October in a nutshell

It's time for a rundown from our last couple weeks...
2 weekends ago we visited a cave preserve southwest of Austin. I've wanted to go see this cave/grotto for a long time, so it was nice to finally make it out there. The kids really enjoyed the hike, plus they got to do some bat related activities.They had the following Monday off from school, so we decided to make some Halloween cookies. Alex made some awesome orange frosting while Emma made black. Usually about half way through decorating, Alex tells me he's bored and I have to finish his tray. I think he managed to make it through one tray this time.This weekend Alex had his first swim meet with his year-round team. He swam the 50 yd fly, 100 yd individual medley (one length of the pool swimming each stroke) and the 50 yd breaststroke. He said the fly was the hardest. He really enjoyed doing the IM even though it was a very long race. The boy in the lane next to him was ahead for the first 50 yds and then Alex pulled ahead during the breaststroke. It was fun to watch.
After the swim meet, we hopped in the car and buzzed down to downtown Austin. Alex really wanted to go to a book signing by Brian Jacques (pronounced Jakes) who writes the Redwall series. The author spoke to the crowd for about 45 minutes and was very entertaining. When it was time to line up for the signing, Alex made a beeline and arrived in line second. He even got a book from his school library signed. I thought that was nice of him.
We also enjoyed spending time with my friends, Joy and Shauna, this weekend. Joy lives in Seattle and Shauna lives in Salt Lake City. They decided to make a return trip to Austin to visit with all their old friends. It was great to see them and sit up late talking. Alex also got to play his heart out with his best friend from when he was little. Kenneth made the trip and Alex was very happy for it!

I think that's most of what we have done over the last couple weeks. I'm sure I've left out a few things like soccer games, Girl Scouts, etc., but I'll just stop now.

Sean is off to Sacramento tomorrow evening for a meeting. He made sure to schedule a flight that arrives in Austin in time for trick-or-treating on Friday. It will be nice having Halloween on Friday this year!

I'll leave you with this picture of Alex playing the piano... Happy Halloween!