school stuff would work for us. I think Bear in particular had fun bc he was able to spend so much of his time with his cousin Avonlea, who is his age. Plus it was nice to be able to be with Lester in the evenings.