October

Boy do we have a busy month ahead..Apple Picking outing this weekend with Auntie Courtney and crew..a wedding next weekend.. a trip to CA at the end of the month. Whohoo! Oh.. and Halloween! A week or so ago, Jake wanted to be Super Why (Wyatt) from the Super Readers..until we went shopping at Target and he saw a million other possible outfits. He then wanted to be be everything he could get his hands on in the store..but I resisted to buy him the Darth Vader,Monkey, Banana, Mr Potato Head or Spider Man costumes to name a few. I then told him this past weekend that his friend Sidney will be Minnie Mouse..he is now on a Mickey Mouse kick. Our daily conversations go like this:

Me: Jake, what do you want to be for Halloween this year?
Jake: Mickey Mouse, because I love Mickey Mouse.
Me: Are you sure?
Jake: Yes, I was just joking when I said I wanted to be Super Why. It was just a joke.

Cute.

Ahh October. It's a great month, kicking off fall and all the fun things it brings. October 1st always reminds me of Tahoe and our beginnings out there. When Alex and I packed up his Pathfinder and trekked out to the West Coast in September of 2001, it was quite a journey. We raced out there in just 4 days and lived with his dad in Reno before we found our place in South Lake Tahoe. I remember finding it mid- September and being SO excited to move in on Oct 1st!
We drove the jam packed Pathfinder through the Sierra Mountains and settled into Linda Avenue with nothing but our snowboards, winter clothes and an air mattress and over time turned it into a cute 2 bedroom apartment. Those were the days.. we were gypsies as my dad liked to call us..not a care in the world, quitting our jobs in Ogunquit and following our hearts and dreams of West Coast living.
At times it was stressful but most of the time it was very laid back. I didn't even have a bank account out there (no need for it when you are making $7 an hour!), no car of my own for the majority of the time I was out there and I relied on public transportation..season passes were dirt cheap - $199 was a steal! That's pretty much what it costs for a family of 3 to snowboard one day now a days. I love looking back at those days and am proud we did it..it definitely made me get outside my comfort zone which I never realized how badly I needed. Our relationship was tested at times (like the summer I had to go home because I was so homesick, but then couldn't wait to get back to Tahoe) but it made us stronger and allowed us to see that there is nothing the two of us can't do.
Some day Jake may come to us and tell us he needs to get out of New England. When the time comes I will fully support him, as our parents did for 3 years. Worst case..we will just have to move with him.....