Bowling with the Kiddos

Margaret had gone to a bowling birthday party a couple weeks ago and discovered a love of bowling that she wanted to share with everyone. So - on a rainy Sunday morning we met up with The Sparks Family and The Philpotts for a little bowling session - one lane with bumpers for the kids and another lane for the grown ups. It was surprisingly fun!

 Charlotte struck quite a pose on the finish of each roll.

 Reed liked using this ramp to help him aim his shots.

 Edison just finished a bowling unit in PE. He did great - scoring over 100 points!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We kicked off Thanksgiving on Wednesday night with a festive feast with Grand Daddy Herbert and Marsha!

Olivia and Eric organized a Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving morning. The kids did a one mile run and there were prizes for costumes. Hands down, the Nevans won that award with these angry turkey bird smocks.

 We braved the pouring rain and had fun despite being soaking wet!

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a big family meal at Kirstie and Peter's. It was just a wonderful, relaxing and fun evening with family!

 We went for our third annual Black Friday hike. Way more fun than shopping! We did a hike on the south shore of Lake Wenatchee with Megan and Chris and their boys and also Megan, Jonas, and Ruby.

 Hot cocoa at the halfway was a hit!

The kids noticed this cool tree that has a ladder in the middle of the trunk! Very fun to pop out of the top and catch a view.

Back to the cabin!

After having many commitments in town during October, we are finally able to make it back out to the cabin! Last weekend we had Sara, Jay, and Josie over and it was so nice to catch up! Josie is an happy, beautiful baby girl and a delight to be around. Reed liked teaching Josie things, like how to play "Guess Who."

We also made sure all of the kids had the correct fitting ski and snow gear. We do! Now - we just need to wait for some snow!

This weekend, we went for a small hike around the Leavenworth ski hill which was fun in the crunchy leaves.

  

This is also the site for the Leavenworth Summer Theater - something we are looking forward to taking the children to when they are a little older. The view over the valley behind the stage is breathtaking (but we missed a picture of it).

 After the hike we went to Gustav's for dinner - one of our favorite restaurants in Leavenworth. Big thanks to Dirk and Annie for the gift certificate! The kids loved that we splurged on ice cream sundaes!

 

Eben took us driving up on the ridge behind our house - there is a whole maze of forest roads back up there. We had to move this tree out of the way to get by. That was a big effort. 

 We also had some trouble with the low front faring on the Durango and ended up having it get pulled mostly off by a big drop off into a mud puddle. When we noticed it hanging mostly off, Eben ended up cutting it all the way off with a corkscrew knife. Looks all fine now, but probably losing a mile per gallon without the same aerodynamics.

NOVEMBER - Nana's 75th Birthday! And Eben is on Monday Night Football!

We got the whole family together to celebrate Nana's 75th birthday! We surprised her before the meal by showing her a slideshow movie with pictures from throughout her life that were contributed by her family and friends. Here is a link to the movie: Bonnie's Birthday Slideshow .

 Her good friend Kathryn was able to join us for the occasion, which was splendid!

 My, how our family has grown!

 

It was a lovely day (which pretty much means it wasn't raining even though it was November) and we took some pictures on the dock next to the restaurant.

 Eben made his debut on Monday Night Football by participating in the opening ceremonies of the Seahawks game that was a tribute to our military in honor of Veterans Day. Eben is number five from the leader of the left column on the bottom of the screen.

 One of the perks was meeting Seahawks Coach, Pete Carroll!

Happy Halloween!

We had an awesome Halloween! The kids did a great job scooping their own pumpkins this year. Charlotte carefully separated all the seeds so we could make toasted pumpkin seeds. Eben helped Edison carve a storm trooper, Charlotte designed a kitty cat, and Reed picked an owl.

 

 Edison was Captain Rex from Star Wars' Clone Wars, Charlotte was a unicorn (and so was Jenabel!) and Reed loved his zebra costume!

We went to Razi and Stephen's house for Halloween afternoon and it was awesome to see everyone dressed up! Eben and I need to step up our costume game next year! The kids had a blast, too, of course!

After Razi's we went out trick-or-treating with Colby, Mason, Margaret and Joseph. This was the first year Reed understood how Halloween works. He enjoyed it and he ran to and from every house with his flashlight in one hand and pumpkin basket in the other which was really fun to watch.