october recap.

I can’t believe it is already November! I swear, 2013 is flying by. 

October has been one of my favorite months out of the year so far. 

I had more vacation days and more overtime hours in October than any other month. Kind of a weird mix of working too much and not working at all!

In the beginning of the month I traveled to Colorado for my longtime friend, Annie’s wedding. It was so wonderful to get back to one of my favorite states. Everyone had a great time hiking and enjoying some beautiful mountain air. 

(John and I enjoying Colorful Colorado)

Annie and Chris’ wedding was absolutely perfect. It was actually quite emotional for me to see Annie get married. She is one of my oldest friends and, naturally, we have always talked about our weddings. We even used to play the board game “Perfect Wedding” together (to be fair, we played the “We Girls Can Do Anything” game as well…). Watching Annie and her new husband (!) Chris saying their vows I just kept thinking “wow, this is Annie’s wedding…how did we get to be this old?!”. Crazy times, people, crazy times. I am just so glad that Annie and Chris have found so much happiness together and I can’t wait to see where their next adventure takes them. 

(Me and my god-sisters. So happy to celebrate with all of the Kislings!)

Upon returning from Colorado, I actually got to run a race! I love to run, but working weekends is not kind to my race schedule. I typically run one marathon or half (something worth taking a vacation day for!) each year. But the fun weekend races, like 5ks and Tough Mudders are out of the question. That was until…I found a Twilight run! This was a run that started at 7:30 pm! Perfect for a zookeeper! We got to wear glow bracelets and a helicopter flew overhead illuminating the dark path at night. Awesome!

Then it was off to Columbia for some more vacation days with the family! This time we celebrated my little sister, Nancy’s White Coat Ceremony. Nancy is starting her third year of vet school, so she is done with class work and ready for clinicals i.e. real life veterinary work. She is one step close to becoming Dr. Nancy Medicine Woman, white coat and all! Nancy has worked so hard in vet school so far and truly deserves the special recognition. 

(Sisters celebrating Nancy’s white coat! Which she is, unfortunately not wearing in this photo…)

To round out my vacation days splurge, John and I took a camping trip to Johnson’s Shut Ins. I’d never been there before but man, is it beautiful! We arrived on a dark and rainy evening, but spent a fabulous fall day exploring the shut-ins and hiking around the park. THAT is what vacation days are all about, after all! I’d recommend Johnson’s Shut Ins to any outdoorsy Missouri travelers. 

Finally, I rounded out the month with a lot of WORK! I was lucky enough to get to help out with the Children’s Zoo shows for Boo at the Zoo. It is, of course, exhausting working 8am-9 pm several days a week, but Boo nights are totally awesome and I had a great time. It was wonderful to spend time with my CZ coworkers and animals and hey, who doesn’t love dressing up like a pirate and watching hundreds of hyper kids in costumes go nuts?! I hope I can work Boo again next year. It really is a spook-tacular event!

(Sue G, Cassie and I pirating it up on the CZ stage!)

I’d say, it was a pretty solid month! I am happy though, that things are going to calm down a bit, now that we’ve reached November.

It’s time to focus on the important things in life–family and food! 

Here’s to bright leaves and chilly nights! Happy November!