A Little Game of Catch Up (sorry-picture overload!)

SEPTEMBER

We moved to Connecticut in July, and for a month I looked for a job but gave up due to a lack of motivation... then I got bored. The last week of August I decided to start looking again, found a job in a school on Thursday and school started Monday. It is really hard, rewarding, fun, exhausting, etc. working with young kids with autism. I wouldn't trade it for any other job (except maybe a Burlington Coat Factory parking garage attendant, because I think they get paid to sit there). Anyways, this is my "first day of school" and Jared INSISTED on taking a picture.

OCTOBER

Jared and I started exploring our surroundings. One of our favorite weekend activities is to drive to a random town and find random stuff to do. This was a cool place in Bridgeport, CT called Captains Cove. It had a bunch of little shops on a dock, and random things to take pictures by, such as this:

This is us trying to be dork fish (please refer to Blue Collar Comedy's Bill Engvall for questions)

We also had a ward Halloween Party/ Trunk or Treat. We were sadly mistaken when we thought grownups would be dressed up as well as the kids (with the exception of our friend Matt in the background sporting a stunning black mullet).

My October highlight, though, was this: My parents came out to see us the weekend before Halloween. We had TONS of fun with them. We went on a hike at the Greenwich Audubon- yes this sinfully good looking woman is my mother!

Then on Saturday and Sunday we went to Boston. We saw Fenway Park, walked the Freedom Trail and ate in Little Italy.

We even made a detour into Salem. We thought it would be this little rinky dink town with no night life. However, we discovered the weekend before Halloween is HUGE in Salem. They had locals giving tours, people were dressed up (we were embarrassingly underdressed for the occasion in our street clothes), etc. Here is a picture of Mom, Dad, The Grim Reaper, his wife and Jared. I really feel like we established a new family tradition of visiting Salem around Halloween time!NOVEMBER

Finally, November was great as well. We flew to Idaho to spend "Thankmas" with Jared's family. We had an AMAZING dinner and it was so nice to just spend time with everyone! We drove up to the mountains and cut down their Christmas trees (unfortunately we didn't think we could get one past airport security). We also had a gift exchange since we will be with my family for Christmas. Abby got Pretty Pretty Princess (which I am now a pro at after playing it many many times- I LOVE THAT ABBY GIRL!). Here are Lori, Abby and I playing a very competitive, intense game. At the bottom is all the Stokes women, Suzanne, Susan, me, Abby and Lori (who is "carrying" Ava in her belly). I LOVE MY IN-LAWS and can't wait to see them again, whenever that will be!