Camping

We love to camp.  Actually I take that back, Isaiah loves to camp, and I don't mind it.  I might prefer to sleep in a luxury hotel with a swimming pool and cable television, but camping is a much more reasonable option.  And it does bond a family together in a special kind of way.  Some friends from our church invited us to go camping with them early this fall.  It was a wonderful, beautiful place, and a wonderful, beautiful time which I will share with you right here: 

90th Birthday and other Montana Musings from 2008

90th Birthday and other Montana Musings from 2008.  This was prior to Children.  Now there is an entire nation of little James Men formulating in our midst. 

Montana Sky, big rainstorm (Okay that sounds like the name of every city in Montana)

Manna From Heaven

Brotherly Love

Wash clothes And Towels

Grandpa's 90 today!

And Grandma is proud of it

In Love

Surprised!!

Sisterly Love

Isaiah running away from his bored brother

Little Baby Dilly Joined us!

Some earthy types

Cutting Banana for baby Dilly

JoAnna trying to escape the clutches of her in laws quirky behavior patterns. Mother in law is too strong for her to escape.

Another earthy type

Beautiful Family before the others came along

Our Handsome Husbands

Best Buddies

There goes a husband off the ledge.  Oh no.

Inappropriate

Happy Hitchhiker 

Isaiah finding himself

Butterfly finds himself on Susan's hat

32 degrees

Pretending to be brave

Joyous reunion of mother-in-laws

He is not actually Chinese

Isaiah and his old man.

I take camping seriously.

This year was the second best Halloween I have experienced in my grown up years. First in rank was two years ago when our whole family dressed as rednecks. 

I realized  this year that folks just aren't as creative or thoughtful about halloween costumes as they were when I was a child. It seems as though everyone runs to the store to buy a costume in its entirety and just puts it on, and they all sort of look alike, whereas when I was a kid I seem to remember a lot more ingenuity and creativity and home made-ness going into costume making. 

As a mother, I wanted to bring back our more creative past.  But then I realized that I just don't have the Martha Stewart capabilities I wish I had when it comes to creative costume making, or really with anything. So, my children had costumes in their entirety bought for them at the local good will. My children dressed up as a pumpkin and a lion, as you can see in the pictures.  You can also see my efforts to make mascara-whiskers on my older son.  I kind of like its rustic look. Plus, I was thrilled to discover that everyone we ran into was in awe of our little afro-lion son that evening. 

So, we decided to take them trick or treating. Last year we discovered that very few people were out trick or treating in our neighborhood.  This year I discovered where they all went:  To the rich people neighborhood. That's where we landed this year.  There were children SWARMING everywhere.  I guess from a philosophical standpoint, the bigger the house the better the candy. I was wondering if all the people who lived there were annoyed that all the children in Eugene were coming to their neighborhood assuming that they would get the cream of the crop there.  But I was wrong.  The people were amazing.  Every house was decorated and inviting and all the grown ups were dressed up and VERY happily tossing candy out to all sorts of greedy children. And there was GOOD candy.  And lots and lots of little people and people who weren't so little going from house to house.  It was a very lively and happy experience for me, it seemed to cultivate a wonderful sense of community somehow.  Plus, it was a beautiful night. The leaves were falling from the trees like magic and the temperature was just about perfect and there was a welcomed lack of rain for the duration of our hike.  And best of all we got to experience this with our dear grandma, which we don't get to see nearly as often as we would like to. 

Jedidiah took about three minutes to decide which candy to pick from each candy bin, while several other children lined up to wait for them. I think one time he refused to get candy at all.  

Candy hasn't been too much of a problem this year.  I hid it. I hid it because this morning, Jedidiah woke up and said "I NEED candy!!!!"  Over and over again.  Out of sight, out of mind.  It is working this year.