Halloween week was a special treat for us this year. The boys had the week off school for Fall Break and I took a few days off work. On Friday, I visited the pumpkin patch with Toby's preschool class and then we all climbed into the car to drive north. Our destination? To see Shana, Brett, & Bella in their new Fresno home and to spend some quality time with good friends recently transplanted to Mariposa.This allowed us to also spend a full day reveling in the grandeur of Yosemite National Park. One of the recurring themes in Ken Burns' recent National Parks film series on PBS is that, "America's National Parks are not just a good idea, they're a democratic ideal." They are a spectacular resource available to all Americans regardless of race, gender, status, education, or income and they include some of the most valuable, wild and natural lands in the United States.
We were not disappointed. The weather in Yosemite Valley was unseasonably warm (around 70 degrees), but recent rains graced the mountains with powerful waterfalls and the leaves of black oaks, maples, and cottonwoods indigenous to the park provided a magnificent show in various shades of yellow.
Liz and Kent were our guides in the park --Kent works for the National Park Service and spent most of his life in or near Yosemite. Liz is a dear friend and former planning colleague who moved to Yosemite for love, but remains a great favorite of both Toby and Joshua. While visiting them in Mariposa, the boys trekked over their 4-acre rural property with Kent, ostensibly on a "hunt" for wild animals using self-crafted bows & arrows (from tree branches and ropes). They did not catch anything, however they discovered unusual and elegant bird feathers, and an abandoned deer skull, which (as you can imagine) made the entire trip worthwhile. 
In Fresno, the cousins made Halloween crafts together with Aunt Shana, went to the movies with Uncle Brett, and donned their costumes for a Halloween party with Bella's gymnastics class. We were delighted to discover that the northeast side of Fresno-- which resembles southern Orange County, given the amount of recent development-- is filled with lovely parks, tree-lined streets, and ubiquitous walking paths that would be the envy of of many Venturans. To be fair, this was our first visit to the City of Fresno, so we weren't sure what to expect.Halloween finally arrived and we couldn't resist dressing up as a family. The holiday is just more fun that way. I was a medieval maiden, Jochen transformed into a vaudeville performer, Joshua posed as Hercules, and Toby was a fierce X-man Wolverine. 
We joined the family of Joshua's best friend, Evan Sheaffer, for our now customary Halloween pizza and then trick-or-treating together in their neighborhood. The Sheaffer's neighborhood is comprised of many streets that go all-out for Halloween with decorations, garage parties, and even haunted houses that bring in crowds. Needless to say, the boys were giddy with excitement.
What we didn't realize was that one of our sons (need I say who?) wasn't just collecting candy at the various homes, rather he was eating it under cover of darkness. So much, that when we arrived back at Evan's house, I put my hand in his bag and discovered two huge handfuls of empty wrappers. Only to hear him exclaim moments later, "Mommy, my tummy hurts. . ."
