Graduation & New England Fall Trip

Fall is in the air and we finally had to build a fire in the wood stove!  Our family has been pretty busy since my last blog in August.  Scott and I are in Tahoe for his annual "fall" QSD/QSP training so I found time to update my blog

Our biggest event/news for September was the wedding of my youngest brother-Robert. 

But real quick, here are a few photos from our first day of school!

We travelled to the San Diego area a few days before the wedding to have a reunion with my sister and her family.  They typically make a trip to California in August to visit, but this year with the wedding, our gathering had a different venue.  We spent our first day together at Legoland!  As you can see from the photos below...nobody had any fun! :)  Robert was able to take a break from wedding plans and spend time with us, and my nephew Forrest was also able to join us too. He made a great "nanny" for all the kids.  It was so much fun for all the cousins to be together.  We were lucky enough that Scott's folks were able to obtain us some sweet accommodations at their timeshare, so we all gathered at the outside patio for Pizza Thursday night. 

 

 

After an evening rest from LEGOLAND, those of us not involved in wedding activities gathered at SeaWorld for another day of entertainment.  It was a beautiful day, (a bit warm in direct sunlight) and we were all pretty exhausted by evenings end. 

 

 

After we all parted for dinner, we gathered once again at our condo's pool area and had a small birthday celebration for my niece Sophie & Nolan who both celebrated birthdays in September. The "sad" faces were made for Grammy who wasn't able to join us that evening.

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning allowed for some beach time, and although it was an overcast day, that didn't stop the kids from getting wet...and having fun.

 

 

After some cleaning up, and dressing up...we headed to the wedding.

 

 

My photos can't compare to their awesome photographer.  Here is the link to her blog featuring the wedding (as seen on my Facebook Page)

http://www.analisa-joy.com/wedding-robert-kelsey-red-barn-ranch-ca-analisa-joy-photography-san-diego-ca-photographer/

 

and here are few of ours: (I wish someone would have reminded me to take my sunglasses off...and the silly hat.  I really dislike hats)

 

 

 

And because we are homeschoolers, no road trip would be complete without an educational field trip or two:  Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Oceanside & Mission San Juan Capistrano.  We are studying California History this year, so it was perfect timing.

 

 

And then since Scott's pretty much always working...we hit one of his project sites too.  This one just happened to be in Yosemite.  :)  Leah found a new friend at the campsite. 

 

 

Since Nolan's birthday was the LEGOLAND visit, Mema did make some cupcakes for his "real" birthday when we arrived home.  Here's a couple pictures of the birthday boy making his wish. 

 

 

September ended with the kids and Scott helping load pumpkins for the Rescue Fire Department's Annual Pumpkin patch. The following day we went on a historical tour of Rescue with the Historical Society (another school field trip) and after the tour the kids chose their carving pumpkins

from the firehouse pumpkin patch.  Then the kids were off for a slumber party with Grammy & Grandpa and Scott and I did another work/camp trip to Yosemite for our 14th anniversary! 

 

We returned home & Scott went hunting.  On our property.  We've had a couple of bucks eating our alfalfa for our cattle so Scott got his hunting license for the year and he was successful in eliminating one of our food stealers.  (PETA friends....skip the following photo)

 

 

Leah decided she wanted to tan the hide.  She's using this as a project for her study of California History and her Sutter's Fort ELP project.  She worked on it the first day with Dad for 2 1/2 hours, the next day after 1 hour by herself, she wanted to give up...but I encouraged her not to give up, telling her that if she completes this task, she'll be one of an elite few people who will have ever done this.  She completed another 1 1/2 hours that same day and has spent probably a totally of 11+ hours working on it so far with less than 3 hours of help from Dad & Grandpa Rene.  She's excited, but says she's never tanning a hide again!  All my pics are still on my camera at this time, but I'll try to make a "project" blog for Leah specific to the tanning process at a later date.

 

Speaking of Sutter's Fort ELP; Our family is involved for the 2014/2015 ELP (Environmental Living Program) at Sutter's Fort through the Sacramento Area Homeschoolers.  Scott, myself, Leah, Chris & Nolan will be dressing up and taking on the persona of a person who lived at Sutter's Fort in 1846.  We've been selecting our characters, assembling our costumes and learning songs and "lingo" of the time.  Leah is a "participant" child since she's in 4th grade this year and she will be an "immigrant girl" on our ELP day - Mary Griffith.  We were lucky enough to be assigned as her parents - James & Elizabeth Griffith.  (Nolan will be one of our sons-James) and Chris is another adult who immigrated with her family - Elizabeth Martin.  We are all pretty excited to be a part of this. 

 

The next upcoming event is Halloween.  Nolan has chosen to be a Storm Trooper from Star Wars & Leah will be Princess Leia from Star Wars.  We found Nolan's costume at a thrift store & he and Scott made his mask from 2 milk jugs.  Nolan and I found the idea for the mask on Pinterest. 

 ( I love Pinterest) 

 

I found a white sheet at the thrift store & then found a pattern (again on Pinterest) and sewed Leah's costume.  Photos will be posted to the blog at a later date, but for immediate photos on Halloween, check my Facebook page.

 

That's all for now.