Halloween 2014

We had a great Halloween although poor little Luke is sick. He is a trooper. He trick or treated happily despite obviously being sick until 7:30 when he finally asked to go home and go to bed. He was asleep by 7:35. No kidding. 

I love that I got a good picture of them together, but check out that second picture. Isn't that the sweetest thing ever, they were obviously sharing a chuckle. 

Jack o'lanterns

I spent the entire day carving pumpkins today. I started with Luke's kitty cat and ended with Jack's "creation". I seriously taped the picture he drew onto the pumpkin and carved. Oh, and that one you cannot recognize? That's an Airedale. 

Soldiers and Pumpkin Pickers

Our Sunday in pictures: 

We also got to listen to the last Music in the Park of the season. We ate dinner outside just so we didn't miss it. It was a pretty perfect day.

Halloween Costume Spoiler

I've always spent a significant amount of time putting together or sewing Halloween costumes. Not this year. This year, Halloween is too soon after our move for me to put a lot of effort into it. But when I saw Army helmets in the dollar bin at Target, I was inspired. Since the boys had requested Buzz Lightyear and Woody costumes, I had to sell Army men. So I took the boys outside to play today. They are sold, of that I am certain. These are costumes I can see them using long past Halloween. 

Staying In Touch

We all left behind good friends when we moved from Virginia, but Luke had to leave behind his first friend. He misses Harper a lot and talks about her all of the time. Luckily, Facetime has made staying in touch pretty easy. It's a lot of fun for all of us to see Harper and Mairin on that iPad screen, but it's even more special for Luke.

Highlands, NC

Kathy and Kevin have been telling us about Highlands, NC every since we started our tour of the southeast region. With Jack on fall break and John burning some leave, we finally made it out there. We had lots of adventures.... 

First we hiked through Stumphouse Tunnel, an abandoned train tunnel in pitch black darkness. 

Next we climbed behind this waterfall. If you know my fear of heights, you can probably guess how much anxiety I had to push through to do this. But, I'll do pretty much anything for the boys. 

After our hike, we drove in to Highlands for lunch. We didn't go to any of the fancy restaurants because we have two young kids who were absolutely filthy from their morning hike, but we did find a yummy Chinese buffet where Luke ate his weight in red and yellow Jell-o and Jack did the same with noodles. 

After lunch we wanted to take a short little hike to burn off the calories. I wish I had noticed that the trail went two directions and that John was taking us up the trail that said "More Difficult". It was an exhausting climb up the side of Whiteside Mountain, with a 750 ft elevation change in one mile. The boys, especially Luke, are billy goats. They made it look easy. It wasn't! BUT, the views were incredible, and it was such fun to spend time with the boys doing something they enjoyed so much. We found some half eaten blueberries, stopped to play in every mountain waterfall, and climbed and climbed and climbed. 

And so our adventures have started from our new home in Greenville. Thanks, Kathy and Kevin for the heads up on this beautiful area. 

Life Is Good

Ever since our move, I have been thinking I need to buy a couple wooden boats for the boys to play with in the fishing pond and this koi pond. Then I unpacked a box of Jack's wooden toys from The Home Depot and Lowe's kids' kits. With a few modifications, we came up with a working vessel. On tomorrow's agenda is to build a boat with Luke so he can get in on the fun. 

Coming To You From South Carolina!

Exactly one week ago, the moving truck dropped all of our stuff off in Greenville, South Carolina. While this move has probably been the best of any of our recent moves for our family, it was by far the hardest to get through. Luke hated everything about this move.... and he made sure we all knew he was unhappy. If it had not been for Grandma, we may not have ever made it out of Virginia because I would have given up!

When John and I went house hunting a couple of months ago, we made an effort to focus on the neighborhood amenities for our family. We ended up choosing a home that is in a neighborhood built around a central park which our home faces. The pictures below were all taken in the park around the koi pond and waterfall. We've also enjoyed a concert in the park on the night we moved in and a s'mores roast this weekend with a few of the neighbors. I think we are going to love it here. Come see us! We are just a short drive away from the mountains.