It Snowed!

It snowed today! Not a lot, but enough to make everything look pretty. The real news is that it is cold here! The hight today was 31 and tonight it is supposed to be in the low teens. God must know that I am not quite ready for winter to be here yet, it is supposed to be 60 degrees by Saturday. Also, you may notice that Will now refuses to look at me when I have a camera in my hands. I hope you'll be able to see his eyes again soon!

Our History Buff

Jake has a real love for history. It is definitely his favorite subject in school. His favorite era is WWII and lately he has been thinking about trying to get involved with reenactments. So you can imagine his delight when he found this WWII uniform at the Army Navy Surplus for only $13.00! Fortunately, that was just how much money he had to his name. He bought it on Monday; it hasn't come off since.

One More Autumn Pic

Just wanted to share yet another picture of Will. And this may be our last picture with fall colors for the year. Snow is predicted for next week. If it is true it will be the earliest snow we have had since we moved here...maybe we will be trick -or -treating in the snow. Yikes!

Yesterday we got another cord of firewood. As you can see, all of the boys were a big help taking it down the hill to the back of the house and stacking it up. It was a lot of work, but we all had fun! Now we are really ready for winter!

"Yes! I conquered that climb!"

Sam wishes he could use the wheel barrow too!

Jake did a great job of getting the wood stacked.

Aren't I blessed to have all these handsome men to get us ready for winter??

Happy Oktoberfest!

Last night we had a few people over to celebrate the arrival of autumn. Will was our baby Oktoberfest! We tasted German beers, ate brats, homemade pretzels, delicious German apple cake, and Sam made caramel apples. We were going to carve pumpkins as well, but we ran out of time, so now we have an excuse to have another autumn party! Hope you are all enjoying the season!

Another Day at Lockett Meadow

Monday we headed back up to Lockett Meadow for our day of faux camping. Will helped make the campfire,
he and Sam helped set up the tent,
and he even chopped kindling!
We saw this lone aspen tree surrounded by pines
on our hike.

Will promptly swiped my walking stick!

Silly baby!

Sam making a walking stick of his own.

Three boys off for a walk

Jake played music for us around the campfire. Unfortunately, we had to leave earlier than we hoped because a bitterly cold wind was sweeping across the meadow. Not even the campfire could keep us warm!

At the very end of our day we were interviewed by Arizona Highways TV show. It's scheduled to air on Saturday. It should be a hoot, actually, it's a fairly typical depiction of our family. We are sitting under some lovely aspens being interviewed about the beautiful fall colors, and I hear John talking over me, "Jake, Sam stop it!" Afterwards, I asked why he was scolding the boys during the interview, and he said that while I was talking, Sam had picked up a bayonet and was waiving it around for the camera. Great...maybe we will end up on the cutting room floor! That's our boys for you!

An Afternoon at Lockett Meadow

Lockett Meadow is our favorite place to hang out and soak up all the beautiful golden Aspen leaves. It's really amazing, and it is only about thirty minutes from our house. It makes for a perfect afternoon getaway! The reflection of the mountain in the water above, took our breath away.

Will's mean bear face. He likes to be a bear a lot--he was a bear most of this afternoon, in fact. He may not look really scary in this picture, but wait until you hear him roar!

Will took off on a log by himself. Pretty good, I think, for a two year old!

Being silly in the car window!

I love these pictures of John on the outside and Will inside the car...

We had so much fun we decided that we are going to go back next week. We thought about camping, but decided that the nights are just too cold for Will. We hope to get up to the meadow early in the morning and leave after dark. We will pretend to be camping, but sleep in our own warm beds!!

Monday Morning

Will's Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Will's favorite book is A Very Hungry Caterpillar, so we chose the fuzzy little guy as the theme for his 2nd birthday party! We had a caterpillar made of balloons, and Amanda painted a really fantastic mural with items from the book for our table covering. I never knew she was such a great artist!
Bre made another amazing cake for Will. Keep in mind, that not only was Bre talented enough to make these cakes, she did them back to back. Sam's birthday was Saturday night and Will's was Sunday morning! Thanks Bre!

YUM!

Pop, Gran, Aunt Kim and Uncle Rick got Will this animatronic dinosaur. He LOVES it. It interacts with you and you can feed it, among other things, but Will really likes to feed it! When it is full it burps. Totally a boy thing!

Will figured out the present opening pretty quick!

Grandma and Grandpa got Will this really cool car that he absolutely loves. He wants to play with it all of the time, and luckily it plays really loud techno music. I'm sure he will want to take this along next time he goes to Grandma's house!

A singing Sponge Bob card from the Flemings was a major hit!

It was a fun day!