Fall Shenanigans

We hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season! We are looking forward to our trip to Utah to visit family--just before my parents leave for their 2 year mission to the Philippines. We've had a great fall, and we're getting to know the area a little better. But yes, we still dearly miss our Boulder home and being a little closer to family out west.

Halloween: Cameron was Spiderman at school and for trick-or-treating and for the ward (church) party, he was a dragon/dinosaur. Liesel was a doctor. Ivy did not dress up. (I just wasn't on the ball. And she doesn't know the difference. I am a party pooper.)

Cameron finished up his soccer season the week after Halloween. By the end of the season, he was really starting to get the hang of it.

 Classic Cam.

With his team! Thanks coach Gisela! (She was amazingly patient with these wild puppies.)

We also went to visit a pumpkin patch with some of our friends from our ward.

One of my favorite spots here (so far) is the National Arboretum. It's a quick drive from our house. It's a 446-acre campus. Just beautiful. Even in the late fall. There's a youth garden that we visited last Sunday (the National Arboretum is free like all the other museums in D.C.) and we contemplated building a bean teepee (google it, it's cool) this spring. Just beyond the actual youth garden, there's a "music and movement nature classroom" with a stage and curtains, 2 big wooden xylophones, sandpit, and natural wooden building blocks.

"This place makes me happy."

"Moom, what if I get in trouble?!" (This spot was off the path.)

 *giggle, giggle*

 Those are the original Capitol Building columns.

I found this a few weeks ago on a friend's blog and showed Brian. We both got a great laugh out of it. No worries, it's just silly. Not really political at all.