The elephant brigade...

Gavin's Halloween costume (the big-bellied elephant above) was inspired by his special interest in the "elephant part" in one of his favorite movies: The Jungle Book. (He loves when Mogley tries to walk like an elephant, and one day Gavin started telling us, "Look. I walk like Ugly." That line kills me, and I'm also quite fond of this one: "I'm a man cub!" Amazing to realize what kids pick up from movies!)
The back of the costume is every bit as classic as the front, and you really can't beat the $10 of the Costco Halloween costumes. Could I even make it for that little?!
Gavin walked up to our neighbors' houses and said, "Trick-or-treating!"
Unlike last year with his dog suit, Gavin didn't seem to mind having the trunk on over his head this time, especially since it kept him a bit warmer that way. Please appreciate the high-water nature of this suit, though somehow it had a 2-4 year-old tag on it. (Maybe it would have been elephant shorts on a four-year-old.)
Here's our baby elephant climbing up the stairs before we left to go trick-or-treating. He is in a feisty stage these days--as far as pictures go and lots of other classic two-year-old stuff--so it's no shock to me that this picture is of his behind. We love our strong-willed little man cub SO much!

Indoor soccer

Gavin has recently begun playing soccer at Boulder Indoor Soccer. He has practice with Daddy every Friday for an hour, and he is all-out sweaty when he's done playing!
I'm not just saying this because I'm his mom, but Gavin really does have a natural talent for soccer. He dribbles the ball across the field so effortlessly, and he's quick on his feet just like his dad.
There are about eight or nine kids (boys and girls) on his team, and Coach Guy has them practicing things like soccer stops, soccer taps, running, following the ball, knocking down and picking up cones with their feet and following directions. All of it is great practice for Gavin, and he really seems to look forward to "soccer class."
I love watching Brent and Gavin play together. It's really neat to see Brent sharing his interests and hobbies with his son. He's such a great daddy!

October blizzard

Check out the amount of snow on the table in our backyard! That's always the best spot to really see the snow damage because it's so perfectly untouched and still out there.
I took this picture through the glass door to the backyard. Gavin was following in Daddy's footsteps and even wearing one of Daddy's hats. So cute!
I love this picture! I think this outing was the very one that inspired us to purchase some real mittens for Gavin because his poor little hands were frigid in these less-than-adequate cotton mittens that I think I found last year in the dollar section at Target.

Visiting Amanda & meeting Avenly...

Back in mid-October I went to visit Amanda--one of my oldest and dearest friends--in California to see her world there and to meet her tiny baby girl, Avenly Noel. Amanda and her husband, Aaron, live in Mt. Herman in a beautiful spot among the redwoods. It was so fun to spend time with Amanda as a mommy and to get to know Aaron and his family better.
Amanda is an adorable mother who takes good care of her baby girl.
Avenly is a precious little thing. Here she is "reading" her first book: Goodnight Moon. How cute is that?! It was eye-opening to be around a newborn, again; it seemed like a long time ago that Gavin was that small. What good practice for me...seeing that we'll have a tiny one in our own home in about eight weeks!!!