In mid-October, we were able to spend a week in Tennessee visiting with Ryan's grandparents. It was a wonderful trip - visiting the South is not something either of us has done much, and we enjoyed all the local food, as well as picking cotton from a field and attending a tiny branch of our church in Dyersburg (tiny branches are pretty common in the South.) On one of our first days Grandpa Al, Ryan, and Connor were able to go shooting in a friend's field.
We braved the very claustrophobic St. Louis Arch Tram to get a view from these tiny windows. It was actually pretty cool.
We were able to visit the graves of some of Nana's family, including her mother, Helen McCracken, and saw the house where she lived. (We also got to see where Grandpa Al grew up in Kentucky.)
On our way out of St. Louis, we stopped at the Science Center, where the kids had a blast. Connor decided he wanted a marble run for Christmas.
We were able to visit Shiloh, the Civil War battle site, which was amazing. The kids even seemed to learn something. Here they are pretending to be in a "battle".
On one of our last days there, we stopped at Reelfoot Lake, which was full of these crazy cypress trees, and supposedly is crawling with rattlesnakes.
Nana and Al were such incredibly kind hosts! We had a great time in the Tennessee area, we'll definitely go back someday. Oh, and on our way out to the Nashville airport, we had to get a picture in our favorite-named town wearing our new Camo Snuggie.
Sometime during General Conference this October, Ryan called me to come outside. I ignored him at first, but he sounded very insistent, so I went out the front door to see him looking at this little rattlesnake (our first so far):
We used a bucket and a broken hoe handle (now called our "snake stick"), to contain him, then waited for animal control to come pick him up. Apparently they get multiple snake calls a day, and take batches up the Angeles Crest highway to release them in the mountains. We had a great time looking at him while he was in the bucket, though. Three weeks later we saw another, even smaller one - also on our driveway - so hopefully they stay out of the backyard. We try to always send the dogs outside before the kids, just as a precaution (sorry dogs!)
Evan's morning routine currently involves waking up at 7am, crying for me, nursing on the couch for 20 minutes (it's totally just for comfort at this point, and I haven't had the heart to wean him yet,) then he goes into his high chair with Cheerios and a cup of water while I shower (or, sometimes, go back to bed.) Apparently, though, he doesn't always get his fill of dry cereal, because he loves to do this when I'm not looking.
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| Evan's Serious Face |
One thing Connor's doing for his "Fossils" passion project is digging this plastic skeleton out of plaster. It has been taking FOREVER, but I guess it's an accurate representation of how much patience you need to do paleontology.
Since the Animal Control officer had mentioned the Angeles Crest highway was open, we were excited to take a drive up to see the mountains again. It had been closed for over a year since the Station fire. On the way back, we stopped at a scenic viewpoint and decided to take some lovely, picturesque family photos. That didn't work out at all, but you can see the pictures anyway.
Oh, and lastly, here is Connor showing off his third lost tooth (and the first one he didn't actually LOSE, so it's in my keepsake box now.)
In September, Connor's charter school did their annual field trip to the County fair. It's a field trip in that we get to go during the designated "school group" time, and it's free, but we don't really do it as a group (although we did run into a bunch of Connor's classmates while we were there.) My kids' two favorite things about the fair are baby pigs and honey sticks. We got pictures of the pigs, which always make me want to swear off pork forever. So cute. The honey sticks are at the bee exhibit, and they don't even come from those bees, but kids like sugar, and they remembered this from last year, so we got some (no pics, though.) We also fed goats in the petting zoo, looked at all the other animal exhibits, and the kids got to grind their own cornmeal. Not as big of a day as last year, but I left a lot less tired!
We also went to Connor's school camp-out, but we cheated. Instead of camping, we cooked and hung out by the fire, then went home once people started getting sleepy. Evan's just not a good age for camping at the moment (plus, lets face it, I'm lazy.) All the kids there worked together to build this "clubhouse" out of branches, and we cooked fancy Schreiner's sausages and corn-on-the-cob for dinner. We learned that corn on the cob doesn't grill well. At least not within a time frame normal people find useful. Luckily, semi-raw corn isn't too bad.
In early September I was released from my church calling as Primary 2nd Counselor, and quickly received a calling to serve as the Sunbeam teacher again - yay! I'm all about repeat callings, they're way less stressful. I still even have a bunch of the lesson cutouts. Plus, I get to have Elise in my class until the end of the year. I meant to take a picture of the class to give to the old teacher (she moved), but I only got this test shot, then forgot after class started. We have ten sunbeams right now, but they've given me an assistant, which is fabulous. I definitely couldn't handle that many four-year-olds alone!
Last, I had to share this very important picture. We left church the afternoon after the forgotten class photo (so I still had my camera), and as I started up the van I saw this.
A few days after we got back from Utah, we got to host the first day of Joy School (Elise's second year!) We added another little boy to our group this year (the one who kept kissing Elise in church), making five. It's really a great group of kids and moms. Connor was very happy to be my "helper," since his school didn't start for another week. He also took these pictures of his baby brother.
Since Elise stopped sucking her thumb while on vacation, I had to keep my word and buy her an Easy Bake Oven. I have to say, it's a lot of effort for about a thimble full of treat, but I guess that's good in a way. There are a ton of different (very expensive) mixes available - so far we've done red velvet cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, and strawberry/chocolate checkerboard cake. There are no words for how much this girl loves treats.
