Happy Halloween from Cowboy Woody!

Woody is Will's favorite character - he talks about him all the time, loves watching Toy Story, and likes to play with his Woody dolls. So, it was kind of a no-brainer that he would be Woody for Halloween this year!

He's gotten to wear his costume a couple of times this week. He had a fall festival at school Saturday. I think he had fun but it was a little overwhelming. One of the parents had dressed up like the Wicked Witch of the West with green face paint. She made a scary face at Will (I don't think she really meant to scare him) and he screamed and screamed! He wouldn't let us put him down after that!

This morning I put on his costume and we visited a retirement home a few blocks from our house. They LOVE having little kids come to visit and they especially loved one dressed up as a cowboy (the picture above was us walking in - he had to take along his Woody doll and 'Bullseye', of course!)

This was his first year to trick-or-treat. He caught on very quickly and had the best time!

We went with our neighbors, who have a son in Will's class at school. He was a cow - they were pretty cute together!

There are a TON of kids in our neighborhood. We did a loop around the block and that took us an hour and was good enough!

After awhile they rode in the wagon!

I love my sweet little cowboy!

The Jackets

This weekend was busy with Will's school fall festival, cooking Matt's chili and Pioneer Woman's sherried tomato soup, and football! Yesterday also marked one year since we lost Matt's dad. Mr. Dart was the biggest Georgia Tech football fan that I've ever met, and yesterday was also Georgia Tech's homecoming. Matt's siblings spent the day remembering him by doing exactly what he would have done - going to the Georgia Tech parade early in the morning, and eating breakfast at the Silver Skillet before the game. We did our best to support the Jackets from Chicago and watched the game on our computer (it's not shown on tv in our part of the country). It was a great game, and we beat #5 undefeated Clemson! A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Here is Matt indoctrinating our son at the ripe old age of 2 ("like his daddy used to do!")...

Pumpkin carving

Will and Matt had a good time carving a pumpkin last weekend...

I have his costume all ready for this weekend but I'll honestly be surprised if he keeps it on 10 minutes! We'll see:)

Fall weekend

I got the iphone 4s Friday (a birthday gift) and have been playing with it nonstop this weekend! Here's a few pictures I took with it of our weekend...

Pumpkin pancakes!

The hideout that Matt made for Will with 2 boxes. Will LOVES it!

Pumpkins at the farmer's market 

Getting a good sniff of the pumpkin pie candle!

Watching (actually just listening to) the GA Tech game

Will put an apple in the "apple box"...kids are so funny!

Saugatuck, Michigan

We went to Saugatuck, Michigan this weekend for my birthday! We'd never been to Michigan before, but we kept hearing about how nice all these little beach towns are on the western coast, so we decided to check it out. It's about 2 1/2 hours from Chicago. We LOVED it! The town was so quaint, with tons of cute shops, restaurants, orchards, wineries and a great beach. And the leaves were right at their peak for changing color - it was beautiful!

Matt found a cabin for us to stay at that turned out to be fantastic!

This was Will's room! He still sleeps in a pack-n-play, but he got on the top bunk with his daddy at night to read books!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was eating breakfast on the back porch with my little man (and big man!)

Saturday morning we went to an apple orchard and picked apples! They had hay rides and a corn maze, and Will just had the best time running around!

He likes to pump his arms in the air while he runs:)

We ate at their restaurant for lunch, which I guess is popular this time of year - the wait was over an hour! We kept Will happy with an apple cider popsicle!

And they had beautiful grounds to explore while we waited.

Saugatuck is also a coastal town with marshes and dunes. I took this picture driving over a bridge - it reminded me of St. Simons.

Saturday night we decided to forgo a fancy dinner (not so much fun with a toddler!) and took a picnic out on the beach to watch the sunset instead!

Saugatuck's beach is Oval Beach, and was named one the the top 25 beaches in the world by Conde Nast! We could see why - the sand was white, there was beautiful dunes surrounding it, and there was not one building in site!

Will had a great time running around and playing in the sand. We decided this was the highlight of our trip. And the temp was in the upper 70's - just perfect!

Will said "happy birthday mama!" about 10 times over the weekend - so sweet! Another funny story - in the car after we left the beach Saturday night Will put his hands together to pray and said "Thank you God for dinner!" (We usually say a blessing before meals and had forgotten to that night). He kept on, without any prompting, and said "And thank you for sand. And for shovels. And for buckets. And for daddy. And for Will. And for pizza. And for mommy. Amen." I never want to forget this!

Sunday morning we wanted to explore the downtown area and go in a few shops.

We left around noon because we had a very tired and cranky toddler who needed a nap! He woke up an hour later, just as we were passing by the last beach town before leaving Michigan - New Buffalo. Since he was awake we decided to see what the town and beach were like.

It was also nice! Maybe we'll come back.

We were so impressed with Michigan. We would love to visit Traverse City someday when we have more time (it is 7 hours away, or you can take a ferry across Lake Michigan). Good Morning America recently named it the most beautiful place in the US (video worth watching!) And we also read an article in Bon Appetit this summer about how Mario Batali spends his summers there and loves it.

It was a great trip and a great birthday! I'm sad it's over:)