Trip to the Mountains and Halloween!

It sounds cliched, but I cannot believe October is over. It is by far my favorite month....but with all of the adjusting we've been doing around here, it has flown!

We've had a lot of fun this month to go along with all of the trials.

There's been lots of pumpkin festivities of course.

We also took a spontaneous trip to the mountains over the weekend. This was the first year we haven't made it to a Virginia Tech football game, and we really missed being in the mountains, at least for a day or so. We were planning on going to pick apples anyway on Saturday, and at the last minute, decided to make a weekend out of it, since amazingly we both had the whole weekend off (which rarely ever happens). We were able to find a cabin in the woods that was still available. The time, the views...everything....was awesome. We had the best time. It was a much needed getaway after going through the last month of change! I wish I could live there!

And of course, Halloween....

Reagan had a party at preschool. We missed our church's awesome Fall Festival since we went to the mountains. But the kids did trick or treat when we got home and had a great time. Even Rylie LOVED it! She walked around the whole neighborhood excitedly, held open her bag for candy, and interacted with the homeowners! She was so cute.

Today was a month since we arrived home from China! It feels weird to say that, because it feels like Rylie has been here a lot longer than that. The past 2 weeks have gone really well. She seems to have learned some of our general rules and limits very quickly and doesn't push as much on those fronts. She has been healthy and eats everything she can get her hands on. She has been using her signs a lot to communicate her needs. She is playing with more toys, has been fine with the dog, and seems to be happy in general. We are really enjoying seeing more of her personality and silliness come out! It was cool to take her to vote in the election on her one-month-home day!

We also met with her plastic surgeon on Friday, who said we will likely do her cleft palate repair in February. :)