Why did I love October so much?

Because of this...

And these....
And spending a weekend with these beautiful ladies...

And these beautiful ladies...

And this beautiful couple...

(My sister's husband and my brother's wife.)

And my two favorite siblings...

Honestly, what could be better than a hot beautiful day in St. George, eating Cafe Rio in the greatest of company?!

October 2009 could not have been better!

Now I have another funny story for you...

It was a sunny Halloween day in Indiana. My husband working day and night. A lonely mother trying to make this Halloween special for her three little children. What to do? After a morning of making pumpkin squares, I headed to Boston Market for a $1.00 special chicken lunch. Now what? For the last 4 weeks I had been eyeing this pumpkin patch less than 5 minutes from our home. Everyday I would see the tractor go out to gather pumpkins. I was intrigued by this pumpkin patch. For weeks I had wanted to go check it out, and finally I decided to seize the moment.

It was Halloween day, surely all the good pumpkins had been picked. No one would care if I wandered through the field of pumpkins that were left to rot. As I pulled onto the dirt road in our mini van, Josh said, "Mom, I don't think you should be doing this. Is this illegal?" You know it is a bad sign when your 5 year old is more responsible than you. Anyway, Josh and Maddie thought it was great running around in the pumpkin patch looking at some pretty deformed pumpkins. We came back to the car, but the fun wasn't over yet.

This is where the old Kristine; the more spirited, less conservative, more adventurous, and less responsible Kristine came out of her shell. I told the kids, "We can't go home yet! Let's drive through the pumpkin patch. This will be fun!" Josh again warned me that this was clearly not legal.

Those of you who know me back from high school know that I used to get in a lot of trouble with cars. I won't go into detail, but I have had my fair share of off roading in all conditions. Never in a pumpkin patch though. After 5 minutes of playing around, completely to ourselves without another person in sight, I decided it was time to turn around. I must have decided to turn around in an area where the ground was too soft because all of a sudden we were stuck in the mud. I tried rolling forward and back. I tried putting sticks and smashed pumpkins under my tires for some traction, but we were really truly stuck.

I guess there were three options. (A) Push the car out by myself. (B) Go find help somewhere. (C) Start crying and call someone to come rescue me. I decided on plan A. However, I needed a driver. Josh was the man! I explained how to pump the pedal, and kept the windows down so that I could scream harder or softer or STOP. You should have seen the way he stepped up to the plate. He was awesome and did it perfectly. After getting my feet and legs covered in mud, we rolled backwards out of the swampy mud. I did have to yell "Stop!" because we came about 5 feet from hitting a tree. (I should probably leave the details out so that my in laws don't scold me.)

I was so proud of Josh for saving the day. When I told my friend this story she said, "Didn't your husband kill you?!" Dave was actually just as proud of Josh for being so brave and probably just shook his head at me. Being married to a first year intern, I have learned he has little energy or concern about anything outside of his demanding schedule.

So that is the story about the first time Josh has driven a car all by himself. Don't worry, I won't be doing that again any time soon.