My Phone

So we finally got a cord to download pictures from my phone.....so this may be the longest, most sporadic post.

Here's Grandpa after his first knee replacement in August. The second one will be next Monday. Whoop whoop.

 We borrowed our neighbor's canoe and floated down the river in Townsend. Bliss!

I thought is was funny to see Isaac climb in the canoe from swimming in the water. 

 Over the summer, Isaac was in to catching ducks at the parks we visited. He got pretty good!

 Elias drinking a sugar packet at a restaurant with our neighbors.

 We took a family camping trip in October. It rained the entire two days except for one dinner and another hour or so.  On the second day, Elias could stay up no longer. Aww..

 Goofing off in tent. Olivia dancin. Isaac resisting.

There was a man "bored out of his mind" while waiting on his wife to get to the campground. So he spent much of the rainy days with us and ate 2 meals with us. He also brought over all these ropes with tarps to hang around the place. It was very nice to have, but Justin laughed at all the rope around.

During the hour or so relief of rain...

Since we had a tarp over the fire, we could still eat smores!

Packing up to leave....no rain thank goodness! It was so foggy in the morning that we couldn't see the lake when standing on the bank.

We stopped at this place to see a waterfall that our camping buddy Mike told us about.  I'm trying to cover up my 10year old sweatshirt I've been wearing in every outdoorsy excursion. I must say, Willard Missouri school district gives quality clothing to their employees! 

This is the waterfall that you can see without getting out of your car....since it was raining again, it was a  perfect one to go to!

Mike also had 2 little dogs that the kids loved playing with.

Random mall playland.  It's weird to see Olivia outgrow the place with not wanting to play much....unless it's just her brothers.

It's been really hard giving him haircuts lately. I miss this. But, alas, he is losing his curl and the long hair looks more shaggy.

Field trip to Gatlinburg Aquarium with Olivia's class.

Her class. Good luck finding Olivia!

We went to Fuddruckers afterwards. The kids really liked that. I felt sorry for all the folks that came to eat there that were NOT a part of the field trip.

This was the group for the day.  Olivia talks about Kevin a lot because he came a few weeks ago and couldn't speak any English.  She game him my Curioso Jorge book (spanish curious george).

We went to the Yorio's church for Halloween this year. We had an army guy, Captain America, chicken, and chicken farmer.

First you shoot it, then you carve it.

Pumpkins Round 1

Elias and I went to a pumpkin patch at a garden center with MOPS.  Our friends Ruth and Eli were there too.

They got to pick a pumpkin to take home. 

 Elias and Eli on the hayride.

 E&E throwing hay at each other.

 This calf cracked me up. He was my favorite by far. He was so curious. He kept eating kids' jackets too. In this picture he looks like Luci does right after she toots.

 I just thought they were cute. 

 Feeding the kids!

 The kids feeding kids.

 See I told you. He was about to eat Elias in this picture. Elias got up, trotted away, and then turned and laughed.

 I was trying to influence him to get the biggest one. I know I should let him choose, but we needed one to carve!

 Caleb is sitting on the pumpkin we got.

 We had the boy scout troop over for campfire/dinner.  They worked on a planting badge I think....whatever it was, we got about 8 new plants in the yard! 

 Den leader handing out some seeds to take home.

 Of course....

Boy Scout Family Camp and Some Other Stuff

I took Elias and Olivia to the airport one night to welcome the WWII veterans back from their visit to Washington. There was a ton of people, decorations, and a very loud band with big drums. It was very cool to see. This was the last picture I took before leaving. 

 Cards

Olivia, Grandma, and I went to the animal shelter to play with cats. 

 I would have taken this guy home if I wanted a cat. He slept on me for a very long time.

 We camped one night at the boy scout family camp. We were the only ones from Isaac's troop to go. It was 35 degrees at night and we all got sunburns during the following day. Here they are drinking apple cider in the morning to get warm.

 It was pretty in the morning with all the low clouds.

 View of the campers from the top of the hill where the shooting was taking place.

 Bow and arrow practice.

 His final target.

 BB gun practice.

 Sling shot practice. They used dog food pieces for their ammunition.

 Digging for dinosaurs.

 Making quick sand.

 Dinosaur hat.

 Elias was so tired the following day.  I looked at him once and saw his eyes were closed under his hat while listening to the presentation before making volcanoes. This was him looking up trying to pay attention. 

 We put their beds together at first thinking that we would have to separate them soon after, but they have done fairly well falling asleep next to each other. Elias really loves the closeness. But sometimes it's just not close enough.