We flew down to California with Xanna, Grandpa, Meryl, 'and' Lummi!  We made it! Now both Meryl and Xanna can have morning pajama time for two weeks! And Lummi gets to romp in the vineyard.

Dads and babies strike again! Lauren, Dan, and Maya had us over for dinner earlier this week. Lauren made a beautifully plated dinner of braised short ribs, roasted carrots, and mashed parsnips. It was all delicious! Maya, here, is crying for joy because she and Meryl are going to share a nanny come January! (They're two weeks a part.)

Noelle + Meryl + Caleb

This week, Meryl discovered her thumbs! Hello, self-soothing! 

Lummi always wedges herself in to make sure Meryl's feet are clean.

Mouni, Kim, and Jordan stopped by to visit today. Couldn't resist this shot with Meryl and Jordan! They're a week a part in age.  

Hooray! It's pork pickup day with our little pork chop! Last year we bought half of a pig, and we're back again this year for another. We're making more and more of a conscious effort to source our proteins wisely these days. And in another month, we'll be back for a quarter of a cow! Thank goodness for our extra freezer. 

Lola came over today and started talking to Meryl in Tagalog. Learning two languages at once is hard work! One of her first words was drool (lah-wai), because Meryl is drooling competitively these days.

We went to our first kids music class today! It was basically a drum circle, but Meryl did enjoy watching everyone banging on the drums and shaking maracas. 

 ...With one spooked burrito! 

Everyone pretty much only posts fun and happy pictures on Facebook, right? Well, our friends Erin and Kristi were recently nicknamed 'Party' and 'Travel' because of their posts...hence their Halloween costumes! So we threw the burrito into the scene:)

 Last night, Carrie, Joel, and Elliott came over to visit. Our last Meal Train dinner! Carrie made a delicious sausage and lentil stew, along with dia de los muertos decorated sugar cookies by both herself and Elliott. It's been a long time since we've caught up with a lot of people, but it's been a looong time since we caught up with this crew. We go way back to Niketown days, and we of course had to talk about t-shirt folding; it was like a right of passage there. So good to see them! And we can't wait for Meryl to wear her new 'halo halo mix mix' onesie...our little mix mix!

Amanda recently moved back from Southern California and came over to visit today. In her spare time, she still finds time to manage a 700+ Seahawks fan group down there! It's been a long time since we last caught up, so we're lucky she had a moment to come our way!

Dawn and Todd were in the neighborhood after both getting haircuts and thought to stop by to show them off to Meryl:) It's been a while since we've seen them, so we had a lot of catching up to do!  Mostly about where we all want to eat next.