The last bit of Fall...

Fall is ending here in New England. The Winter weather has come with a bang. No snow yet but the temperatures have been cold enough. We went from rainy, warm weather to cold, crisp, sunny and a bit windy at times. I guess everywhere it has been colder than usual. We managed to go on one more Fall hike before it turned cold. Our very good friends, the Waltons, have moved to Boston for a year from CO. It is great to have them so close. They came up a couple weeks ago and we went on a nice hike. Below are some pictures I took that day.

The place we went for the hike is called Joe English in Amherst, NH. When you start on the hike there is this tiny house sitting there. We were told a family of 10 used to live there. The girls and I sat there on the picnic tables the first time we were there and tried to imagine a family of that size living in such a tiny house. Then we imagined our family there. Still couldn't imagine that. Amazing what families did with what they had back in the day. Makes me thankful for what we have today.

We hiked to this bridge that went over some streaming water. One side of the bridge opened out to a huge beaver pond. Here is Todd and Emily on the bridge.

This is Jim and his son, Luke. Jim and Todd went to high school together in Shaker Hts.

Jim took this picture of the swirling water with my camera. I wasn't sure what he was taking but when I saw the pic it was pretty cool. Jim is an awesome photographer so any tips I can get from him is always nice!!

Here is Leslie and Luke.

Here are my girls by the beaver pond. No, Dad, we didn't see any beavers.

I took this picture near the end of our hike. We were taking a rest and it had started to rain. It was getting dark and when I looked up I snapped a picture. As you can see most all the leaves have fallen.

The next two pictures are of the girls birthday parties. I promised I would post some pictures but never did. I have posted one picture from each party.

This is Emily's party friends. She had a slumber party with a PJ fashion show. She really planned most of it herself with games and food, etc. It was our first big slumber party. Three girls ended up sleeping in another room while the others proceeded to wander around the house and get into mischief UNTIL.....the mean mommy woke up around 2am. Then all became quiet. But it was a lot of fun!!

Callie had a scrapbook party with her friends. I was amazed at how creative these 3rd grade girls were! They produced some awesome little scrapbooks.

As for what else we have been up to?? Having Jim (Jamie) and Leslie here has been great. Todd and Jim went to a Brown's Backers bar one Sunday. Todd thought they would walk in and see a couple Brown's fans sitting off in a corner. The entire bar was filled with Brown's fans. I guess they had a great time!

Last weekend we met up with them at the Science museum along with Leslie's brother and family, the Crumps. It was great to see them and the kids have all grown so much. Here is a picture of all the kids.

Now we are just gearing up for the Holidays and the Winter months. The girls can't wait to ski again. Callie is going to try snowboarding (like her daddy) this year. We will have season passes this year due to me co coordinating the ski club at school this year. This will be my third year skiing and I still don't think I will be able to beat my kids down the hill. I just hope I can get off the ski lift correctly this year. Yes, I had a problem with that last year. I will always remember since Callie wrote a book last year in second grade (AND her teacher bound it for her) called, "How to ride a Ski Lift'. Dedicated to me! Ugh!

On a sad note....we lost a very good friend this week. Pony (Todd Payne) was killed in a motorcycle accident in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. He and Todd were stationed together in Biloxi, California and Florida together. They even spent time together when Todd did his year in Korea. Pony was in Japan and would travel to Korea to work frequently. Pony was a great guy and always fun to be around. He made us laugh every time we saw him. He wrote a sweet letter to Emily when she was born. The girls remember him well. I didn't realize how well until they started telling us stories of Pony. All week Todd and I have been recalling some great memories!! He is already missed by so many!!