After lunch Nate got kicked out of an antique store, but that's another story for another day.

Last weekend we took a vote and decided that visiting some Indian ruins sounded like the most fun thing EVER, so we loaded up and headed out on a little road trip.

Here you see Edge and Wesley presenting their classic road trip faces.

Nate's road trip face is intense yet hilarious.

Also hilarious are Nate's choice of hiking shoes.  He's a real outdoorsman. 

We call him Mr. Cabela.

We hiked....

...and we rested.

Eli and Nate ran ahead to scout out the situation. Nate was able to be the lead hiker because of his excellent choice in footwear.

Some people think it's funny to point off into the distance at NOTHING, then laugh when other people come along and ask what they are looking at.

We are obviously raising a bunch of clowns.

This is as close as we could get to the Indian ruins.  Not because they are sacred but because they are protected by evil spirits.......

......I mean, Africanized Killer Bees.

We took a picture anyway.

Then we went and drowned our sorrows in Mexican food. What else?

Soccer!

Saturday is soccer day around here. Ivy's games are first but since I'm coaching her (undefeated) team I don't ever get any action shots, but really, they all look alike so use your imagination.

Eli is the middle player in the red.

This week we took Annie and Emma with us to the game. They stayed like this until Brandon came along with french fries and distracted them. (Ella's game was on a different field at the same time.)

Catching up

A couple of weeks ago Hawthorne held it's prestigious Student of the Quarter awards ceremony.

Eli was honored with the Personal Success Award.

He would like to thank all of you who have helped make him the personal success he is today.

Friday Ivy's class went on a field trip to the Arizona Museum of Natural History, formerly known as the Mesa Southwest Museum, or as we unofficially refer to it, "That place with all the dinosaurs and you can pan for gold where the alligator almost ate Brandon that one time." (How many museums can offer the thrill of the Jurassic period, LIVE crocodiles AND the opportunity to strike it rich? Not too many I'm betting.)

I would like to thank Rylee's mom who chaperoned the field trip for making sure there were actually pictures of Ivy AND that they were in focus.

There is more, lots more, but Blogger is making it difficult for me to upload my pictures this morning.  I'll have to try again later. 

The sugar high promises to last through Thanksgiving

Whoever decided to have Halloween on Sunday this year really threw a wrench into our plan of bringing home 10,000 pounds of candy and taking over the world. We trick or treated our usual route on Saturday, about 2/3rds of the houses in the neighborhood were open for business and those houses seemed to feel like they needed to compenstate for their neighbors by handing out extra teats. Bonus! After it was all sorted and counted Ivy was pretty happy to inform me that she had collected 95 pieces of candy. (I'm guessing this count does NOT include the 35 pieces she ate to keep up her strength while trick or treating.)

Eli the Zombie.

Ivy the Bumble Bee.

Ella the Fairy.

 Brandon was a cowboy, the kind who refuses to let his favorite aunt take his picture. The charming kind.

Nate as, you know, just "a really cool guy". So, basically, himself.

Even the little kitty dressed up. Saftey first!! Don't worry, we didn't let her eat too much candy.