Scenery en route to Lava Point dinner date

The other evening we were both itching to get out for an evening.  We grabbed some sandwiches and drove up to Lava Point to eat dinner and see the scenery.  It was really cold when we got there, so we ended up eating in the car, but it was still just a nice get out of the house evening.  

Fun at the Lillywhite "hotel"

Jay and Brynn getting a house has taken some of the burden off Juge and Lance as the "up north hotel" when we go up that way.  They've been good to provide us with a place to bed down for the night on a very last minute basis recently.  In the process, we have had a chance to enjoy seeing Madi on her own turf...it's been fun!!!  Thanks, Jay and Brynn, for being such accomodating hosts...good company and good food!

Let's take that hike one more time...

The Saturday after our Halloween bash we got to go on a beautiful hike with the Weavers, Ferf and Koen and Dorothy.  It was the perfect day for a hike.  Eden is an amazing little hiker for her age.  She just kept trekking along.  Noah and Koen did fine too, but had to have a little bit of carrying...Koen took a nap on Paul's head on the way back. Sarai was just chill and cute the whole time in the pilfered plig bonnet (she forgot her regular sun hat). We had our lunch at the top and the kids kept me scared running around too near the edge.  They also had fun throwing rocks in the little pond and hiding in a cave.  Eden carried a Halloween bucket full of this and that all the way up...pretty funny.  When we got back to the stream the kids had a grand time catching moss.  I'm glad the Weavers finally got to take this hike with us.  I think everyone in the family may have been there now.  If not, we'd be happy to go again!

Halloween Party Extraordinaire + Tasia #7

Happy #7 Tasia- we love you!

Thanks to Juge and Moss and Christie, this Halloween Scrooge enjoyed a fun evening.  Everyone contributed something to the effort and it was a blast.  Thanks to all of you.  The party included tasty food (thanks to Brynn for sending cookies even when she wasn't in town to enjoy the fun), pumpkin carving by the men, banner making for the women, slime making for the kids, and games - bingo, cake walk, and Minute to Win It.  That was my favorite.  We tried to knock down card targets with rubber bands, stack golf balls, put together puzzles, order cups by how many pennies were in them, balance a marble on specific holes in an ironing board, and toss a bottled water on a table and have it land bottom down...all with a minute time limit to get the job done.  We also did a quick birthday sing/present opening for Tasia.  I feel bad that more of the pictures didn't turn out.  The lighting was difficult to manage.  Sorry that Ryan and Derek missed the fun.  Thanks again to everyone for a Halloween party extraordinaire!

If you aren't in the picture it's not because you weren't cute.  Picture taking is hard in the house. 

Monster fingers, it's hard to eat in a grape costume, a red-eyed ghost helping her dad, candy corns are not just for eating and pumpkin carving results.

Granny and Gramps Smith - these two really go all out.  Derek even shaved off some of his hair to make it realistic...and right before parent teacher conferences too!

Since I didn't get a good picture of "Thor" aka Zade at the party, Derek was good enough to share one with me.  Looks pretty cute, I mean tough, doesn't he?