over the weekend: a date, a pumpkin carving contest, and family sunday dinner

i love farr's ice cream and was super excited when a new restaurant (pop's) opened up close by our house that serves it.  when i found out the place was 50's themed i was that much more excited (poodle skirts, black and white oxfords, leather jackets, fun wholesome music...what's not to love!).  we went mostly for the ice cream.  when i saw they had malts i immediately knew i needed to upgrade my drink to a malt. chocolate based malt with real whip cream and sprinkles on top!  and they give you your excess in the metal container.  any place that doesn't waste ice cream and gives me the excess is my kind of place.  we don't need to go back for the food, it was good but not amazing, but we will be going back for ice cream treats.

halloween time wouldn't be the same without the annual pumpkin carving contest with gordon's family.  everyone was in attendance.  the creative juices were flowing and the stakes were high...okay the stakes were not high but you wouldn't know that if you were there.  we're all pretty competitive.  this year each person got their own pumpkin to carve (in year's past we did it as couples/families, so this year there everyone was competing against each other).  my idea didn't turned out like i wanted it to and i quickly had a flashback to when i was little and my family would carve pumpkins.  i would get super upset when my design wasn't working out, i would pout, and my dad would take over and finish it for me...i'm not proud of how i acted but it happened.  that almost happened again, but this time my dad wasn't there to recover my mistakes so i had to take a breather and do my best to make my design work.  i was pleasantly surprised that once my pumpkin was lit it didn't look so bad...and i won 3rd place!  (maybe it was a pity win...either way i placed in the top 3!  no pride here.)

on sunday we had family dinner with my side of the family.  my brother joined us and it was nice to see his progress and spend sometime with him.  it was much needed for him and all of us.  he's doing fantastic!
all and all it was a great weekend.