HALLOWEEN WEEKEND WITH FAMILY

Our last weekend on our Summer/Fall Adventure was spent over Halloween weekend with our daughter Robin and her family – Hubby Troy, and sons Taylor, 11, and Tanner, 9 -- in Pleasanton, CA.   We had reservations at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, our “home” site when visiting.  We got our usual spot where we are just a few blocks from their home.

Saturday morning we attended Grandson Tanner’s playoff football game.  Tanner, #64, plays middle defense so not many action shots.  They did look good in their pink socks in honor of Breast Cancer Month!  No, their game was not featured on ESPN, but the MetLife airship did spend a lot of time over the game.  Unfortunately they lost by one point.


HALLOWEEN COOKING CLASS

Saturday afternoon Taylor attended a “Ghoulish Gourmet” cooking class at a local cookware store.  Menu:  Baked Rats in Blood (mini meatloafs with marinara sauce), Cheesy Spiders (decorated cream cheese and cheddar cheese balls with chow mein noodles for legs), Frankenstein Cake, Green Slime Punch, Apple Bites and Caramel Apples.  Family got tastes and left-overs. (Hmmm, turn your head or the screen to see the vertical photos that don’t want to rotate directly in my blogging software.)

		The Ghoulish Gourmet Menu VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 
ADULT COSTUME PARTY

Saturday evening it was kid-sitting time for me while Robin and Troy attended their annual adult-only costume party. Their group of friends really get into costumes and Halloween is a big deal. 

Troy was a tourist running from the bulls in Pamplona, Spain and Robin was a dancer from Black Swan











OFF TO THE PUMPKIN FARM

Sunday was Grandma’s day to take grandsons to the Dell’Osso Family Farm Pumpkin Patch along I-5 at I-205 in Lathrup.  Seven hours later we had done the NASA-inspired corn maze and the boys had done the mulit-story rope challenge, multiple trips along the zipline, shot mini-pumpkins from bazooka guns, panned for “gems” and sampled the fudge and hot dogs.

Grandma became a spectator and photographer while the boys took on the Rope Course Challenge.

Then it was on to the Zipline.  Taylor took three trips and Tanner zipped five times.

Tanner's Turn

PUMPKINS @ 100 MPH

Another challenge was to see how many mini-pumpkins you can blast at your target with an air-bazooka gun @ 100 mph.  Taylor aimed for the giant pumpkin while Tanner aimed for the front windshield of a distant car.

		Pumpkin Blaster Time VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 
MINING FOR GEMS

 
The action-level dropped, but not the boys’ interest in mining for colorful “gems”.  They each had a bag of dirt, a screen box to use in the sluice box and they spent almost an hour picking out their gems and matching them to the colorful photos on their “cheat” sheets.

		Looking for Gems VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 
Final Stop – Pumpkin Picking

You can’t go to a pumpkin patch and not come home with a pumpkin or two or three!  Of course, Grandma gave in to getting a GIANT pumpkin and a couple of others.  They were actually a great bargain. The Giant pumpkin was $25 and you got another pumpkin free. Out the door for just $30 for all three.  Sorry, no photos of the two wheel-barrel antics of getting the pumpkins to the cashier and into the car.  Use your imagination and you can see the results of the FUN and memories this created.

		Making Memories VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 
Candy-Givers

We stayed at the family’s house to give out trick-or-treat candies while they attended neighborhood block parties.  THEE spot to hit is football giant personality John Madden’s house about a mile away.  He’s not normally there but his wife and others give out 1lb. candy bars to kids AND parents.  Tanner and Troy got there in time, but Robin and Taylor were late and they had closed up for the night.  Not that they didn’t all get their share of sugar!!!   I was a “good girl” and stayed away from the candy!


NEXT:  THE ROLLING CONDO GOES HOME