Halloween Week + Grandma Visit Recap

A busy week in general with Halloween festivities, cars dying and being replaced or repaired, and on top of it we had Grandma down to stay for a week!  I think it was a very good week in H's opinion, strangers freely offering candy at every junction, plus hours of undivided attention from a doting grandparent.  The definition of the good life in the eyes of any small child I'm sure.  A few moments captured...

 Saturday the 29th, snow in October?!  H kept trying to catch it on her tongue, then being frustrated as it melted immediately...

 Dessert following dinner at Bonefish Saturday night, enjoyed by all, they even made up a V friendly entree for me!

 An interesting leaf spotted by H on Sunday during a walk with Daddy and Grandma on Sunday the 30th...

What Mommy was making during the walk, applesauce cake with pecans and orange icing...

 Fair Oaks Mall did a bang up job IMO on Monday night for Halloween, turning the fountain into a bubbling cauldron to the delight of the trick or treaters and adults alike...

 H & A enjoying the cauldron effect, far too busy inspecting to actually get a good pose here...

 Running off the sugar with the girls following a second session of candy gathering later that same night in A's hood, the end of the trick or treating season.

 Tuesday was a craft day at our house, used up the last of the tie dye kit...

 Then we dyed up some sock yarn too, it was a rainbow color themed week...

 Wednesday was a nice sunny day so we took Gma to see Clemyjontri...

 Apparently Gma makes the teeter totter even more fun...

 Thursday was the warmest day we had last week, so we spent the day catching up on some yard work, H especially enjoyed watering the grass seed, the shirt she is wearing is one we dyed on Tuesday...

 Friday Grandma and H let Mommy and Daddy have a day to ourselves, so we went on one of our favorite hikes, White Oak Canyon / Cedar Run circuit in Shenandoah.

 The currents in the water created a neat gyre effect here, where fallen leaves were deposited into a neat oval in the middle of this basin...

 This hike has lots of beautiful waterfalls...

 The WOC side has very well defined trails with lots of neat steps carved out of the stones like these...

 The big falls...

 Near the top of the hike we felt a bit chilled, thought it was just from the perspiration we had worked up on the climb until we saw this, snow left over from last week's weather at the top...

 Though many of the leaves had come down already, there was still a bit of color left up to enjoy...

 Leaves in the water...

At the end of the day the sun finally broke through, casting a gold tone and accentuating the fall colors on the drive back.

Yesterday after we dropped Grandma off at the airport, a girl thoroughly enjoying her Halloween candy...