Around and about (from the fall)

Caleb and Aaron, and well Lauren love the swing in our basement. We ended up with 10 foot ceilings down there and this "extra" room that the builder ended up finishing for us. Ken and I duct taped the left over carpet for the floor and it's ended up being a favorite play space.

Aaron loves to be outside and loves to ride the trike and the plasma car. Love this picture of my handsome boy!



Everyone got in on some golfing action. The girls have gone with Ken to the hitting range. He's trying to help Caleb get the swing of things.

My big girl, needed to include her, though she sometimes does a dissappearing act when she sees the camera coming. What long legs she has, clearly not from me : )

Caleb making his own riding toy out of a dump truck. Thought this was so funny and clever. His hair is just wild with curls and always sticking out. Though the look seems to fit his personality.

Aaron loves to help in the kitchen. He's helping Hannah make his favorite cookies~ oatmeal chocolate chip.

We took a quick trip to NC to celebrate our sweet friend's birthday, just couldn't miss the big 13th.

Caleb and Eliana having fun with each other. These two are quite entertaining.

Packing up some shoeboxes for Samaritans Purse together.

Ken had hoped to take the girls camping this particular weekend, but the weather wasn't co-operating, so we opted for smores on the back deck.

Hannh with one of the meals she cooked for a go along with her school studies. It was Asian and yummy.

Fall Nature

Just some fall pictures from around our yard. Beautiful fall colors.

We have lots of swaths of Golden Rod in the back, where the wild roses and blackberries were in the spring. Beautiful, birght yellow and full of insect critters.

This is Virginia Creeper, it's a deep burgandy red and just climbs up the trees. We have it on several trees in our yard, it's really pretty.

Just some flowers that grew from some seeds we planted in early spring.

We also have some regular visitors ~ of the animal variety. We have at least 4 bluebird couples who enjoy our front yard and roof.

These deer like to come down from the woods and hang out here in the evenings.

And of course, on of our gophers in the backyard. Always entertaining to watch.

A new visitor, a little garter snake.



The night sky, is just beautiful. We live out in the county ~ no street lights, shopping centers etc so we get a good clear view. We're trying to learn more of them, sometimes there are so many stars it's hard for us to pick out the constellations. We've seen the Milky Way, Ursa Major, with the big dipper, Taurus, Leo, Orion, Cygnet, Gemini, Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, Draco, Bootes, Pegasus. Here is a sunset picture with two planets appearing. Not a great picture, but an amazing view I wanted to share. We miss our personal astronomer in NC (hi Rebecca!), so we're trying to manage on our own.

Oktoberfest

The local Frontier Museum sponsors an Oktoberfest each year. There is a somewhat large German history in this area with the many Germans settling in this area, farther south into the NC mountains you get Irish and Scottish settlers. So the girls and I went. It was fun and festive.

Barrel Racing. Using a smaller barrel than the traditional one, but Lauren did great and won her race. Tiny but mighty, she is.

Making sauerkraut.

Helping to thrash and then sort the wheat.

Helping to make preserves

We had fun eating some food while watching the traditional dancing and music playing. Fun and lively.

Fall Hike (october)

We tried out a new hike in the Shenandoah Nat'l Park. We had done the upper portion leading to a waterfall last year. So we did the lower portion this time. It was a bit steep in places and rocky but we all did well. It was beautiful, lots of lush green trees and the babbling stream full of many cascades.

A beautiful sunset on the way home. Not a great pictures because it was taken through the window of a moving car. But it was spectacular, with pinks and oranges overlaying the clouds. A perfect ending to the day.