halloween 2015.

Halloween began on the 30th with the Monster Mash at the kids' school. They dressed up, played with friends, danced, and had an all-around good time.

This year, Cassidy dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Lincoln was Harry Potter (mom secretly loves that they were both characters from books!).

Dorothy and Toto ready to go to the Monster Mash.

Dorothy and Toto.

Harry Potter. 

Nice scar, Harry.

Dorothy, Toto, and Harry Potter.

Harry Potter casting a spell on Dorothy. 

Onto Halloween night...the kids are all ready to go trick-or-treating...

Posing with their jack-o-lanterns.

Beer Man made his annual appearance as well!

Hope you all had a super spooky Halloween!

jack-o-lanterns 2015.

We had a busy week and finally got around to carving pumpkins on Halloween day this year.

Bleck!

Cassidy's ready to dig in.

I got some seeds!

The top is off.

Time to eat, Just kidding.

Peeking insdie.

Happy camper.

This is fun!

After the pumpkins are cleaned out, it's time for dad to step in and do the carving. This year, Cassidy wanted a Frankenstein pumpkin and Lincoln chose a Detroit Lions pumpkin.

Dad beginning the carving process. 

Hard at work. 

Frankenstein and Detroit Lions. 

two-wheelin'.

You'd think that we'd get a lot of time outside here in Arizona, but I feel like we've been cooped up for months, having had something like 100 days in a row over 100 degrees during the summer. Can't do much in that heat besides swim.  At any rate, the temps are finally cooling down so Cassidy has had a chance to get back on her bike to practice without the training wheels. She's done a great job and is now riding on her own!

Matt helping Cass get started on a recent day at the park.

Cassidy happily riding on her own.

Skidding to a stop.

The old Lightning McQueen bike will likely be making it's way out of the rotation in favor of a big girl bike soon. Lightning has served both kids well.

monopoly.

There's always a game of Monopoly going when YiaYia is here. Looks like Lincoln and Cassidy have teamed up against YiaYia here.

family time.

During my birthday week, my mom and dad and oldest brother were here visiting. Along with them, were longtime family friends, Jim and Christine. We showed them around town a bit.

We took John to Tempe to climb "A" Mountain on the Arizona State University campus. You can see John and Lincoln  climbing above. 

Lincoln at the top of the mountain.

YiaYia, Cassidy, Lincoln, and John at the ice cream parlor after climbing the mountain.
It was in the mid-to-upper 90s here in October. 

YiaYia, Cassidy, and Lincoln by Tempe Town Lake.

We also visited Old Town Scottsdale. 

YiaYia, John, Cassidy, and Papou in front of a grouping of cactus in Old Town. 

Finally, while our guests were here, we took a boat tour of Saguaro Lake on the Desert Belle.

Jim and Lincoln on the boat.

Lincoln, YiaYia, and Cassidy enjoying the cruise.

 

The kids steering the boat with the captain.

Lincoln with Jim and Christine.
Papou is in the background with his Michigan shirt on.

Peace, dudes.

Papou, YiaYia, Julie,
Cassidy, Lincoln, Jim, Christine
on the lower deck of the boat.

The kids in front of an impressive saguaro cactus. 

flying high.

Matt fulfilled a bucket list item of mine for my birthday -- going on a hot air balloon ride! What a fun 40th birthday gift idea.

We had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to drive to the place where the balloons lift off.
Here is the basket that we rode in. It held 10 people.

Me in front of the balloon as we waited for it to inflate.

It was a big balloon. Good thing they didn't rely on people using their breath to blow it up! They started to inflate it with fans and then start blowing the fire into it...heat rises.

 When the balloon was ready, we quickly loaded ourselves into the basket and off we floated!

Julie & Matt up in the sky!

We enjoyed being up in the air, looking down on the Phoenix area. It was very peaceful, in between the loud bursts of hot air that were blown into the balloon to keep us afloat.

After about an hour in the air, we were ready to land. Apparently it was a bit more windy than the pilots like to see and we ended up with a pretty rough landing. We hit the edge of an embankment and ended up landing on the side of the basket, with our backs to the ground. Kind of a lot for an old lady like me to handle.

My hat flew off during landing, but Matt was able to find it in the field that we landed in.

This is the bush that we took out during landing! 

This is what the basket looked like when we landed.

I survived!

Me, enjoying some post-flight champagne.