The HALLway: Life. Love. Simply Creative: Weekend Update: The perfect kind of Fall Weekend:

Maybe it was the cool crisp fall weather

The time spent together with my little family

The fun and laughter we shared

The pumpkins that were carved

The getting into Halloween spirit and decorating

Hocus Pocus being on... TWICE!

The baked pumpkin seeds

The memories that were made...

Or it was quite possibly all of those combined that made this weekend the perfect kind of Fall weekend!

Our weekend started off Friday afternoon when Steven got home from work. We headed to a park on base to let Charli run around and be a "kid" (wait... is that even possible? She's just a baby right?)... Nope, not one bit and it makes my heart melt with sadness because she is growing up so fast right before my very eyes, but it also makes my heart melt with pure joy as I watch her grow and learn with every new day!

Charli had an absolute blast at the park...

From the swings...

To the slides...

To the sand...

To the climbing...

To being with Daddy...

It was the perfect afternoon spent with my gorgeous little family!

The park was followed by ordering some pizza, making a pallet on the floor upstairs in the play room, and having Charli's first family movie night!

Watching the new special edition Little Mermaid that Nana and Papa bought for her!

And she did amazing! She sat quietly and ate and watched (making fish faces the entire time), until she was done with dinner, then she was up, walking around but still paying some attention to the movie, until the singing parts... She was glued... until the singing parts were over, then she cried... So the rest of the movie was spent fast forwarding to all of the singing parts! haha! All in all, she did so good on her first family movie night, and I am thinking we may need to watch Finding Nemo next! ;)

Perfect Family Friday!

Saturday morning we woke up to Daddy making breakfast for us girls (luckiest girls around), then after getting ready we hopped in the car for our first trip to the Riverbank Zoo in Columbia, SC!

It was also 'Boo at the Zoo', but with Charli still being little going to the Zoo at night time was not in our cards... But we still got to enjoy all of the decorations for Halloween!

First stop at the Zoo... The Kangaroos...

Next up...

The Gorilla

Then it was off to 'Africa'...

Next stop was the Aquarium they had. And with Charli's love for water and fishies...

(clearly, as you can see...) ;) making a 'fish face'

She was in Heaven!!

She was running around pointing to everything, saying 'fish' and making her fish face!

After the Aquarium section we headed to see the Giraffe's!!!

And this trip to the Zoo we fed them!!

And so did Charli...

Yay for Giraffe's, we had an absolute blast!

Our last stop of animals was to the 'Farm'...

A Cow says Moo...

But What does the Fox say?!

After we saw all of the animals we did a little walking around and let Charli go on the Carousal...

She wasn't quite sure at first

And then really didn't want to be on it...

But it was almost about to start and we knew as soon as it did she would be fine...

And we were right!

Such a big girl these days!

After the Carousal we checked out the River that the Zoo sits on

Then headed out!

It was a perfect day and I am so glad we decided to make the trip!

After the Zoo we headed to see some friends who were camping at a camp ground in Columbia over the weekend. We drank some beers, sat by the camp fire, and shared lots of laughs!

Perfect end to a Perfect Saturday!

Sunday morning we all ended up sleeping in and missing church. Steven made waffles for breakfast, we lounged in our PJ's for a good while, and then headed outside to do some Halloween decorating!

Charli also said her very first 'sentence'... "Bye Bye DaDa" and said our neighbor's dogs name when she saw her... "Didee" (Dixie). It is seriously the freaking cutest word I have ever heard! :)

After nap we headed back outside to carve and paint our pumpkins...

Charli was such a big help this year for Daddy...

And after Daddy got the pumpkin all carved and Mommy finished painting her pumpkin, we let Charli do a little painting of her own on her very own pumpkin!

Masterpiece I tell you!

After we finished up with the pumpkins we headed out for the perfect Sunday stroll through the neighborhood looking at all of the houses decorated for Halloween (our neighborhood does a house decorating contest for the holidays)...

So Steven wanted to scope out his competition...

Then we walked down the dock to catch the sun setting over the river