The Great Pumpkin

Since Makenna's next surgery is (in)conveniently scheduled for one of my favorite holidays, we made sure to get a jump start on the Halloween festivities this year. Wait, who am I kidding? I start scheming about what to be for Halloween sometime in November (yes, do the math) and have gone on full out reconnaissance missions to find the perfect pumpkin patch in my adult years, sans kid, because I love this time of year and everything pumpkin so much. 

Office Halloween costume contests? Owned. Holiday Decor? Decorated.Trader Joe's pumpkin section? Forget about it.

So after silently disowning my husband who suggested we go to the local 'patch' in the mall parking lot (sacrilege!) we went on good recommendation to a place down in Rancho Bernardo and were so happy we did. We got to take her on her first hayride, pick pumpkins straight out of the patch and take her picture with a lot of funny shaped gourds. Boom! And she seemed to enjoy it. Especially the hay. . .she liked the hay.

Aside from the sweaty post-headband Bozo the clown hair do, I'd say the day was a success!

Hayride

Pumpkins just her size

A little out of her league

Missing her story time days

VIP Status

This past weekend we participated in our first Rady Children's Hospital Shamu and You Walk down at SeaWorld. While we joked that this was my mom's first 'race' she had ever competed in, it was even more of a 'cruise' than a walk with frequent stops to check out the marine life (and stuffed, fake marine life wannabes) along the 'course.'  The park was closed but they brought out some of the animals to keep the kids entertained, well, not so much our kid who was happy to play with her feet most of the time, but other kids, sure.

I've participated (and gently encouraged Mark to participate in) a handful of these types of events in the past but it was definitely an emotional moment for me crossing the starting line and hearing the announcer give a shout out to Makenna for being a 'VIP'- Very Important Patient, as I never would have imagined that we would have ever been on this side of it, especially with one of the littlest VIPs there. But we were so happy to be there and support the doctors that have done so much for our little goose, and for us since we know she is in the absolute best hands (her tummy surgeon has taken a personal interest in her and does research on her syndrome in his 'spare' time).

And a HUGE thank you for the donations in support of our team - we are so grateful and we hope you can join us for this fun event next year!

Shamu himself! (or herself!)

No Goose, that isn't your aunt

Flamingos!

Proud of our little VIP!