Our Flying Squirrels

 Here is a drone shot from a couple of weeks ago. The land in the middle is actually an island in the Spokane River (Harbor Island) that is right by our house (perhaps why our neighborhood is called "Riverside Harbor"?). The water to the right is much narrower. Nixon and I Kayaked around the island this summer.

This is such a wonderful sight

Lyza let Nixon and I play with her 3-D pen

Snow hit us on November 7th this year and it is surprisingly still here (although it will most likely melt away this week with warmer temperatures)

A big tree in our backyard neighbor's house needed to be taken down after the windstorm because it was leaning too much. This is what the process looked like

Here is it all down

We got to vote in midterm elections and Henry loved all the candy they gave out at the polling station

Have I ever mentioned that Henry LOVES trains?

These boys liked playing with the magnet building things at the library

Henry making some icecream

Lyza eating the real thing on a date with her mom

Kim got to celebrate a friend's birthday at the cabin

Mason and I destroyed this puzzle

Nixon and I have gone for lots of walks this week and he always spots the moose in places I never would have noticed them

Even when it is dark out

Henry getting some one on one time with Kim

Nixon got a new haircut and we kept the top a little longer than usual

He looked a lot like McCaulay Culkin from Home Alone

What do you think?

Kim has been volunteering once a week in Mason's class

I got to go to an evening activity for Lyza and the other challenge students where they showed off some of the things they have been working on. They are so much smarter than I was at her age (but don't tell her that...)

I am not sure this house would do them much good in the elements

Lyza and Nixon took me to a local performance of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical and we had SO MUCH FUN!

It was misty above the river on Kim's morning run yesterday

Mason's friend had a birthday party at Flying Squirrel so I took him and the rest of the kids while Kim was at a stake youth activity

Every time I looked at Nixon he was flipping and flying through the air

Mason had a lot of fun with the birthday girl

And Henry was in heaven

He also realized that if you bring your knees into your chest it feels like you are jumping even higher ;)

Here is Mason showing me just how much he loves me

Whenever I wanted to find Lyza she was sure to be found playing dodge ball

The moment before impact

I think Mason had a really fun time at the party

Look at those party animals

Check out Nixon's new move

Henry also learned a new move, jumping from the highest platform

Here are a couple drone shots I got last night at sunset

Take care

Happy Halloween and Fighting Off Winter

Last Sunday we went to Falls Park to get out of the house and there was very little water moving through the dam

The kids loved exploring

Saw lots of ducks

I enjoyed spending time with this bunch (and no we don't segregate the kids by gender, it just comes naturally)

That evening we had a Halloween themed dinner complete with spooky punch

Then we carved pumpkins

All the kids carved their own pumpkins (with little bits of help here and there)

Henry didn't want any help

Look at that concentration

They turned out pretty good

They dressed up our entryway

On Halloween we did a trick or treat at my office and Henry was so happy to get a big bag of Sour Patch Kids

Trick or treating that evening went well. We had rain off and on and there weren't as many people handing out candy as usual but the kids still got enough

Henry and Nixon stayed out the latest

Nixon won a drawing contest at school and his prize was this bobble head

We got our first snow fall on Thursday. It wasn't much though.

Look at those letter "h" that Henry is making

They also learned about "7" at preschool

We got more snow on Friday to the point where it covered all the grass and was even starting to stick on the road. There was also a lot of rain that day. Friday night and Saturday morning there was a huge windstorm of Southern Alberta proportions so we woke up to the snow being gone and in its place...pine needles, leaves, and fallen trees. Luckily we didn't have any fallen trees at our house but we did have A LOT of pine needles. The whole family worked together and got them all raked up.

Fourteen bags in total

Mason and I had a date at Sonic, ate in the truck, then went to the dump with all of our pine needles.

Henry and I were twins for church today.

Have a great week