Sled Time

It was a beautiful day on Sunday so we headed to the sled hill at Giant Springs State Park.  Everyone had a great time!  It's fun watching the kids become a little less reliant on Mom and Dad to pull the sled back to the top of the hill :)

Well, then there's Jessie...

Snow (Kids Excited!)

It feels a bit like Christmas outside with 11 inches of fresh snow.  Tomorrow it's supposed to get down to at least zero (0) degrees.  With the wind it will probably only feel like -15, so... no problem.  The kids can't wait to go sledding and make a snowman.

Thursday they sent us all home from work at 2pm, a new record we think for the Base.  Then again, our boss' last assignment was in New Mexico :)

Thursday evening making a fort.

Friday morning the fort is buried.

If she's not in school she has to work...

 

 

 I bought a snowblower from the neighbor this summer for dirt cheap.  He wishes he had it back but we do his driveway anyhow (he got the good deal...)  Amy wanted to take it for a spin, too.

 

 

October Ramblings

Happy Halloween! 

October was a fun month and we squeezed in a lot of activities. 

Rice Krispy Pumpkin Treats

A Blue Fairy (Gracie), Luke Skywalker (Emmett), and a Butterfly (Jessie)
No jack-o-lanterns this year because we put the pumpkins out the week before Halloween - exactly one day before the daily highs were 30 degrees - for the whole week! The poor pumpkins turned to mush!

The kids are getting tired of my annual Halloween Cougar Fan costume - Amy wore a Spider :)

 Amy's Birthday was October 17th!  I had a bakery in town make her a tiramisu cake... It was great!!  Didn't feel bad when some of the kiddos didn't like it :)

Amy made waders for Gracie and Emmett out of heavy leaf bags so that they could follow me through a few inches of water out to the duck blind.  We headed out twice but had to turn back both times, once due to millions of mosquitoes and the other when Gracie's rain boots (not the wader-part) fell apart :)  

 Emmett and Gracie had a fun soccer season.  It was a bit busy with 2 evening practices per week and Sundays tied up with games, but we'll do it again.

Happy Pose

Serious (kinda) Pose...

Antelope season was in early October and I drew a tag for south of town.  Gracie again was up for hiking 4 miles round-trip.  I was impressed and felt a little guilty -- we woke up at 4am, hiked for 1.5 hrs, and then sat in a gully for an hour trying to stay warm till the sun came up.  She went through it all with a smile and we were back at to the truck with an animal by 10am.

 

 After years of hunting for elk I got my first one this October, a nice 6x6.  He was about 4 miles from the truck and I was lucky to solicit 3 friends to help get the meat out before the wolves and griz found it.