Three Years

Sweet little Hannah is three!

She loves to laugh and play and is full of fun.

Her favorite game is follow the leader and her favorite color is green. She is interested in everything and asks lots of questions. She also talks a lot in general, chattering away about whatever is on her mind.

Hannah likes to sing, especially Robin Hood and Little John, Yankee Doodle, and alleluia amen. On a walk recently she told me she was Robin Hood and I was Little John, and she combined two songs by repeatedly singing, "Robin Hood walking through the forest with Little John, alleluia amen."

She loves playing with her big sister and brother, but is also content playing on her own.

She likes to help in the kitchen or anywhere she can be involved. 

 Hannah is a joyful little girl, and we love her so much.

Picnics

The weather has been warm and sunny lately, and since we know it won't last forever with winter coming, the kids and I have been trying to take full advantage of the warmer days by spending extra time outside. After how much we all enjoyed our picnic at George's Falls, we hiked to Gethsemane Falls and had a picnic lunch there.

A couple of days later, we had a picnic lunch in Sherwood.

Autumn Leaves

Even though the weather didn't feel much like autumn, we were excited to decorate leaf cookies at Dad and Mom's house.

Youth and Family Retreat

Joshua was the speaker for the youth at Sierra Vista's youth and family retreat, so we got to be part of that this fall. It was at a do-it-yourself camp near Santa Cruz, which was interesting. It's always intersting to go to other camps and conference centers and see how they run things.

The first full day, the kids and I explored the camp and went on a couple of hikes.

We also played in the sand at the volleyball court.

Wednesday was beach day, so after breakfast, making sack lunches, and a brief session at camp, we went to the boardwalk. Most things were closed and there were only a few people there, which is not how I've seen the boardwalk in the past, but it was fine with us. The kids got to try cotton candy for the first time and thought it was good.

We went down to the beach for awhile.

It was still mostly sunny, but there was a storm coming in. We got rain a number of times during our four days at the coast.

Mrs. Fulce was the leader for the kids and did a great job with lessons, games, and crafts for our little group of six kids.

 We had our last lesson after breakfast Thursday, then cleaned up our cabin and ate our sack lunches on the way home.

Early October

Early October brought many enjoyable times, including Dad and Mom coming up again to work on the bathhouse.

Interesting weather that created an even more stunning than usual view.

A hike to George's Falls for a picnic lunch.

Learning to hand sew.

Digging a big hole and eating lots of apples from the trees at camp.

 And baking a rhubarb pie for Joshua's birthday.

More Camping

We had so much fun camping in Sherwood that we soon went back for another night; this time with some of our good friends from town, another pastor and his family. Joshua cooked pancakes over the fire for breakfast.

Their daughter likes to fold paper and made many fun things for Hannah and Mary.

We hiked out to George's Falls and played in the water.

 We finished things off with smash burgers for dinner before heading home.

Math with Grandma

 

Dad has been coming up lately to help work on building the Westview bathhouse, and Mom has been hanging out with me and the kids. We enjoy having both of them around and Mom has helped us with a number of things, including doing math lessons with Mary.

Quilting Retreat

Calvin Crest hosted its first ever quilting retreat, and we got to be part of it. Gayle was a participant, but stayed with us, which was fun. As we walked home from dinner, we saw a beautiful double rainbow.

It was impressive to see Lakeview filled with so many quilters.

Hannah enjoyed arranging pieces of fabric from the kit Gayle gave me.

David had fun using the scissors to snip threads, and got a scissor cookie.

 Gayle also gave a kit to Mary, who loved getting to sew with everyone. The retreat was a big success, and we are looking forward to the next one.

Blackberry Picking

The blackberries are ripe and plentiful, and the Trevinos, Dad, and Mom came up for a day trip to pick berries.

 We were quite successful in our picking and eating and enjoyed the time together.

Visiting Friends

For our final vacation adventure, we took the kids to a state they had never been to before - Nevada. We stayed with some good friends for a few days and had a lovely time. The second day we went to an interesting museum. They had all kinds of thing, including a bunch of animals and an old camera.

There was also a recreation of an old mine shaft that we got to walk through.

Hannah loved playing with their collection of calico critters. The big kids we were visiting did a great job sharing their toys and playing with our little ones.

Saturday morning we took a short hike to a nearby waterfall.

 We left Sunday after attending their church and stopped for ice cream on the drive home.