Yesterday was a scorching 95 degrees, which felt not-so-fall-ish, despite spending part of the afternoon picking out pumpkin at a nearby patch. There have been rumors of a cold front coming – but I just checked the 10 day forecast and it looks like we’ll get one day with a lot of 84, but other than that – hot, hot, hot. It didn’t stop me from wearing booties to church yesterday though!

The past week was busy in the best way! When we moved to Texas in 1996, my parents became best friends with a couple named Hayley and Greg. They have two daughters, Ailie (pronounced the same way as me!) and Lauren, who are 7 and 5 years younger than me (respectively). We did everything with the Pattens. They truly became family to us. When I was a junior in high school, they moved to Australia, and I was devastated! Since they left, we’ve met up in Hawaii, and I’ve visited them twice in Melbourne. Ailie and her boyfriend, Jack, are currently on a 9 week trip around the US (and Mexico!), and stayed with us last week and are coming back on Tuesday for a few more days before heading to DC. We had the best time catching up and showing them around – cannot wait for them to come back.

A few highlights from the past week include:

• Making a very last minute trip to Centennial Gardens and Hermann Park with Ivana, Bob and Milly to ride the train. It was so hot that we decided to duck out of the sun for a bit and visit the Museum of Natural Science (which truly is amazing – we decided to get a membership!).
• Eating lunch at Local Foods on Sunday after church at Bayou City Fellowship – I love their Asian Chicken Salad with the tofu instead of the chicken. It’s delicious!
• Going to a big group dinner at North Italia on Tuesday night to celebrate Ailie and Jack being in town!
• Playing TopGolf – I could not be worse at the whole swing-and-miss thing. Clearly no coordination there.
• Spending time with family at Sasha’s Aunt Zlata’s house for their Slava on Friday! Isla had the best. time. ever. running around after her cousins.
• Picking pumpkins at the patch – Emi needs them for her class, so we got some of the cutest little ones!
• Taking Meredith’s photos at her house which was recently renovated and is seriously all of the ‘goals.’
• Snapping Brittany’s son’s (George) three month photos. Time, slowwwww dowwwwwnnnn.
• Celebrating Grandparent’s Day at the girls’ school. My dad and Sasha’s mom are both out of the country, so it was just Mimi and Deda there! Both Emi and Isla loved showing them off to their teachers and friends.

I pray you have a wonderful week and that it feels more like fall than it does here in Houston. xo