October was full of color and activities.  We did our annual McCool Spa Day at the first of the month.  Before meeting up with everyone, John and I took a little drive and found a bridge that I have seen other photographers post photos of.  There wasn't any type of a hike with this one as I was hoping, pretty much we got out of the truck and walked right up to it.

The weekend before the spa day, the McCools met up in Vancouver for one of our Christmas gift card dinners.  Below that photo is a shot of us just after our massages and dinner that was from the gift card from my parents.

Josh had such a great cross country season.  Along with his great running times, we pretty much had nice weather for the meets.

My little chipmunks have gotten braver.  Each morning they are out there waiting for their peanuts. A couple of them are braver than the others and will come all the way up to me for the nut.  One has even jumped on my lap!  I have a jar set up on the porch for them so that through out the winter, they can still find some food, even though I won't be spending much time on the porch until the weather warms back up again.

The fall colors have been amazing!  I know that it can't be true, but they sure seemed brighter this year than before.

I like the shot above because not only are the leaves in the shape of hearts, the leaf in the middle has a tiny tear that is shaped like a heart.

Can you believe that this is so dark and vivid?

and this one...really?  who drew those different lines of color?

Our neighbor has this Boston ivy planted.  It was so bright and full of colors and then one day...they were all fallen off! crazy stuff

a few flowers continue to bloom...

I just love all that color scattered around, it drives John crazy!  I am running out there with my camera to capture it before he goes out to mow each day.

and here are a few fall hearts...

the foggy mornings have been so pretty

I pretty much miss most of the sunrises in the summer, but the later sunrises in the fall are amazing.

I can't let a fall go by without making at least one fresh apple pie.

The girls were here and thought I needed a make-over.

We made a tough decision that it was time to move Uncle Jimmy up here.  John and I flew down on a Tuesday, spent the night at Dennis' house and saw Gabe and Daniel for an early trick or treat.  Then the next morning, we packed up all we could into 3 giant suitcases, sent a car load home with Abby to store for us until we drive back down in February and loaded Jimmy onto the last flight of the day.  I was so nervous about telling him he was flying.  But he took it just fine.  He enjoyed the whole day!  He spent the entire flight looking around and making the most of it.  Whew!  What a relief that was.  Just to be sure it would go ok, I had a pack of 'relaxants' ordered from his doctor.  He didn't need a single one!  The day was a piece of cake!  The next day was not so good. When I arrived, he was angry!  There was not a single thing that he was happy about!  His bed was too high, the pillow to fat, the food was awful, the room was cold, the dresser only had 4 drawers and his old one had 6.  I bought the wrong brand of soda.  I was awful.  I went about trying to make him happy, but it ended with me in tears. What did I expect?  I had just turned his whole world upside down and shaken it! Little by little he is adjusted.  He has is times, but mostly he is doing really well. Alzheimer's is a daily roller coaster.  I don't know which Jimmy I am going to meet each day.  Sometimes there are many versions of him.  My worst moment so far came last week when I was once again going over with him how to use his remote.  His TV has been his lifeline...well, that and his phone.  The phone has only been a little bit of a problem with the volume getting messed up, but the TV is the hardest struggle for him.  So there I was going over it with him once again, having him show me he could do it and him not getting it.  He broke down in tears saying "am I just getting too stupid?"  I hugged him and cried with him, telling him it was just a bad memory day and tomorrow would be better.  And it was.

In this first week, he turned up the temp on his mini fridge and exploded a soda.  Jessi has programed his universal remote twice.  Once when it was first set up and another time when it somehow got messed up.  I hung photos for him and made sure and labeled them so he can remember who the faces are.  He is thrilled that he has a REAL key to his room to keep out the thieves.

Here is a shot of the trick or treat with the boys and a couple of the local kids who came to get a treat.

And now on to November...