I really cannot believe it is almost the end of November already. It seriously feels like someone flipped on the fast forward button. We are getting ready to take a little Thanksgiving vacation on Tuesday. We rented a little house on Kiawah Island, SC, for 5 days. It will not be much warmer there, certainly not warm enough to do much ocean swimming, but we are really looking forward to hanging out on the beach, biking all over the island, and paying a visit to Charleston. This will be the first trip this year that my work computer will not be invited along ~ no email, no work, hooray! 

here's what has been going on around here.....

Noah's Grandma and Grandpa Urbanik drove their RV down from Connecticut for a quick visit. It was wonderful to catch up with them at the campground and over dinner, and also to show them around our homestead. This picture is fantastic because Noah is smiling (it is very very difficult to get him to smile for photos these days. teenagers.)

I got to get away for a slumber party with girlfriends to celebrate some of our fall/winter birthdays. My camera did not make it out of it's bag for our trip to Hot Springs (complete with a quick drive through a Civil War re-enactment ~ ) or our dinner at a fun new restaurant, or even our impromptu costume dance party. I did manage to pull off one quick self-timer shot as we were packing up to leave. I sure love these ladies!

David and I soaked up as much autumn awesomeness as possible over the last few weeks. We love our daily evening walk with the dog which serves the dual purpose of exercise, for us and Atticus, and a little kid-free connection time for us. I brought the camera along the other day to capture some of the beautiful fall colors. But our walk was cut short when Atty hurt his paw, poor guy. David was able to carry him home ~ a somewhat funny and very touching sight.

The girls are making lots of friends at school. Katie is a friend of Nimuae's who happens to live right down the road from us. This is a huge deal for Nim because she has never had many girl friends who live up on the mountain. We are so grateful for wonderful friends !

Nimuae recently discovered his great-grandfathers wood working tools that were passed down to us a few years back. She got to work right away ~