Our Annual Halloween Party

Saturday was our yearly pumpkin carving party. The weather this year was perfect! T-shirts and light jackets. We almost didn't need the fires, but they are still fun to sit around. We switched it up and carved pumpkins first and then enjoyed LOTS of yummy crock pot soups. We had lots of old-timers and a bunch of first-timers. It was fun to visit with everyone and catch up. I always like seeing our yard (and the neighbor's) filled with people talking and having a good time. The kids had fun playing together and I think we only lost one spring on our trampoline.

Brant

Fall Colors

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.

Fall is finally here. Cool temperatures and lots of rain. This week it is supposed to actually get below freezing by a couple of degrees. The ward Halloween Party is this Friday. We have a chili feed and then trunk-or-treat. Then on Monday we will have the regular town folk. I was sicker that I've been for years on Wednesday, I went to work on Thursday, and then was sick again on Friday. Stomach flue, chills, etc., etc. Lacey and Seth's family have been sick too. As usual, Mom came through unscathed. I think it is the anti-bodies she has built up over the years from working with thousands of 3rd graders. Enjoy this season, it will be snowing before you know it.

 A few photos of our weekend. Yesterday afternoon we drove about an hour west to Front Royal, VA. We enjoyed (kind of) lunch at a main street diner that seemed stuck in the 1950's. We then opted to skip the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park because the road was clogged with leaf-peepers like us. We went one valley over and found a nice hike to spend our afternoon on. The air was fresh, the leaves were great, and the other hikers were very untalkative.

 This is what happens when you put your camera on a rock and hit the self-timer button. There were no level rocks available. 

 Kelly, happy to be enjoying the outdoors.

After church today we took a little walk about the Marine Corps memorial

I liked how this pic shows the Washington Monument and Capitol in the background.

Guns

Here is me shooting a black powder muzzle loader pistol and after I shot the target, it fell down.

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.