Playing hookie

Every year McDonald Elementary has a race called the Turkey Trot. It's always close to Thanksgiving and the winning team gets a turkey. The kids are put into teams and a lot of times they're running in the snow. Nicole has always loved the race but Ashley has different feelings so last year we changed the plans and took Ashley out of school for lunch. This year she skipped the whole day and as luck would have it, it was the first real snow day day of the year. We took Ashley and her friends Grace and Rachel out for lunch at Winger's then Ashley and Grace went to Grace's and made a fantastic snowman.

Coeur d'Alene visit

We went to Coeur d'Alene to visit Paul's uncle who was in town with his wife.

Mimi with all the Great Grandkids

The beauty of Fall

I'm always amazed at this time of the year that God creates such beauty for us to enjoy. We are especially blessed this year that we've had so many nice sunny fall days without a lot of wind to blow the leaves off the trees. We actually made it out this year to take Fall pics. Here's some of my favorites...

Halloween

Nicole decided this year that she would just sit and watch us carve pumpkins

(the guts were grossing her out too much).

Ashley's cute face and my polka dots

Our attempt at making Halloween cookies this year...

Getting ready for the monster mash at school. McKenna the lamp, Ashley the peacock, Grace the Twister girl and

Rachel the Cookie Monster.

8th grade volleyball

Nicole made the A team again for MJHS volleyball. All but 3 of the girls were returning from the 7th grade team so they were able to pick up where they left off last year. They had a fun season and really improved. It was so much fun watching them play.

Team warmups

We decided that we needed evidence that we're at (almost) every game.

Getting ready for the jump...

jump!!!The fan club that comes with the team

Team building for Italy

The group going to Italy in June got together and participated in a challenge course on Paradise Ridge (south end of Moscow). The adults going on the trip joined as one group and the kids were separated into their individual groups. We had a great day on the course and were completely exhausted when we got home.

Nicole & Olivia

The adults "getting to know each other"

Last weekend of summer - Labor Day

So sad to see it go!! We spent our last summer weekend at the cabin with B & Jonalea, Keith and the boys and Ashley's friend Rachel.

Nicole and Mason "pretending" to be asleep.

The girls really wanted to bury SOMEONE in sand so I volunteered... I thought about staying there all day... best sunscreen out there :)