November

 

Took the little fishing boat out at Shasta.  Had fun, but no fish.

 

 Grant is such a funny kid.  He reminds me of my younger self A LOT.  He has lists for everything.  He's been keeping this Christmas list for months now so he won't forget when things come up that he wants. :)

 Just in case he forgets what songs to sing.  He's ALWAYS singing.

 Speaking of Grant, he had a birthday in November.  He turned the big double digits - 10!  He took donuts for his school class.

 He was so worried about his birthday getting missed because we had a full day of things we had to do or be at.  We went to dinner and bowling the night before and we all had a great time.

 One item we had to do was get family pictures.  I'm embarrassed to say how many years it has been since we did this.

 We looked a little ragid because we had just come from working for hours on an eagle project.  

 

1 of 4!! Eagle projects that we've helped with the last couple months.  Pretty much every Saturday has been spent doing eagle projects.  I can't wait for scouts to be over with.

 Birthday breakfast.

 His present.  He also got a book, an indoor soccer ball and a tiny basketball for the indoor hoop. 

 

Pretty much every day after school, for a month prior, Grant would ask if I got his birthday presents.  He was so worried I wouldn't order them in time because his birthday was on a Sunday and he knew I couldn't shop for them that day. He even told Adam and I to go on a date and then go shopping for his presents. :)  Even the night before I didn't have anything wrapped, on purpose.  I wanted him to sweat it out a little (I'm terrible).  When he opened his presents he was happy for his little presents and then in a card I said his last present was at Doug's house (our neighbor).  He ran over and knocked on the door and Doug said, "Why would I have something over here for you?".  It was great and then they went searching and found the bike in his garage.  It was a great surprise.

 It's the salmon run so we went to the hatchery to watch the salmon come up the ladders. Of course we found our way to the water to play in it.

 Got a little overzealous with feeding the baby salmon.

 Youth activity getting ready to depart for an activity. 

 November activity days - dipping caramel apples.

 Adam got pretty sick for about a week (took a few weeks to fully feel better) and we had a backpacking trip planned to Point Reyes.  The kids (and I) were looking forward to going, so I took the kids by myself AGAIN. 

 

I've done a lot of camping, but never backpacking, so it was somewhat of a new experience. 

  

The adults sat around a fire on the beach while the crazy kids built forts and got sopping wet.  I have no idea how they can get in that cold water.

 

 Had to stop for buffalo ice cream before heading home.

 Ava likes to dress up our skeleton (he gets to stay out of the Halloween box for anatomy lessons).

 Ava wasn't thrilled to pose for this picture, but Ava and Grant had another piano recital.  They did great. Every recital their teacher has a theme, and this one was The Greatest Showman.

 Noah got his braces off.  Look at that expensive beautiful smile.

 Finally got our pastels for homeschool and Noah completed his first art project.  Turned out pretty good for a kid who pays NO attention to detail.

 Science project - Tin dendrite

 

Grant and his friends at school made eraser men and he said he would make them a cardboard house.  He drew the plans with dimensions and all. 

 He worked on it for hours and took his 3 story creation, bunk beds and all, back to school for their eraser men.

 Grant and Noah spend a lot of time up in their tree perch. So far no one has fallen.

 More eagle projects.

 Love this fire pit and the dinners we have around it.

 I love that the boys make it their mission to put up the Christmas lights.

 We built a little shed over our pool equipment and we needed to get it shingled before a rain storm came.  The boys did a few rows with their dad and then they finished the rest while he was at work. 

 We got snow at the cabin, which resulted in our power turning off for 5 days, which changed our Thanksgiving plans.  Oh well.

 Beautiful, and delicious, turkey bird.

 The only picture I took on Thanksgiving (besides of the turkey).  We had the Oakes and DeBurgh families over for Thanksgiving.  Yummy food and great company.  The kids ran amuck and had a blast.

 Since we couldn't go to the cabin, we went searching for a Christmas tree. 

 

 We found our Christmas tree and lots of snow.

Got the tree and house decorated for Christmas, so I guess we're ready for the holidays to begin.