While Jeff Was on His Trip

While Jeff was on a trip with his grad school hiking buddies...

Jonathan digitally designed the Coliseum for his history class.

We shopped for Halloween costumes at my mom's house.

Grace modeled her new, crazy dress.

Benjamin drew a macaroni penguin and a "Haloeen"picture.

Jonathan continued to love the trumpet.

I took our little crew to Home Depot to get materials for Jonathan's project for school.

Jonathan transported himself, his materials, and his trumpet to school.

Grace prepared to welcome her daddy home.

Young Eagles

If you've never looked up Young Eagles and the experience they provide to kids for free, do it now!  There was one near enough to us to drive, and all of our kids were treated by this pilot - to a lesson on how flight is achieved, to a quick flight around our area, and even to printed photos that he sent to them later.  Benjamin was technically too young for the program, but the pilot to Benjamin and me for a ride independent of Young Eagles so that he was not left out.

Just a Swim

Early September

A cousin of Jeff's had a box of American Girl goodies given to her, which meant Grace got some new-to-her clothing for Kit and Grace.

Benjamin, Grace, and Jonathan updated their sig figs.

I guess that, since I rarely stop for a snooze, this one was worth documenting.

Jeff, on the other hand, snoozes so often that I rarely take a picture.  Clearly, Benjamin is posing here, not sleeping.

Jeff and I met for lunch one day and went to Target afterwards.

This is when we were inspired to make plans for ourselves for Halloween.

Grace made a side-ponytail for Ariel.

Keeping all the Legos together makes the meeting of the minds a lot more frequent!

Divide and Conquer

For his birthday, Jeff wanted to take the family backpacking (as in hiking with all our stuff to a location there, camping - probably without a tent - and hiking back.)  We had planned to do this, but when Jonathan got sick, we decided that Jeff would take the youngers backpacking while I took care of Jonathan at home.

Jeff took Benjamin and Grace to a hot air balloon festival on the way to their destination in the wilderness.

They called this the dinosaur rock because it looked like a dinosaur's head, complete with teeth.

Benjamin's little buddy.

This is where Grace slept.

So many places in our state are scarred by forest fires!

Meanwhile...Jonathan had an illness that was over very quickly, which is usually the case.  After getting lots of rest one night, he was ready for some time with me the next day.

We enjoyed some one-on-one time together...and burgers, too.

Jeff and I were sorry we couldn't experience backpacking as an entire family, but each part of our family enjoyed our experiences!

French Horn?

Not long after Jonathan started playing trumpet, he came home on a Friday afternoon with a FRENCH HORN.  I couldn't have been more surprised.

Apparently, his conductor had plenty of trumpet players but not enough kids playing French horn, and she wanted him to consider it.  Amazingly enough, he had a really warm, pretty tone when he played it, too.  But, since riding his bike to/from school with a French horn was so difficult and because he liked his trumpet better, he decided to stick with the trumpet.