Sunday
Wednesday
We had a winter storm for a day here in Colorado. The snow was heavy, so some branches fell down from the trees. No branches fell from our trees, but lots of BIG branches fell from our neighbor's trees. Above, you see the biggest, with my friend showing the size comparison. About an hour later, after this branch fell down, me and my friend were throwing parts of this branch over the fence to our neighbor's yard, when he slipped, and fell down. He screamed in pain, so I helped him inside, thinking he didn't do anything bad to it. I looked by his knee, and saw a slit through his snow-pants. I looked into the gap, and saw a HUGE gash. He went to the hospital, and got 14 stitches. Yes, 14! In one day, two things fell down. And by the way, he's doing very well, can walk, but can't bend his knee presently.
Raya's solution to fighting cavities. "I'll just wear my fake teeth all the time." I'm not sure how effective that will really be!
Our scary pumpkins. Yes, the jigsaw came out but that picture looked the same as last years shot. We're trying to teach the kids, the bigger the holes, the bigger the light. We're getting better each year.
We borrowed a tag-along from a friend, it hooks onto the back of Kevin's bike, sort of like a tandem. I pulled the bike trailer and away we went on a 10-ish mile bike ride around the resevoir. It was really fun. The kids did amazingly great and we didn't have any flat tires, thankfully! We stopped in the middle for a picnic and then kept on trekking. The girls took turns in the bike trailer and decided the tag-along was way more fun. I think we have officially out grown the bike trailer. (Not that I mind, pulling an extra 50 pounds up hill was no treat for me!)
I was traveling home on Friday coming up the grade between Julietta and Troy when I got behind this truck. I had the camera in one hand and steering with the other and hoping he didn't hit the brakes while I was looking through the camera.
After a long night of Halloween fun, she was tuckered out and fell asleep on the way home.
I thought I would add our two bits about the colors in north Idaho. We hadn't had a freeze until just a couple of days ago so the leaves just slowly changed color on their own. Mom especially likes this tree. She watches it from the kitchen window. It is really pretty this year.
I peeked around the corner from the deck and took this picture of one of Shane's maple trees. A few years ago he wanted to cut this tree down but Tracy wouldn't let him. I'm glad they left it.
When we were in Leavenworth a couple of weeks ago we visited the artist that did the water feature on our back deck. Mom saw this and brought my attention to it. We just took one look and bought it. There goes your inheritance. I hung it on the front of the house in the new deck area.
This is me loading the pistol.
My dad and I took Hunter's Ed this week. We had three nights of class and a shooting day on Sat. At the beginning of the day, my dad and I went to shoot some shotguns. We both got five shots and we both hit only the last one but I was pretty excited about hitting one. After the shotguns, we were supposed to go to the archery station but we went to the high powered rifles while the other group got done. I shot an AR-15 and my dad shot an AK-47, a German Mouser, and an M-1. When we got to the archery, I picked the compound bow and my dad used a re-curve bow. We both nailed the Styrofoam deer in the heart/neck/leg. When we got done with archery, we took a lunch break. When we were done with that we went to the .22's. I hit the target 17 out of 20 times and all scattered around the elk target where my dad hit three in the same whole and got 19 out of 20 on the target. Afterwards we went to the muzzle loaders were I shot the pistol shown in the pictures. My dad shot what the guy called a space gun, which was a Knight muzzle loader. We were then done with the rotations and we had some free time. We tried to shoot the high powered rifles again but there was a huge line so we went back to the .22's and shot 50 more rounds. Once the people were all out of ammunition, we cleaned the rifles and and then took the test to see if we were worthy of our license. I missed 4 out of 50 and my dad got 100% but of course I graded it so he may have missed 1 or 2. We both got our license and left and when we got home I said to my mom,"Mom guess what, I shot an AR-15!" and her reply was,"Oh, good." and she gave dad the stink eye.
This ride was almost as popular as Star Tours at Disneyland. We rode it three times.
"I can't get this stem off!"
Notice the provisions on my back in case we get lost in the corn maze for a looooong time. Lisa also figured out why they call them "candy corns."
Kanyon is our animal lover. Even a jack-ass needs a friend.
All of the kids loved climbing on the old tractors. I think it's a universal attraction. 
First OREO
Kori built this one day and promptly fell asleep on it.
This week was Outdoor Lab for Tyler. Every year they take the sixth graders up to a mountain school for one week. They sleep in bunkhouses and attend various outdoor classes. It is a lot like scout camp. Ty had a lot of fun and came home with some good stories. He especially liked creating his own shelter out of branches and bark. He slept pretty good Friday night when he got home. He gets a quick break and then we are headed out this weekend for a scout campout Friday night.
Bring back any old memories?
Don't you love the modern cowboy's western attire; shorts and sandals!
A goat and Koper (with black widow face paint)
This morning
