And we danced....

Grandma and Papa sent a package at the beginning of October with some Halloween outfits. The girls loved them! We've had a fun Halloween season!

The third week in September we headed to California for our Annual Beach Trip with the Youth of our ward. Our girls look forward to it each year.  It is a long day (we leave at 5 a.m. and return about 11 p.m.).  Chris insisted on buying a boogie board this year and they had a ball on it.  Madison got a little beat up, but she kept going back for more.  Claire road with Chris.  Here they are making their way out to catch some waves.
Evelyn had fun playing in the sand and loved the water as well.











Claire's so lucky that she got to spend the day at the beach with her best friend!

Claire on a Sunday morning.
Evelyn doing what she does best...sucking her thumb!

Our last two towel animals...
















Chris was so excited when he spotted this Portuguese Flag!!! 
We had an amazing trip.  We think of it often and miss it!  We are so grateful that my Mom was able to come and watch the girls.  They loved having Grandma here.  I called mid-week and no one wanted to talk to me!  Evie never cried...I was expecting a big reaction from her when we returned, but she just looked at us and sucked her thumb!  Later I was holding her and she reached for Grandma!  The whole next week Claire kept calling me Grandma and has since told me multiple times that she wants to go stay with Grandma or wouldn't it be fun if we lived next door to Grandma!

Next we headed to Ketchican. We arrived early in the morning and would only be here until 12:30.  We did a little shopping before our excursion of snorkling.




Check this guy out!  He's ready to go!
Here's our whole group.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  Ketchican is the rainiest city and rarely has days with no rain, but we happened to have one.  The water was beautiful we saw huge colorful starfish and other sea life.  In fact and sea lion swam right up to our guide, but the rest of us weren't quick enough to see it!

Leaving Ketchican...


This is where we snorkled.

Our next port was Sitka. This was our favorite. It had a very small town feel to it and was beautiful. Here we did a Historic and Nature walk through Sitka. It included a visit to the Repator Center and the Russian Orthodox Chapel.












It was spawning season...we were amazed by all the salmon!














Totem Poles are very big in Sitka.












Chris loves reading every single plague of information!!!