Fall & Winter

Where to even start?  

I've been terrible at updating this blog lately!   My apologies to those of you who enjoy checking it.  So now I'm just going to scroll back through my photos and see what looks blog-worthy.  Here goes...

Way back at the end of September we hiked up Mont Ripley to see the colors.  

In early November the weather was still warm enough to paddle on the pond.  

We attempted a photo of the kids.  Oh, Lena. 

I got an iPhone in November.  After two weeks of complaining that it wasn't as good as my old Android, I started to take more photos and I do appreciate its camera.  

I just love these pictures of Lena and our cat, especially since Snowflake got sick and died a week ago.  It was very tragic for our kids, who really miss their furry feline.  I miss her too.  Right away Lena was asking for another cat, but the older kids needed time to just grieve their loss.  

Nora is a bird lover and likes to have the chickadees and nuthatches land on her hand to eat.

Big K had a birthday - 9 years old!  Hard to believe.  

Since we planned to travel on Christmas day, we asked Santa to come a few days early (it's nice that he's so flexible).  

Matt and I always get the kids something (and Santa does the rest).  This year we bought a used electric piano, knowing that Clare would actually play it and the other kids would plink and plunk.  Clare has been playing beautifully - she started with Christmas songs and since has progressed to harder pieces.  I love listening to her play. 

The kids have been getting a lot of game time this winter.  Skip-bo was a bit hit until Farmopoly took over.  Nora and Karl will play for hours, even through tears.

We have plenty of snow to play in although the temps have been chilly to be out for too long.  

The kids had a half day this past week and we skated for 2 hours at a local rink.  We were some of the only ones there!  

Clare and Karl built a snow igloo.  They had such a blast making it. 

Clare and I have been snowboarding at Mont Ripley.  Karl wasn't interested when we first asked him, but now I think he's jealous and will want to downhill ski next year.  

The igloo was expanded!  It's now a long tunnel that connects the first igloo to a second.  It makes me claustrophobic when I look down the length of that narrow tunnel.  (You can see the top of the second igloo behind Clare.)