Halloween

The past month and a half was incredibly stressful and tiring for Dan and I. Here is WHY: Dan has been preparing for a hearing in Florida where he would be testifying for the NRC in front of a very intimidating panel of judges.  The kind of stress and pressure he has felt reminds me a lot of when he defended his master's thesis, only worse. He was gone 2 weeks this month on business trips preparing for the hearing. Every waking hour has been spent cramming in 3 years worth of information on this project he was barely put on a couple months ago.  Crazy! I have been struggling to keep up with the kids on very little sleep thanks to Clara and all of us taking turns with sickness. I need sleep or I get migraines and have a hard time being patient or dealing with any noise! Dan's hearing was scheduled for Halloween day. Why oh why would they do that?  Of course "FRANKENSTORM", aka huricane Sandy, would make landfall right when Dan would be in Florida.  So, rather than staying here on my own with 4 kids with a big storm coming we decided to go to North Carolina and spend the week with Aunt Hollie and Uncle Cris. Sunday morning Dan drove us down and caught a flight out of Raleigh that night.

The kids and I had a great time playing with baby Xan, Hollie and Cris. We went to a science museum, carved a very awesome spider pumpkin at Cris's work party, dropped in on a Republican Party event to get our Romney stickers and button's, shopped at the mall, played at Rainbow Play Room, and went trick-or-treating around a shopping mall and neighborhoods. It was a really fun 5 days.  I drove back on Thursday so I could make a dreaded dental appointment on Friday. Here are the few pictures I took, mostly with my iPhone.

Rainbow Play Room

Natural Science Museum

 It was a very hands on, recently updated museum. We spent several fun hours there running from one cool exhibit to the next. 

 Go Romney!

Happy Halloween

Awesome smiles kids!

Before trick-or-treating on Halloween

Star Wars Trooper, a cat who caught herself a cute little duck, Clifford, and Princess Mini Mouse

Cute 4 month old cousins. 

A "butter-bean" and a "string-bean"

 Cute baby Xan

Thanks Aunt Hollie, Uncle Cris, and baby Xan for making this Halloween fun!

Phew. So glad this month is over! Dan did a great job at the hearing and we are happy to put it behind us. Ironically Clarksburg didn't lose power but Durham, NC did. We were only without power for a couple hours.  Now onto sleep-training Clara, Thanksgiving, Jake's birthday and baptism, a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Breinholt, and CHRISTMAS!!