Extended Family

My Aunt Janice passed away (my dad's aunt so really my great-aunt) and we were able to take a quick trip to Southern CO to be with lots of my extended family from the Pavlovsky side. During the funeral, I felt so grateful for how the gospel has blessed our extended family and pray we can all do our part so we can live together forever. 

We returned home Tuesday night with Halloween the next day. Eli did miss a day of school for the funeral and was sad to miss school, but I let him know what a special time it was to be with extended family. 

Our Halloween breakfast was pumpkin shaped pancakes. 

We woke up to lots of snow and the boys were thrilled. Eleanor enjoyed watching them and wanted to play too. Luckily the snow all melted when it was time to go trick-or-treating. 

I found the Lion costume that Austin wore a few years ago when we dressed like the Wizard of Oz as a family. I thought it would keep Eleanor warmer than her ladybug costume!

After taking Eli to school, we ran to King Soopers for some last minute candy to give the neighbor kids. It's always a special treat when they get to ride the horse for one penny.

Here we are preparing to head out for the candy!

Our first stop was the Japp's, whom we love dearly. They had apple cider in apple cups waiting for us!

Our other neighbors dressed up too and looked so cute!

Thursday evening I met up with Alex and Bryan at the temple and then we had Cafe Rio for dinner. It's nice being at the temple with family. Aaron's leaving in January and I've made a goal to attend the temple once a week before he goes. I know it will be tricky once he's gone so I'm trying to attend as much as possible now.

Friday morning we decided to spend the morning at Monkey Business. Eli and Austin got in for free so I just had to pay $4 for Eleanor. She loved this place as much as the boys do! 

Friday evening we had visitors. Our friends from the ward planned a weekend birthday trip and asked us to watch their two boys. These boys played from sun up to sun down. 

On Saturday, I got a massage with a gift card I had and loved it! I need to get one more often. Hahaha. Saturday afternoon Eli was invited to Robby's birthday party. It was a fun one!

Saturday evening the missionaries came over for dinner and taught a simple lesson about begin kind to each other.

And here we are heading to church. It was daylight savings time and when everyone was ready early, we decided to head to church and get good seats for the regional broadcast. After the broadcast, we had a special stake meeting where our ward boundaries were rearranged. Some of our favorite families got moved to a new ward. Oh how we'll miss them. I'm not good with change, but each time the boundaries have changed, I've seen that it was for a good reason. I'm praying as a new ward, we can love and serve and bond.