Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! As I mentioned before, we went to my parents. It was a nice day. The weather was great (although a little cool), so the kids tried their hands at fishing off the dock. They didn't catch anything, but Kent assured them that it was due to the cold front coming through and didn't have anything to do with their fishing abilities! :)
I've attached a a group picture from when we went to Whitewater Falls in North Carolina. Dad was the photographer, so he isn't in the picture. It was beautiful. You can see it from above (which is still nice) or you can walk down 160 steps below to get a closer view. The only bad thing about going down 160 steps is you have to come back up them! Grandma stayed at the top, but everyone else made the trip down and up with no problems.
Al and Lavon left today to head home. It was a nice visit, but I'm sure that after 2 weeks they are anxious to be home. We really enjoyed having them stay with us, and we tried to talk them in to joining us permanently out here. It might get a little too cold here for Al, though.

Tree Part 2

Since I posted an earlier picture of the tree, I had to post a new one showing the dramatic difference! Isn't it beautiful?

Thanksgiving is right around the corner! We are all heading to my parents house on Lake Keowee for dinner. My grandmother who lives in Colorado flew in yesterday, and with my brother coming up from Columbia that will make 11 for Thanksgiving dinner.

Josh was supposed to have a baseball tournament this weekend, but there aren't enough teams entered so we now have the weekend free unexpectedly! We're going to take Al and Lavon to Isaqueena Falls and the Stumphouse Tunnel tomorrow. I'll be sure to post pictures. I'm sure it will be beautiful travelling up the mountains with the leaves. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Happy Birthday, Ally!

Today was Ally's birthday party. Hard to believe that she is 7 yrs old! She had her party here at the house (a first for me... :) )and we all had a great time. We rented a moon walk, did face painting and had a pinata. The kids all had a great time and she got lots of great presents. Kent's parents are also coming in to town this evening from San Antonio. We are looking forward to a fun visit with them. They will be here through Thanksgiving. Time sure snuck up on us this year - we've got less than two weeks until Thanksgiving!

Fall!

Fall is officially here! The weather has turned crisp, and the leaves are changing. This has been such a great treat for us. We have been really enjoying seeing the season change. It was awesome last weekend at the baseball tournament to see the leaves blowing across the baseball field as we huddled in blankets. Or as we drive across town, to see the side of the road filled with red, yellow and green leaves. I know that it will only be a few weeks and the trees will be bare, but we're sure enjoying it while it lasts!

One of the things we are really enjoying since moving here is the change in climate. We love the fact that Greenville has four seasons. We made it through the hottest summer on record without any trouble (Texas more than prepared us for it! lol) and now we are enjoying the great autumn weather. Ally said tonight as we were driving down to my parents house that she can't wait for winter. I keep telling them that Greenville only gets about one snow a year, but even the possibility of that is super exciting to the kids. They can't wait to use the sled we bought in Colorado years ago on the hill in our front yard.

I've attached a picture of the tree in our front yard. In the last couple of days, the red is taking over. Before too long we'll be having to rake up the leaves from it....

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I hope that everyone had a fun day yesterday. Ally was our "Pumpkin Diva" and Josh was a "psycho clown". (kind of a joke because it was the clown that scared him so much at the Haunted House mentioned previously!)

Coming from a neighborhood that due to distance between houses and lack of street lights, we never trick or treated in our neighborhood - last night was crazy! We took off for trick or treating about 6:15 and the girls and boys in our group separated so that they could divide and conquer the neighborhood. Apparently, our neighborhood is the big draw of the area. People were coming from all over. The clubhouse parking lot was overflowing, the church parking lot right outside the neighborhood was packed, and people were parking everywhere. One of the houses had a really cool haunted house, and they turned our nature trails into the "haunted trails". The girls didn't make it to the trails, but Kent and Josh said it was fantastic. We all made it home around 8:00 with enough candy to feed a town. But it was lots of fun!