November

We were late to the pumpkin patch this year, but we managed to squeeze it in after Halloween. We went to Great Country Farms in Bluemont, Virgina. We were pleasantly surprised that military families were free--including a pumpkin for each of us!

Mike scored tickets to the Veteran's Classic at the Naval Academy.  The boys stayed all the way through 2 basketball games.  They had a blast!

 

Judith had a Reading Theater presentation in her class right before we left for Houston. She had 2 wonderfully performed lines!

Jonas playing the cello.

October

A quick picture of Jonas in the kitchen. He's our little chef.

Judith's friend Addy invited us to go with them on a hike to Patapsco State Park. The boys had to go with me to a work meeting and then we attempted to meet up with Judith and her friends, BUT because we didn't get good cell phone reception we weren't able to connect with them and we ended up taking a different trail.  There is a pretty swinging bridge over the Patapsco River.  We stopped for a picture.  Eventually, we found Judith's group.

 Mike and Ezra went on a Webelos weekend campout.  On Saturday, I took Judith and Jonas to the Maryland Science Center. Unbeknownst to me, it was also the day of the Baltimore Marathon so traffic was horrendous.  The up side was that there were lots of things going on at the Inner Harbor, including Blue Angel fly overs.  Here they are in the background of the picture.

Jonas kept wanting to do the hike to see the waterfall that Judith had done a few days earlier, so we took yet another trip to Patapsco State Park.

So I recently started work at a wonderful, Christian non-profit called The Well.  The Well brings in women from a low-income community called Curtis Bay (just south of downtown Baltimore) and mentors them for a year. They meet weekly with a mentor who guides them in life planning, they attend weekly classes on a variety of topics from Mental Health to Communication, to Finances, the volunteer 2 hours a week, and they attend elective classes for computer skills and more. I have been helping out in an Office Manager position. In October, The Well hosted a Better Together Gala to raise funds.  It was a wonderful event!

 I took Jonas and Judith to the dentist which is usually followed by lunch at Panera Bread.  Waugh Chapel Town Center was decorated for the Fall.

 We attended a Trunk or Treat at Bay Area Christian Church.  Judith was Princess Belle, Ezra was Han Solo and Jonas was supposed to be a headless man, but our Pinterst costume was kind of a fail so he was basically just a guy in a giant trench coat.

 This was a cool ET themed trunk.

This was Jonas' last baseball game.

 Judith was so excited for her Halloween parade at school. Jonas was a baseball player in the parade at school.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures from trick or treating Halloween night, but we basically just did our street. Jonas was a clown (that wasn't too creepy even though that's what he wanted).

October-Busch Gardens

We didn't let Hurricane Matthew scare us away from our trip to Busch Gardens.

It was a little rainy when we first arrived in the morning, but then it cleared up for most of the day.

Busch Gardens was decorated for Howl-O-Scream. Of course, the scary stuff didn't start until 6 pm, about which time we would be leaving. We at lunch under this spooky town clock.

By about 3PM it had started to sprinkle again.  Not too long after that, an announement said that Howl-O-Scream events for the evening were canceled and not too long after that, another announcement told us that the park would be closing early due to an unexpected change in Hurricane Matthew's path.

The breeze continued to strengthen and was very pretty gusty overnight. The hotel where we stayed at in Newport News lost a few trees.  Some fences in the nearby neighborhood were blown down, and at one point there were lanes on the interstate that were closed due a large tree that had fallen on the roadway.

We got a little wet at Busch Gardens, but it wasn't too bad until the last couple of hours.  We definitely got more adventure than we bargained for!

September

We always enjoy a yearly trip to Chesapeake Beach Water Park! This year it was actually a bit chilly!

Mike started Fight Club (a 12 week men's ministry challenge) and one week the challenge included spending one-on-one time with each family member. Mike took Ezra to Monster Mini-Golf.

He took Jonas to the batting cage.

 He brought me lunch one day when I was volunteering in the church office.

He took Judith to the Maryland Science Center.

Jonas played fall baseball, Ezra and Judith started recreational gymnastics and we settled into our school routines.

More August Fun

Instead of taking a family trip like we usually do when Mike returns from being away, we decided to indulge the kids in a couple of things they'd been wanting to do for a while.  One of which was Ripley's Believe it or Not at the Inner Harbor.

It was mostly a big fast waste of money, but there was a mirror maze that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

 

 

The next day we enjoyed a short trip to the beach in Ocean City with the Stawas family.

The very next day, we procured a babysitter so we could take advantage of the free Darius Rucker tickets Mike had won.

 Then, it was all about getting geared up to start school with school supply shopping and

 meet the teacher day at school.

This was a funny picture we took at our friend Bonni's baby shower.

 Judith could not have been more excited about starting 1st grade!

1st Day of First Grade!  She had Mrs. Fynn, but during the 3rd week of school, Mrs. Fynn had her baby. Mrs. Chalfont took over and all was well.

 First Day of 3rd Grade. Third grade was a big change for this boy, but he got the hang of it pretty quick.  He has Mrs. Armstrong for homeroom, Mrs. Rock for English/Language Arts, and Mrs. Battaglia for Math.

 As a 3rd grader, Jonas gets to play a stringed instrument.  He chose cello.

On August 27th Mike took the boys to a DC United soccer game. 

 Ezra started 4th grade with Ms. Lorrie at Kennedy Krieger a week after Judith and Jonas. 

We crammed as much as possible in to the month of August!