Happy Halloween!

After many weeks of jam-packed schedules and busy weekends, we finally had a quiet few days at home. While the Northeast got its first snowfall, we've been enjoying a Texas "cold front" (read: sunny, highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s... basically gorgeous weather), so we wanted to get out and enjoy a few fall activities this weekend.

After a leisurely Saturday morning of waffles and College Game Day, we hopped in the car and headed east of Austin for some hiking in Buescher State Park. On the way, we passed the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort, so we took a little detour and drove through their gorgeous property, checking out their golf course, pool facilities (lazy river!), and resort clubhouse. We've now added it to the top of our weekend getaways list. OK, I just made that up. We don't really keep a list of weekend getaway ideas, but it would make a fantastic weekend trip from Austin or Houston-- with or without kids. Maybe someday.

Then, we continued to on to Buescher State Park where we took a leisurely (pregnancy appropriate) 3.5 mile hike. It was mildly hilly and really pretty. Of course we didn't take any pictures. But I did collect about 15-20 awesome pine cones... I'm thinking some sort of Christmas craft is in order. Maybe gold spray paint?

On the way home we decided to stop at a pumpkin patch to pick up some pumpkins, but found out they were charging $10 admission to stroll around a picked over pile of pumpkins that had been trucked in (not even grown there... and they call themselves a pumpkin patch!) So we bid adieu to the patch and picked up a few pumpkins at HEB on the way home instead.

Yesterday we took a stroll through our neighborhood to check out some of the decorations. A lot of the houses in this area go all out for Halloween (making me wonder if we bought enough candy...), but this one takes the cake:

The signs are hard to read in these pictures, but they are pretty clever-- comments on everything from our health care system, to all of the various Republican presidential candidates to Occupy Wall Street.

Last night we carved our pumpkins-- probably the first time I've carved a pumpkin since high school! Hard to believe, but I figure that with a baby on the way, it's probably time I get back in touch with my inner kid and fun holiday traditions. I went old school, while Jason got a little Big 12 artistic.

Now it's time to put out the Halloween candy and pop in a scary (or maybe just funny) movie while we wait for the trick-or-treaters. Hope your night is spook-tacular! (Sorry, couldn't resist!)