Thanksgiving in KY

For Thanksgiving, we went out to Kentucky to see Joe's brother and his family. Joe's mom flew out to be there too. It was a lot of fun. We got to do lots of fun things like play laser tag and volleyball. Joe got to play basketball and football too. For the kids, the highlight was going to the children's museum and being with their cousins. We wish the cousins lived closer.

Children's Museum in Cincinnati

I love Maia's cute cheeks in this profile shot. She's doing what she loves- drawing.

Dress-up with Olivia and Isabelle! Best week ever!

Heidi started walking more and more over Thanksgiving, taking lots of steps before falling.

Fall Visit from Voof and Grace

Joe's dad and step-mom came out to visit us in the fall. It was fun to see them. While they were here it snowed! It was the strangest thing. It hasn't snowed since then. Anyway, we had a good time. We walked around Harvard Square one day for a couple of reasons. 1) We wanted to visit Harvard campus, mainly the Harvard Law School building where Joe's grandfather went to law school and 2) We wanted to visit Brattle Hall Theater where Joe's grandmother was performing when she and Joe's grandfather met years and years ago. It was a fun little family history lesson for us. We have since been back to Harvard Square and we think of them every time.

These next few pics are of a church that piqued my interest as we walked by. It was even more interesting when I read about the church. The cool thing about Boston is that everything has a story. And believe it or not, there are a lot of things here. ;)

On another day, Grace and I went up north to a certain sewing/fabric store. The area was beautiful. We had fun NOT finding gas stations and pizza joints. The story behind this picture is that we passed this pretty lake on our way to (not) finding a pizza place and then I wanted to get a picture of it later. Well, we couldn't remember exactly where this place was, so we drove forever. We finally found it again and got my fall scenic pic for the year. I was happy that I got my picture. We had a good time laughing and not finding where we needed to go.

Thanks for the fun time Voof and Grace!

Halloween 2011

Halloween was fun this year. Maia loved carving pumpkins with daddy and going trick-or-treating with her friends. I was brave and made Maia's Strawberry Shortcake costume.

We also went to the ward Halloween party.

Here was a fun costume from the ward party that I had to share.

Catching Up: Boston in the Fall

One of our favorite places in Boston is Boston Common. It is a gorgeous community park/garden. There is a nice playground, a carousel, a "frog pond" that turns into an outdoor ice skating rink in the winter, a pond (shown in the pic below), and lots of trees and plants.

The park is located across the street from Beacon Hill- a nice and ritzy area to live. I loved this porch so I took a pic of it.

This street below is Acorn Street. Supposedly it is one of the most photographed streets in Boston, as rumor has it. What you're not seeing is the other side of the street because it's not pretty.

In the whole park, this was the only tree that still wasn't green in October! It was a late fall this year. It was weird.

The pictures below are 2 trees from our apt. complex that were just gorgeous. The leaves turned at the very end of October, early November.

Hopefully the trees next fall will pull it together.

Catching Up: Hilton Head, SC

Since the last post, we've done quite a bit. It's kind of overwhelming. The first week in October, we met my family in Hilton Head, South Carolina for a fun vacation on the beach for a week. We had such a great time and I had fun experiencing the south.

We got to stay at mom's timeshare and loved being ON the beach.

And surrounded by pools

We visited a lighthouse our first day and played

We also visited Fort Pulaski

We took a trip to Savannah, GA afterwards and had lunch (or a sampling of 3 desserts in my case) at Lady and Sons (Paula Deen's restaurant)

We took a walk on the riverfront of the Savannah River. We took a ferry down the river a ways and walked back, stopping at a couple candy shops along the way.

Hot Joe. I liked this picture.

Ferry boat

Statue of the Waving Girl

Mom, Chris, Amy, Alli, and I went to this awesome furniture warehouse shop. It was amazing. It had furniture with all sorts of styles. Some were really neat pieces. Some looked like they belonged in mansions. It was very fun.

This is a sign that was hung in the warehouse. The south does things a little differently.

One day we went on a bike ride and we had a blast. We tried to ride our bikes on the beach but it was SO WINDY that it was super hard to pedal against the wind. It was a bad idea but funny memories.

On our last day we went miniature golfing at a pirate-themed golf course. It was very fun. Afterward we had some yummy ice cream.

And, of course, since my sister was there, we had her take some family pictures. THANK YOU, LAURA!!! We love the pics!

Here's one pic of Heidi that Chris took that I love.

Great vacation! Hilton Head, SC 2011