Fall Catchall

Oh, that's just sad to write. But here we are. New year and I've still got a few odds and ends from the fall I never got around to sharing. (I've also got the Ragnar report coming, but I still need to finish the video. Coming soon...ish.)

Subtle attempt to remind Ben the grass keeps growing on into November around here.

In a stroke of marketing genius, Emma created babysitting business cards and hot glued all of our Halloween candy to them. Every kid in our neighborhood and church went home with one. Brilliant.

Mom and Dad took everyone to the BYU game at ETSU. It was freezing cold, but totally worth it.

The Buckwheats went on a Monday morning hike up House Mountain, and it was beautiful.

And I told them about how the kids like to take pictures that make it look like someone's falling,
and they thought that was a great idea.

Emma and Ben went on a youth temple trip.

 

Josh required frequent reminding: no reading while walking.

The little girls tackled making the potatoes divine for Thanksgiving dinner.

Halloween 2014: The Circus

It's always a circus around here, so why not dress like it?

RingMaster, Clown, Tightrope Walker, Strong Man, Cheetah, Tiger Cheetah/Tiger Tamer

You know what I've realized over the years of costuming this family? My favorite costumes are more curated/made than bought. It's more fun and satisfying to piece together odds and ends and leftovers to create a character than it is to go buy a one-piece nylon deal. Plus it's way cheaper, and I've always liked that. So we dressed Josh all in orange, added some black stripes to his back and painted his face, and reused Scott's old Seneca Crane vest, and added some face paint to Afton's pajamas and called it good. The only thing I bought this year was a piece of fabric to make Ben's animal skin toga thing. Score! I'm thankful that everyone has fully embraced the family theme, it's a given now. Good kids, good husband. Thanks guys.

Catching up: Soccer season came and went

And Lydia rocked it. Amid all that fall fun Lydia put another season of soccer under her belt. She loves this sport and it seems to love her too.

House Mountain

Oh how I love the fall. And being outside. And going on hikes. And these five kids. And that fine looking husband. All of these things combined a couple of weekends ago and it was great. We'd never hiked House Mountain before, and it was a good one. Not too difficult for the littlest legs (maybe the first time neither little girl has asked for a piggy back ride ever!), a little over 5 miles round trip, beautiful views, plenty of big rocks to scramble around on, everything we like. Bonus: only about half an hour away.

I didn't take my big camera, but snapped away with my phone.

Oakes Farm

The day after Afton's field trip, we brought the whole family back and met some more Cruzes there. It was still pretty muddy, but not too bad. The sun was out, we indulged in some deep-fried goodness and fudge, and scared each other silly in the corn maze.

Field Trips

Lydia's class went to Metcalf Bottoms for a field trip a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to go there in the fall and look beyond the river-fun that's the reason we always visit. A very cool ranger took us up a little trail and gave us a great presentation about biodiversity. (Seriously, you could tell she loved her job, and the Smokys, and she was great with the kids, five stars.)

Then the very next day Afton's class went to Oakes Farm. It was crazy muddy that day. It had been raining the entire night before, and it rained some more while we were there, and I was really glad she wore old shoes.