Wherein Don Visits and Halloween is Had

 Ah me. We had such a blast last week! It is hard to recover from those times - we kind of sit around and tap our fingers like, "What now?" and eat handfuls of candy in denial that the party is over. And Riley and Joe wonder where their fun, baby-tossing, sweetie-giving Grandpa has gone...Welp, Better get blogging.

As you can see, there was a joyful reunion. Don came to see us! Well, also to research at the University. He arrived Halloween night and Riley and Joe were ecstatic. Shouting and dashing around like you never saw! We ate a quick dinner and then layered snowsuits and costumes on the kiddies before heading out to trick or treat the neighbors. Our friend across the hall and her little guy joined us and we were quite the party, charging from door to door, the tails of our little cow, puppy and dragon wagging behind.

All decked out and ready to relieve some strangers of their candy.

Riley decided to "your welcome" everyone instead of thank them, and Joe's "trick or treat" was actually "geek a geek" and also halfway through he decided he needed to be carried reclined in Don's arms, pumpkin bucket clutched in his little hands and resting on his belly. So there is room for improvement there, but it was SO much fun!

Our neighborhood is a great one for Halloween - lots of bonfires and people out on their lawn chairs and GOOD candy - we didn't get one single pack of fake cigarettes! Do they make those anymore? Probably not...I can't imagine those things could be marketed for children nowadays...good riddance. Anyways, the candy was excellent.

Munion Family Halloween Picture, 2013

Sooo tired! 
And yet insisted on carrying his bucket to the very end.

 

And that was that - a most satisfying Halloween. We really milk the family-ness of holidays now we have kids around. We take them to the pumpkin patch, make the popcorn balls, carve the pumpkins, go to parties, and trick or treat. Having Grandpa Don around was icing on the cake. You really get to missing family, well, when you move away from them, but especially during holidays, birthdays - happy occasions you want to share with them.

I can't believe I once told Dave it would be cool to strike out somewhere on our own, move somewhere we didn't have family. I guess I thought it would be adventurous. Having now struck out on our own (no baseball pun intended), well it has been a time out to appreciate our loved ones we don't get to see so much. Family is everything.

 New plan: buy an RV and follow family around wherever they go. Split the year between TX, VA and UT. It could work...maybe. Or I could just accept that distance from loved ones is a part of life. Heaven, that is where you never have to say goodbye to them, right? I wonder if Heaven is anything like I imagine? You certainly don't want heavenly families annoyed with each other because they are together all the time...

Lets move on. 

Friday, we went to Costco and Don got us a bunch of food storage. We now have enough cookie cigars (called Piroiulines) to last us all winter (of course they won't last all winter). And we had dinner at Pad Thai on Grand and it was delicious. Say "delicious" like Riley when she eats a vitamin here: you will be glad you did.

Saturday we traveled to Rochester to see Grandie and Pop. We lived with them for a few weeks before we found our home sweet home and they are altogether lovely of course and we had a nice visit. They fed us and loaded us up with candy (cause we needed that:) and pecans and drove us around the yard in the tractor. Don and Dave made themselves handy, winterizing the house under Pop's supervision. That is, he was meant to just supervise now he is on oxygen, but you can't keep a good man down and Pop is accustomed to always grabbing the heavy end, as he puts it.

Sunday we went to church, and the ward we are in now just so happens to be the same one Don and Suzette went to when they first got married. The Maung ward also meets in our building and they were service missionaries in the primary just after Chris was born. So a lot of people were delighted to see Don, "The boy that married the Zollinger girl," I overheard one old guy say. Don is rather memorable. In the best way.

Well, Grandpa Don left that afternoon and we were very very sorry to see him go, but he and Chris are coming back in a few months so that will be good. Till then, a little song to remember you by:

We love you, Don!