Fall

This fall has brought us out into nature quite a lot. We've gone on wandering walks. Collecting little bits of fall goodness for our nature table. And here and there, pieces for gifts. (You'll see) Anyway, this update is a little tribute to the wonders of fall.

It seems I'm always a bit of a pack mule.

Such a tiny little thing.

Fisher and his bestest Ruby.

Teamwork

It's pretty amazing

I'm loving this little curve. Her first haircut is coming ever closer. (Mom's helping me trim it in NC)

I think adventure lies that way.

I'm a sucker for a good super cheese

Dr. Seuss was here.

That water was COLD!

We've also been working on our fall craftage. Here is our Halloween bunting. Black cat, moon, pumpkin, ghost, star. I might just be obsessed with buntings. I have plans for every holiday to have them!

This is what old pickle and olive jars, tissue paper, mod podge and electric tea lights will get you around here.

Wool felt acorns. Those are real acorn caps we found on one of those walks.

Here's our Halloween tree. We're decorating this for all holidays too.

So there you have it. How we spend our fall days. (It's finally gotten cold enough to turn the heat on today!!) We are super excited for our road trip. (And, should any of you NOT be my friends and be thinking that you want to rob my house while I'm gone... You should know my neighbor across the street has a gun, watches my house, and her son is a cop. Plus, anything good I have, I'm taking with me. So there.) We'll see you on the flip side. And then I'll probably tell you our big news. And before you ask... I'm not pregnant.

Love you all. Can't wait to see you NC folks!

JKFP

A Good Dog

A wonderful, sweet dog died yesterday. LeeRoy Brown Cunningham. 4/10/1999 to 10/9/2010.

He made our lives richer. We miss him.

Rest my friend. We love you.

JKFP and Bob

A day in the life...

What my sweet little angel looks like when we are getting ready to leave the house. Those ears are part of her halloween costume. (No, not Minnie Mouse, Angelina Ballerina - you'll see. Oh and I made those pants too. Cute?)

This is deceptive on so many levels. The largest of which is this....

She's mostly covered in dirt (or in this case mud) All. The. Time.

No, I'm not kidding. Leave em alone for 5 minutes and this is what I get.

Mud baths. Yes, Fisher is without pants again. Don't judge. They had gotten muddy of course.

I think there was something cool in there. Dinosaur bones maybe? Fisher is POSITIVE bones are in our backyard - somewhere.

"Pretending" to sleep

Learning amazing new crafts like needle felting.

The awesomeness that came to us via an appliance delivery person at Carly's. She had to bring it over in Doug's truck that night.

It was dark outside when it got to our house. The only logical solution... string it with white Christmas lights inside. This was crazy fun. Cheap entertainment is, by far, the best entertainment. This is still in our garage, by the way, waiting for a rainy day.

Pretending and messes and necklaces. Lots and lots of necklaces.

Hands off my pole!! Piper has gleefully taken ownership of Fisher's old pole. (He got a new one for his birthday.)

PBSkids.org = fun for the whole family.

This was the close of a wonderful evening filled with great food and great friends!

L to R: Fisher, Piper, Ruby, Zoya, and Storrie. (missing from pic - Johnny, Finn, and baby Ruby.)

What a life!

JKFP

Two for One

Today I have a two for one special running for you all! Exciting - I know. Two fall weekends filled with fun and adventure. Here we go.

A Camping Trip.

We decided (on quite short notice) that we wanted to go camping. It HAD to be somewhere we could fish too. (that was a requirement of the boys) So, we grabbed the pop up and took off. (That little camper really has come in handy) We ended up at a place called Skaguay Reservoir. It's a pretty little place. Elevation is just under 9000 ft. Here's a few from our campsite.

Yes, this is fairly typical.

So is this. This is Fisher trying to squeeze one last cast in before bedtime. I think he did catch one.

Campfire sitting.

Attempting to coax the crankies out.

This IS what's known as a "mini me". She looks just like him! Sometimes there is a sprinkling of me in there - but not in this picture.

Okay true story. I have been struggling all summer with keeping Piper warm enough on our camping trips. Higher elevation = really cold nights. It FINALLY hit me... heck with sleeping bags - down comforter!! That was the answer. Pipey even had her bottle leak in the middle of the night. I stripped her down to her diaper and pulled her back under the comforter.

Toasty warm.

A few more. We (well the boys) fished. Fisher and I took a lovely stroll around the lake with Pipey on my back.

Fisher took this one.

This, my friends, is what happens when 1. child refuses to wear hat and it's sunny. And 2. Daddy applies sunscreen to childs head. Nice!!!

All in all it was a pretty fun little trip. And it had the added bonus of preparing us for a little adventure we have coming up. Next week Carly and I are roadtripping with the camper. And. All. Our. Kids. Call us crazy. Heck, I'm starting to wonder myself. I'm sure you'll see LOTS of pictures.

A Balloon Festival

Every labor day there is a balloon festival at Memorial Park. It's very close to our house and some years the balloons even float over our backyard. This year we had talked about going early on. Well, we forgot and woke up late. We decided to go anyway (after much early morning grumbling from yours truly) and took off. Well I'm quite glad I was forced (against my will). It was really nice. Such a beautiful thing first thing in the morning.

I think I stated this was first thing in the morning so NO, I didn't brush my hair.

This would be my husband's idea of funny.

So, the balloons who have been here year after year like to show how talented they are. They touch down in the lake and take off again. The ones that make it (they don't all touch the water and some don't even try - guess it's hard) get a huge cheer from the crowd!

Plus you get a neat balloon waterfall. I bet their feet were cold.

So there's your twofer. Hope you enjoyed.

Hugs,

JKFP