Remiss

We've been off adventuring quite a bit lately, and though the events have varied, one thing has remained constant: I've been terrible about taking pictures. But I've hodgepodged together a few from our phones, so here are a few random ones. In list form, we have:
Gone back to VT for Columbus Day weekend to see Anna, hiked a bit, spent too much at a great jewelry sale, carved a pumpkin, had friends over for fires in our new fire pit, school school school with Henri, walk around Walden Pond, surprised Steve with the early gift of his whole family coming down for the weekend. The latter took a decent amount of planning and stressing since I plan best out loud and on copious amounts of paper but I couldn't because I was afraid I'd leave one laying about and Henri is horrible about keeping a secret. But we pulled it off! He came home on Friday and was very puzzled as to why his niece was greeting him instead of his daughter, haha. We ate lots, went to watch the Head of the Charles, watched a Clemson vs. BC football game, talked, had a fire, and the cousins generally had a marvelous time roughhousing. Today is Steve's actual birthday (happy 35th!!! I should insert something sappy here about how much I love him, etc etc, but words fail cause he really is the best, so rest assured he's well adored over here) and we're having a big dinner and the cake's cooling. He already did his presents this morning so hopefully the kids will go to bed at a decent time and we can get in a game of Settlers or something. More fun stuff coming up for the next two weekends, and then I think we have one unplanned one before we're again booked solid through the first of the year, Actually, we're booked beyond that because while home Meghan announced her engagement (congrats!) and they've settled on January 3rd as the wedding,

Unrelated to anything, has anyone ever taken the time share people up on their offer of prizes to sit and listen to their presentation? One won't stop calling, and as one of their free nights and presentations is in Ogunquit I was toying with the idea of using them for our anniversary date. Other than smiling through a 90 minute pitch, are there financial repercussions I should be looking out for? Thanks :)

And then the pictures:

His first marshmallow. I think he ended up eating 3....

Hiking

Outlook

A little past peak but still gorgeous

I see a resemblance

Too close to the edge!

Somehow a pumpkin got added to our cart when we stopped for snacks on the way over

He was interested in the process but was not impressed with how the guts felt, lol

whacking golf balls into the back woods

The finished product. Pretty good considering all the "help" he had ;)

So, the 18-24mo coat I bought him touches the ground. Fortunately I have Henri's old 12mo one so he's all set for this year and next :)

Headed down to watch the rowers. Everything gets out of order from here...

Steve watching his Tigers

Steve and brother Paul

Mom S and Steve. Did I mention it poured? So glad I stayed home with the kids!

Attempt at a family picture. We do this every time we get together and not once have we gotten one with everyone looking semi-pleasant. 

Ava burning off some energy before the long trip home. She could tolerate a lot of spinning, I get sick just watching the kids!

Yeah, my kids were sooooo cooperative with this

Aw, lots of loving. Hudson adored his cousins, but his favorite person was Aunt Melanie. I was pretty much ignored the whole weekend, she was THE person for him. If she was occupied, he'd take Paul as second best. I ranked #9.

Headed to VT (told you it got messed up)

Really out of order, the group we camped with the beginning of the summer :) We can't wait to try again, had a blast

Sigh. This girl has way too many opinions on her outfit. It's been freezing, but she'll only wear tank tops and gauze tutus. All summer, she wanted to wear fleece. I made her at least wear a coat for the park.

Sewing project! A magnetized curtain for her bed to hide all the junk underneath. 

We got a little treat at the bakery when we stopped for Steve's cake

He was so proud to sit at the table by himself and looked adorable all perched like this while he ate his biscuit.

The Club rowing back after their race. Our pastors wife's dad (76 years old!) comes over from Germany with his team to compete and this year we got to see him. They did fantastic, much better than previous years, and it was fun to stand on the bridge and scream while they flashed past.

He's 7 seat, headed back to the boathouse. 

She doesn't seem to walk a whole lot on our walks....

Trains make for blurry shots, but I think this is the only one I have of them together. They all seemed to have a good time. Hard to tell, but their hair color is identical. The Schoeffler genes run strong!

My home state is better than yours ;)

...and I'll take on any comers who would attempt to prove otherwise. The kids and I just spent the week at Gram and Papa's house. Despite a nasty head cold (complete with fevers, ick) for me, molar teething for Hudson and then him catching my cold, and Hen just being her 3-year old self, we had a fabulous time. The weather more than made up for the last time we were there and we had nothing but sunshine and happiness. While not quite peak leaf season, I'm guessing that will happen Tuesday, the color was still fantastic. Actually, we probably got peak as it's calling for rain all week so that will just knock everything off. I made a point of doing one thing a day as we had the house to ourselves with everyone at work and the kids needed a break from my constant "no's". There are stairs for Hudson to climb, chairs he can get on to, and just sooooo many temptations for little busybodies. Our days started early (5:30) but bedtime came pretty quick too (7! yay!!!) and I think it was the most rested I've been in a long time. Not that I didn't make Steve get up with Hudson this morning at 6 ;) We have a blazing quick trip planned in a couple of weeks and I have my fingers crossed for decent weather as I'd love to make a run up the mountain with Steve and leave the kids with my folks. Course then we'd have to fight off all the tourists. And oy, were there a ton of them in the way on our trip back home on Sat. Public service bulletin: If you are from New Jersey, or if you drive a Prius, PLEASE stay out of VT. Seriously. Your driving sucks. All the rest of you are annoying too, but this subgroup consistently takes the "idiot" category. And now back to our regular program :)

A few flowers survived the frosts

This little lantern has always fascinated the kids

Putting pebbles in it

haha, I love Hen in the background

Lots of climbing

Gah, he is just so cute, Loud, but cute.

They're starting to play together somewhat. Here they were throwing rocks at each other...

The tire swing broke but the crossbar is the perfect height for a trapeze

Growing in the woods

The big stairs I had to dash up over and over and over to get Hudson down. He had a blast

Hard to see, but Papa has done a ton on the rock wall and there are all these hidden flower beds and staircases, just gorgeous.

Headed down to Great-Grams

Out back of the barn

Hudson was tearing down her stick pile. Gram's have the best toys!

More westerly views

Her front tree is so cool: just half turns bright red while the other half stays green. Been doing that for years. 

Normally I just stop at the orchard and buy drops, but we had an outing and picked. Kids loved it

Sampling. Henri picked the whole bag by herself and did a great job selecting ripe fruit.

I know it's their business, but it always amazes me how much fruit there is on a tree!

I know, major choking hazard, but he was tickled to have his own apple

And he just stood in one place and munched so he was easy to keep track of

Of course we had to get drops for sauce and cider donuts ;)

Aunt Anna's stick was a big attraction this time. Had to hide it finally.

Late afternoon light

Anna leaves for college and her roses decide to bloom

More west views. The coyotes were out and wow, such a scary noise.

Lots of kitchen play

Papa! 

We got out the old doll's bed

Hud playing in the mud, Hen telling him not to

A lot more milkweed pods than I've seen in a long time. Maybe the monarchs will make a comeback?

See how evenly the color splits?

Gram had us down to dig potatoes. I've never done it, and it was very exciting. We had them for supper, breakfast, and lunch. Delicious!

Some of the haul

I washed all the dolls and they took a few days to dry. It made a slightly disturbing sight.

Every morning before he left for work Papa would leave a drawing of a scene for Henri on the chalkboard and ask her an open-ended question about it that we'd talk about through the day. This was the farm day.

Grammie and Hudson. 

On last view of the scenery out back

Not pictured was a few library trips with time spent on their playground, being terrorized by my Aunt's dog (my kids are petrified of dogs), lots of baking and delicious food (including grilled!), and just the general play of kids. Fun times indeed.