Gus

Sometime yesterday but our pumpkin/jack-o-lantern was named Gus. I suspected that Odin thought it felt disGUSting scooping the seeds out, but I was there the whole time. We brought Gus home from Michigan with us. He hung out in the garage where it was cool for a couple of weeks then yesterday we carved him up. Odin did the design and most of the carving this year, he was very into it. Last year John saw a battery operated pumpkin carving knife and HAD TO HAVE IT. Odin really wanted to use it, but thought the "manual" knife was easier.




Over the last few days Odin wore 3 different costumes. He wore the Army Dress Uniform to his school party.

A sort of Viking costume walking the dog.

And he was Wall-E for the Y's event yesterday and this evening. Ever since our neighbor was Wall-E two years ago, Odin was determined to be Wall-E for Halloween. We borrowed the costume this year and he was so happy.





The response was great, I am not sure if it was in part the costume, but he found lots of candy!


Oh and Samo was a pretty flower.

Dunes

We had a little time to play in Traverse City before the wedding activities started. John really wanted to see Sleeping Bear Dunes so we spent a morning there.
I, his mother who is around him daily, cannot believe how much running in the sand Odin did.






He played on the dune climb for hours, and still had a ton of energy left over to play (ie. run around like a crazy person) for the rest of the day
I also cannot believe that a sandy incline still offers me no help in executing a cartwheel.


We all had fun that morning, that evening was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, all in all a great day.





It was cool in the morning so I improvised a hat from my sleeping bag hood (it detachable and green!)

Jamie & Matt

Last weekend was my big sister's wedding. It was beautiful, the drive to MI was gorgeous, the people were all so warm and friendly, the place idyllic and the weather could not have been better. It was all so great.

The drive went very well, rural Wisconsin was very pretty with the leaves and the green grass.

Jamie and Matt did a great job personalizing everything and making everyone feel special. And they had a blast. It was fantastic to look over at them during the rehearsal dinner just smiling and happy. The ceremony and reception were the same just happy and smiles all around.

Odin was the ring bearer in the ceremony and got to walk with two flower girls. All the kiddos did a great job. They gave him a Lego watch as a thank you. It immediately became his most prized possession.

I have rather few pictures of the actual wedding or ceremony, I hope others did more!


One of the flower girls really like having her picture taken, it was enough to convince Odin to have his taken too.






I gathered a few props for the photowall that I (along with my entire family) built for Jamie and Matt. The kids loved the props!

There's only 1 rule . . .

Do not get hurt. Your Auntie is getting married in 6 days.
While playing in a monster leaf pile I wondered how we could make it even more fun. Then I thought jumping into the leaf pile form the trampoline would make it more fun AND more dangerous. I had visions of broken limbs. That is why I made the No One Gets Hurt rule. It worked great!

Passing lanes, passing time

On the way home today from the river, Odin was fascinated with the passing lines on the highway. We had talked about them about a month ago, and today he was oh so excited to announce: It's our turn now, Oh now it's their turn, now it's nobody's turn" approximenty every 30 sesonds as we made our way down the road. I am not sure how long it lasted, as I was able to have some quiet as I drove our shuttle vehicle home. We debated doing a bike shuttle, but decided in the end it was worth the extra gas to take both cars.
We had a redo of a stretch of river we did in May. It was really nice to see all the changes on the river from six months ago. It was much warmer this weekend than in May. About the same amount of leaves.

We found a great campsite with ample room for the boys to roam.

Sampson is not as young as he once was and is showing it more and more. He slowed down quite a bit as the day wore on. He was ready to go into the tent at about 5pm. On the other hand, Odin was ready to stay up all night. We convinced him after a look at the blanket of stars, that bed was a pretty good idea.

Bittersweet goodbye

We sold Fritz today, but it was the right choice to make. That car was a blast to drive but the window of drivable days was narrow and getting smaller. Ideal conditions: not raining and not too cold (or hot). You know the sunny beautiful days like we have been having. There were a few maintenance items that needed attention to make him useful in more weather. However we have a variety of interests and working on cars EVERY weekend is not one of them especially since we have a almost five year old and a single stall garage.

We know we found the right buyer when the guy said that he loves wrenching on the cars as much as he loves driving them.

Fall, or is it?

It is supposed to be in the SEVENTIES all week. Early October and shorts weather? At least for a 4.75 year old boy.
This time of year just begs for photographs. The light is perfect at nearly all hours possibly because I know that soon there will be only a fraction of the sunlight that we have now. It sounds great walking in the yard; crunch, crunch, crunch. The air even smells so refreshing. I cannot stop thinking about doing things like this: