There were more fall pictures than I thought, so I had to make another blog.
With so many trees, we had a lot of leaves. I think we raked and blowed them away about four separate times. The boys helped a lot.

Rob decided one day that he was going to make a firepit in the back. So he dug a pit and lined it with stones. For a while he was cooking everything out there–eggs, bacon, popcorn, smokies–I had to stop him when he took out one of my pots to cook pasta and brought it back all black. It’s mostly just marshmallows and hot dogs out there now.

Since we didn’t have family around for Thanksgiving, we decided to get together with some friends at our house. We had two other families over with a total of 13 kids. We all brought food and afterwards we played games with the kids (had a cupcake walk & treasure hunt), and then they went outside to make smores–a traditional Thanksgiving dessert. The adults later played Settlers of Catan–our favorite game.

Lots of random stuff this fall–thought I’d just throw it all into one blog.

We discovered Carowinds this year and got season passes for next year. Carowinds is an theme park on the border of North/South Carolina. There’s a water park, which we will try when the weather gets warmer, and all sorts of rides and roller coasters. Here’s Ben and his friend, Spencer.

The boys decided they wanted to learn archery. We got a couple bows, some arrows, a bale of hay and went to the neighborhood field to try it out. Nick & Ben were naturals.
Gordon & Ethan needed some help.

Nicholas turned 12 in November. He had a party, which included bowling with friends and archery in the backyard. Grandma & Grandpa gave him a new bow and we got him a BB gun–It’s all about weapons this year (under close supervision).

There were a lot of Halloween parties this year

Party One: A family party at a friend’s house. The boys wanted to be wizards: Fire wizard, water wizard…I can’t remember the others. I was a witch and Rob was a nerd–a really far stretch for both of us:) We carved pumpkins, turned the daddies into mummies, smacked pinatas and ate a lot.

Party Two: Rob and I put on a How To Host A Murder party. It was A Night to Dismember edition. We had dinner and role played. Everyone dressed up–very fun for adults. Again–I was the witch. Doesn’t Rob make a great Frankenstein?

Party Three: We went to the church Fall festival. Rob and I were Frankenstein and his bride. There were lots of fun activities for the kids–cake walk, golf, bowling, doughnut catch, fishing booth, trunk or treat, etc. Here’s Ben during the pie eating contest.

Party Four: The neighborhood bunco group got together for their annual “Witches of Cherry Grove.” Lots of fun crazy women.

In the Pisgah National Forest near Asheville, are seven water falls. We hiked around two of them. I remember at Multnomah falls in Oregon growing up that you could get right up to the falls, now it’s all fenced out and you can only look at it from afar. At these falls in Asheville, NC, you can still get up close and even swim around them. There is even a waterfall that you can slide down. We didn’t bring swim suits, so we just hiked. It was fun and the kids still got wet.
Here’s Rob helping Gordon around the rocks

We found one waterfall where you can climb behind it. I’ve seen movies where people go behind waterfalls, but I’ve never been behind one myself, until now. It was fun…and slippery.

Here’s Ethan at Looking Glass falls. He didn’t want to get in the water. He just wanted to throw rocks.