all hallow's eve

What a busy month!

October has come and gone, taking with it many wonderful memories and the last bits of warm weather. The last week of October was a great one. On the 29th, we had a couple's retreat through the law school that consisted of brunch, fun games, and a speaker. We had a really great time. It was fun to hang out with other law couples!

One of the games we played was a newlywed-type trivia game. Dusty and I won! The prize was The Five Love Languages. My friend Sheryl won second prize, (we were probably the youngest couples there), so we were pretty excited!



Liberty mountain is absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't help taking pictures of the surrounding landscape. It was a freezing, windy day, but so gorgeous!

 



We had also decided to help out at our church's Harvest Festival, which took place the next day. We're so glad we did!

I made some delicious butterscotch oatmeal cookies for the auction, and we helped set up. Once the festival started, we were in charge of the hay ride! There were so many kids that were SO excited. I'm not sure where I stand on the whole "halloween is evil" idea for raising kids, but I do know that our church did a wonderful job reaching out the community in a very festive, Fall-ish and loving way. I was happy to be a part of it!

There was a chili cook-off, baked goods auction, trunk-or-treat, face painting, a hay ride, and a delicious table of hot apple cider and hot chocolate. (which Dusty and I set up!)

I had a lot of fun making something for the auction. I wrapped it all pretty, and surrounded a pumpkin pie candle with the bite-sized cookies. I also attached a super cute "scarecrow" card (that I got from a great shop on etsy, called JustQuillin - super cute stuff!).



The cider and hot chocolate station was well-visited by Dusty and I. We would take turns coming inside to get each other hot drinks. Once the sun went down, we were frozen!! There were so many flavors, though, that it was quite fun to try them all :)



We ended up bidding on a delicious Pumpkin Spice streusel bundt cake thing, which has been a delicious treat in the mornings for breakfast. :)

I really love our church. We've decided to become members. We love our small group, we love our pastor, and we feel so fortunate to be a part of such a loving, growing, active church body! We feel encouraged every week, and get up each Sunday morning excited to go :)

This coming Sunday, our pastor will be introducing us to the congregation as members! We're really excited.

Our actual Halloween was rather low-key. I put together a fun little gift bag for Dusty, with a card for our first Halloween together as a married couple! The bag (of course) included a lot of candy. We got in our pj's, and watched Secret Window for our "scary" fix. Surprisingly, we had NO trick-or-treaters! So now I guess we'll just have to eat all of this candy by ourselves.

Sigh.

I guess that's okay :)

I can't believe October is over. What a wonderful birthday month it was. And November holds a whole NEW birthday surprise! (Our trip to Connecticut and New York!) Can't wait to post about that one.

Until next time :)

In love,

Cait