Start of September

Our neighborhood has a gaggle of kids right around Cannons size- which means there will always be a friend to play with anytime of day- which can be a good thing and a bad thing... but right now it is definitely worth it- whatever makes Cannon a happy camper!

9/14 The university of Alaska Fairbanks had a planet walk community event that we happened to see and join. The kids weren’t that enthusiastic about having to walk over a mile, but the day was gorgeous and I could stand the thought of going home and trying to get the house cleaned up. Glad we didn’t have any plans for that afternoon.

The struggle is real. Wishing I was back in Hawaii and feeling some aloha with this full rainbow while Ben and I were out shopping for his big moose hunt. Trying to embrace where we are... but that isn’t always the easiest thing to do.

The colors are really beautiful this fall, I know the iphone pictures doesn't do it justice, but what a beautiful forest!

West Point Family Pictures

 I wanted to capture a few of the shots that make up our West Point home. Above  and Below is the reservoir that is next to the football stadium. The boys love supporting our team and eating kettle corn, getting their face painted, and cheering for the Black Knights.

 This is trophy point. You get a lovely view of the Hudson River and can see some other neat historical monuments and canons. Our friends brought us here to get a few family shots. I liked the idea of capturing what our family looked like when we started our adventure at West Point. We will have to do the same pictures before we leave to see the kids growing and changing.

 

Connor was pretending to be sad. As soon as I said we were finished with this picture he jumped right up and ran off to play with his friends smiling and giggling.

 Cael wanted a muscle picture "Can you work with this?" he would ask. This actually looks pretty sick for a 9 year old to have muscles like this-- of course Cael thinks it is pretty cool.

 Sitting on the wall with the Hudson in the background. Pretty good looking family and smiles

 Sitting on the stairs along our path. FALL has been pretty wonderful and the leaves changing and lasting longer than a day is really fantastic.

 This is called a PLATT STACK. Don't ask me why I am on the bottom and Ben is all comfortable standing up with Brielle. He got away with it, next time he won't be so lucky :)

 

Here are some of the campus instruction buildings, Washington Hall on the bottom.

Weeds Farm

One Monday the boys were out of school and we wanted to pick apples and get a pumpkin for the Halloween Holiday. The only catch was Ben was "on-call" and needed to be close enough to the hospital in case he needed to go in. It was a beautiful day and we really could have spent most of it here at the farm.

 We ordered some Bar-B-Q chicken, cornbread, corn on the cob, apple cider donuts, and a gallon of apple cider to wash it all down with. My mouth is watering just a little bit thinking about our tasty lunch.

 As we made our way to the pumpkin patch Ben's phone rings-- it's the ER and they have a patient who needs to be admitted. They told Ben to hurry, but to meet up in an hour! This really put a cramp on the day. We ran and grabbed the best pumpkins we could see quickly, walked up to a playhouse and playground area for about 5 minutes. Skipped picking our own apples and instead filled a bag from large wooden boxes near the front gate and bought everything we could before loading up in the van to get Ben back to work. I wish we could have explored the corn maze and all the other festive things at the farm.... I just loved the experience and everything they had set up here for all the visitors to do.

 Brielle sure thought her apple was delicious! Cael enjoyed one as well.

And just because I like to remember that Ben and I were here together too!