A birthday, monkeys, and a surprise trip to Virginia

Is this not the cutest family, ever!











I know. I know. I've been a bad blogger again. You don't have to remind me, it's been eating at the back of my brain for a month. I can't believe how busy I have been this last few months. Anyway, back in October we took a trip to the Phoenix Zoo which we do frequently. We rarely stay for more than two hours, but the shorter trips make us all happy. The kids had a great time. They especially enjoyed the spider nets and Ty and Brie climbed all over them. Their favorite activity was hanging from the nets like the monkeys they are.

Cambrie also had a birthday in October. She is a whopping 5 years old! It is really difficult to believe she is this ancient already. Ashley and Brett came to visit a little early for her birthday, and then we celebrated again on the 19th. She loves getting gifts, mostly because it makes her feel loved. She is so sweet, I think she would be happy with any gift. Cambrie loves it when I come to volunteer in her class, so she was very excited when I came with birthday cupcakes.

Ella and I spent 10 days in Virginia from October 23rd to November 2nd. Ella got to meet a lot of my family, including her Great-Great-Grandmother Fannie. Fannie was sick and I was really worried about her, so I decided to go for a visit. Having lived so far from home for 12 years now, I have trained myself not to think about how much I miss my family and the hometown area I grew up in, but being there always brings it back with a strength of force that is difficult to express. Eric and I love living in Gilbert, but there literally is no place like home. I tried to soak up everything I could while home and I was so blessed to be able to spend a lot of time with my family on both sides. Anyway, I could gush on and on, but I don't want to cry. One of the happy surprises for me was the color on the mountains. Usually it would have been too late in the year to see the amazing colors that cover the mountains around our area, but due to warmer weather, I was able to see much of the beauty that I grew up admiring. We also got to see snow while we were in VA. Ella has seen tons of snow in Ukraine, but I'm fairly certain she had never been in snow before. It was nighttime when we came out of Fannie's house and the snowflakes were big and beautiful. Ella kept pointing up and saying, "Wow, wow, wow". She said wow about a hundred times on the five minute ride home.

We didn't want Ella to miss out on her first Halloween, so I brought along her costume. We only took her to Maw's and Aunt Brenda's house, but she still got the experience.





I was so excited when my cousin Justin told me his family would be visiting Mamaw Fannie during the weekend of Halloween. It was great to see him and Jessica again, and to meet their oh so cute baby daughter, Kyleigh. Here we all are in the above photo.