November Adventures

We had a busy month in November.  We stuck to our usual schedule, with playgroup on Monday, library story time on Tuesday, another playgroup on Thursday and music class on Fridays.  

Getting ready to exercise with Daddy.

It was a beautiful fall day for one of our Monday playgroups.  I took advantage of the changing colors to take some pictures.  We met up at a playground at UVA family housing which is right across the street from our apartment complex.  Gray had a great time!

There was a big pile of leaves by the playground and the kids had a really good time playing in them.

My mom came up to visit us for a week and we had a lot of fun.  We went to Carter's Mountain, an apple orchard in town and had a great time picking some apples.

Grayson usually only picks until he finds an apple that he wants to eat.  Then he munches on it for the rest of the time we are there.

Gray loved seeing all of the tractors.

Walking back down the mountain.

After the apple orchard, we drove down the mountain and went to Michie Tavern.  It is just down the hill from Monticello and is modeled after a tavern from Thomas Jefferson's life.  The serve lunch only and it is buffet style, with all the staff wearing period costumes.  We did a tour of the tavern and the out buildings before we ate our lunch.

Another day, we were able to go to the Bounce and Play.  Grayson loves this place and I confess, so do I.  Our friends met us there and the boys had a great time playing.  

Climbing through all the tunnels!

Couldn't tell by his face, but he absolutely loves to ride the carousel.

These boys are too cute!

Of course the moms had to get in on the fun and take the baby for a spin too!

This movie isn't actually from the same day, but I had to share it.  I was watching AJ one day and the boys were reading books together in Gray's room.  It was too cute!!!

After a week, Grayson and I drove down to Alabama with my mom to visit my family for a bit.  

My dad sneaking Gray food when I went out with some friends.

Ended up cutting the trip a bit short.  Grayson got sick and wasn't feeling well, so we decided to get him back home so he could get on a normal schedule.  We spent the night in Gatlinburg, TN.  We were able to go to my favorite petting zoo.  Gray loved it!  I think he liked the goats the best.

The always chew on your clothes.  They are cute little guys, but they'll try and eat anything.

Grayson liked to feed the goats and other animals.

Although it was too short, we had a great time visiting friends and families.

For Thanksgiving, we stayed in Charlottesville.  It was our first Thanksgiving on our own and we had a great time.  I had never cooked a turkey before and I was a little nervous, but it turned out pretty good.  We had some friends come down from Pennsylvania to stay with us for a few days.  They were our neighbors when we lived in Utah and we hadn't seen them in years.  We had a fun few days.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious!  We had another family over, some friends that live in Charlottesville.  Even with all of us, we were eating leftovers for days!  

The kids all had a great time playing together and the adults enjoyed some delicious food.  

Halloween

We had a really busy Halloween this year.  I had a week and a half to get everything ready after we got back from Outer Banks.  I was able to get Grayson's costume done in time for him to wear it to music class on Friday.  He sure makes a cute little hobbit.

Over the weekend, we were talking with some friends about Halloween and costume ideas.  We realized that we really wanted to dress up too.  I had written off getting costumes done for us because I didn't think we would have time.  We decided that we would give it our best effort and we would dress up anyway.  So, Monday I headed out first thing and began the search for our costumes.  I hit two Goodwill stores, Walmart and Joann Fabrics and I found some success.  

It was a crazy few days with furious sewing and really late nights, but about two hours before our ward (church congregation) trunk or treat, I was able to finish them.  There were some definite mistakes made (I sewed the arm holes of the dress bodice shut twice...idiot and then I attached the snaps for the dress on the wrong sides), but I got it done!  I had a lot of help from Trevor too, helping me fit the costumes and keeping me functioning with late night Wendy's runs.  

Eowyn, Aragorn (Strider) and a little hobbit from Lord of the Rings.

Hanging out with friends after the trunk or treat.

On Thursday, we made some bat cookies and after Grayson's nap, we headed up to the lawn (the original part of UVA grounds designed by Thomas Jefferson) to go trick or treating.  We took the bus with some friends up to the lawn.

Waiting for the bus in front of the law school.

Hobbits need their breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, afternoon tea, dinner, supper.....

Trick or treating on the lawn is a big tradition in Charlottesville.  The students and teachers that live in the original apartments first built at UVA hand out candy to all the kids.  It was a lot of fun!

There was quite the crowd!

Enjoying our plunder!

A viking hoard fighting a dinosaur, some of the students got really into their costumes.

Waiting for the bus.

After the lawn, we went home, fed Grayson dinner and headed to our next event.  Our friends do a Halloween party every year and they serve homemade doughnuts and apple cider.  We had a great time visiting with friends and eating some doughnuts.  After the party, some friends came over and we watched a movie.  It was a crazy few days and we were exhausted, but it was a lot of fun.

Outer Banks Trip

For Trevor's Fall Break this year, we went to Outer Banks in North Carolina.  The Rex E. Lee Law Society (essentially a club for members of the church at the law school) has a yearly trip where several families get together and rent a beach house.  This year there were 11 families that went; that's 22 adults and 11 children.  We drove down Saturday morning and had a smooth drive.  Grayson slept for half of the five hour drive.  When we arrived at the house there was a cleaning crew still there trying to finish cleaning and recover from a leak that had happened in one of the basement rooms.  While we waited, we headed straight to the 'backyard.'

Even though it was overcast, it was still beautiful on the beach!  Grayson took to it immediately and we had to take his pants off because he got soaking wet and covered in sand within the first few minutes.

We had a fabulous week and spent most of every day on the beach.  The house was three stories tall and had a kitchen area and common area on each floor.  There was a pool table and foosball table in the basement and two hot tubs and a pool outside.  There was also a media room on the second floor, twelve rooms and fourteen bathrooms.  Each bedroom had an en suite bathroom and a TV.  Grayson loved going up the stairs and being able to play with his friends every day.

The kids taking advantage of the media room.

The view from the top balcony.

Here is the awesome house!

The awesome upstairs kitchen.

Main common room upstairs.

I chose our room because of the bathroom.

Our bedroom.

The weather was better then I expected.  It was really windy and overcast most of the time, but it wasn't so cold that we couldn't play on the beach.  Trevor and I loved boogie boarding, it was so much fun!  The more stormy weather made for some really good waves.  Once you got over the shock of the cold ocean, walking around on the beach didn't feel cold at all.  

Grayson absolutely loved digging in the sand.  We had a hard time getting him to leave the beach on any given day.  One day though, he got splashed by a really big wave and then he wanted to go sit in the hot tub.  He really loved the hot tubs!  He called them pools.

One afternoon, we went driving around and decided to stop and see a park and a lighthouse.  We got to see some different birds and ducks. 

We had a hard time keeping Grayson out of the water, he loves playing in the water.  While we walked around, we had to keep a close eye on him.

Having fun climbing a tree!

Trying to catch some crabs.

We went crabbing one evening with our whole group.  We were there for quite a while and didn't really have any luck, but it was still a lot of fun.

The kiddos keeping themselves entertained while we were crabbing.

We went to play putt putt (mini golf as my husband calls it) one day at a really cool place.  It was pirate themed and there was a train you could take to the top of the course.  I think we rode it four times, Grayson loved it!

He mostly just chased the golf balls around, but Grayson still had fun.

He tried to chase the golf balls through the tunnels.

Here is a collage of some fun beach pictures:

On Thursday, the weather was perfect!  It was sunny all day and in the upper 70s.  The perfect way to end our vacation, so we attempted to take some family pictures.  At first, Grayson was not very cooperative, he just wanted to chase the seagulls, but we managed to get a few good shots in.

On our last day, we went to the Wright Brothers' Museum before heading out.  Grayson loved seeing all the planes.

A replica of the original plane.

This stone marks where the plane took off for the first flights.

There are four markers all measuring the distance of the first four successful flights.

After the museum, we went to Subway and ate lunch before heading home.