Walks and a good time...

The changing of the seasons brings so many wonderful things into our lives. Such as the tender blades of lush green grass that push their way up through melting snow in the spring or the increasing warmth of the sunshine in the summer. The beautiful leaves of fall that splash vibrant color on a burnt summer landscape or the soft flurry of the first pristine white snowflakes floating down to cover the ugly brown of a leftover Autumn. But of course along with the changes comes the passing of time and things get left behind. I am excited for winter but I’ll miss some things like,

Our fun family walks in the evening.

Dad' s endless teasing :) along the path...

Austin's 'Superman' bike stunts :)

Trying to keep up with those two boys of mine!!

The last part of our walk when the moon shines and all the stars come out.

And everything is so beautiful and quiet...except...

except of course for the very loud huffing and puffing we must do to try to finish our walk!

Ok, winter bring on the snow!!

I'm ready for a break! =)

Going Backwards... Camping in August.

Ok, so I'm going backwards here. I am trying to catch up on events. Back in August we went camping with Grandma and Grandpa. It was such a beautiful day. When we got to the campground we were able to get a little campsite by the creek. It was so green everywhere!! But even better, we camped right by a wild berry bush! Yummy!! They weren't the real Huckle berries but they were still very good. I couldn't quit eating them :)

We had spagetti that night and Grandma, Aust. and I played card games inside the motor home while Grandpa and Dad built the fire. Grandma and Aust. were very good and each just kept winning. (I was definitely on a loosing streak.) Afterwards we went out to the fire and had a great time. The night sky was so clear!! You could see so many stars it was so peaceful.

The next morning we were all shocked to see so much frost on the ground. Burrrr. It was so cold! We were happy to be inside the motor home. We had a big breakfast of pancakes, hash browns and eggs and then cleaned up camp. Thank heavens the sun came out and warmed things up! Next, we went to the pond just a couple of miles away and all fished. Even Grandma reeled one in!! (yay!!!) They were just small ones but oh what fun:). I love fishing, just can think of a better way to spend a day then fishing with your family...unless of course the fish aren't biting then I'd say ... definitely skip it:)

I also found some more wild berry bushes and ate a ton of them. YUMMY. Aust. caught some fish and had a great time but his Dad decided to teach him how to gut those fish. He wasn't excited about that... Yuck! We stayed for lunch and then we parted and came home. I love the mountains. There is such beauty and peace found there. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great time!

Grandma's Halloween Party

Grandma's Annual Halloween Party,

The donut race :)

Getting wet...

The Mummy Wrap Race :)


The Monster Mash Dance, the little ones just loved it!!:)



Listening intently to instructions for a treasure hunt!

What a gang of grandma's grandkids and great-grandkids:) ...obviously not all are in the picture :)

We missed the ones that could not be there.

Grandma's Halloween party was different this year. We all missed Kiersten's energy and excitement for the season. However, the sun shown down on a warm and calm day and I do believe Kierst would have been happy at how it turned out. Grandma and Aunt Jenni pulled it off in a grand style with fun games for all. A big thanks goes out to them for putting it together under such hard and emotional times. It felt good to all be together during this hard time.

Catching up on October

October was a difficult time for our family. We experienced the death of a most precious 13 year old niece and cousin. Kiersten Gemar will allways be cherrished in our hearts. We know that her spirit lives on and is happy. We'll always remember that great big smile she would flash for us the many happy little stories that went with it. We love her dearly and will miss her energy and excitement for life. She has taught us to enjoy life to the fullest, to embrace the truly important things in life and not worry about the things we can not change.

Life is full of many things but those that are most important are those nearest and dearest, our family, friends and neighbors. Kierst loved people for who they were. What an example that is. She was involved in many things but nothing outranked her own family. What a sweet heart!

Thank you so much Kierst!! We love you!!

A very late night.

It was late and both Austin and I got a second wind. Terry was out for the count but we couldn't go to sleep for some reason... so we had some fun teasing each other and I decided to grab the camera.

Those raspberries (the mark of all the Earls :) ) get me every time!!

Late night laughs... nope, the joke wasn't very funny but we couldn't quit laughing!!

I'm finally getting tired...

but Aust is just picking up speed!

Oh boy it was a late night!! :)