I’ve been a blogging slacker for the last three weeks or so, but I think you’ll understand why.  First of all, with the horrendous amount damage and displacement caused by the fires in our area the last couple of weeks, it just didn’t feel right to blog or post much on social media.  I felt guilty going about my everyday life knowing that just up the road people had lost absolutely everything.

Photo from my mom & dad’s front yard on day 1 of the fires:

Craig and I donated to our local church, Northgate Christian Fellowship, but wished we could do so much more.  Craig did work some mutual aid in one of the hardest hit areas of Santa Rosa – the Coffey Park neighborhood.  He showed me pictures of the neighborhoods and it was shocking to see how unrecognizable things looked.

On the brighter side of things, we closed on our house earlier than expected and started moving in.  It’s seemed like a never-ending transition from the last house to the new one, and we aren’t sleeping there just yet, but I’m thinking we will be next week.  We are so excited to be in our new house, in such a wonderful neighborhood.  Our street is full of little ones and friendly families.  We’ve already met four of our neighbors and I can’t say enough about how welcoming and nice they are.

What I’m looking forward to most about the new neighborhood is Gia being able to make friends as she grows.  I just have such a good feeling about all of it and I can’t help but feel so fortunate.

To cap off the busy week that we’ve had as a family, Gia and I went downtown to stroll First Street for the Halloween Costume Walk.  I wondered how much we’d actually get to walk with a 14 month old, but it was so much fun and Gia did great.  She loved waving and saying hello to all of the other kids who were dressed up.

The only candy she had interest in hanging on to was her mini crunch bar.  By the end of our stroll it was half melted in the wrapper.  Of course I wasn’t planning on giving it to her – not enough teeth and that kid doesn’t need a sugar jolt.

Our little pumpkin with her candy of choice:

There were some really great costumes and cute families who dressed up together.  Gia wore the pumpkin costume that I wore when I trick-or-treated for the very first time.  I wasn’t able to get her to wear the little pumpkin stem hat that went with it, but hey, I tried.   I’m thinking that the next Bennigson baby will have to wear the costume too.  Looks like I’ve already got a tradition in the making!

I hope you all have a great weekend doing whatever it is that you have planned!  Happy Halloween to all!