Grandpa Steve's visit

Grandpa Steve headed back home to Florida this morning, but we had a great time with him while he was here. A few left over photos from his visit:

We tried some fun restaurants

Played a lot of cards (here is grandpa hamming it up after he got trashed at hearts)

Looking at mars photos with Benji

And watching the InSight land in a NASA video. They were both obsessed with this.

Monticello Holiday Open House 2018

We dragged Grandpa Steve to one of our favorite fall events. It was a beautiful, clear 60 degree day and the views from the mountain were fabulous:

Decades Arcade

After a successful run this summer as a pop-up called Paul's Pinball Palace, this opened in a permanent location as decades arcade. You pay a single entrance fee and can play all the games you want for free. We decided to bring Grandpa Steve there the day after Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving 2018

We started with the parade, and then Thankful 4s, followed by a lovely dinner:

Writing our Thankful 4s

With the table laid

You can definitely tell I ran from the stove into this picutre

Turkey Hands 2018

This year featuring the art of Grandpa Steve:

From the top: Grandpa Steve, Kevin and Ruth

Abby and Benji

Stage Left Rehearsal

Benji is doing the theater club at Walker this year, and he has been cast as the defense attorney in their one-act play, "The Trial of Goldilocks." The play will be in January and parents are not allowed at rehearsal, but we got this glimpse of the students at work in this newsletter photo (that's Benji in the stripes):

Flag Retirement Ceremony

Benji's den learned how to do this on Sunday:

Twas the Weekend Before Thanksgiving....

We had a quiet-ish weekend and got a lot done. We started the weekend with a "soup party" with our friends the Scharfs and Armengols on Friday. It was a lovely and relaxed evening (so relaxed that we forgot to take pictures!). We set our alarms on Saturday morning to get up and volunteer at the Jefferson School to pass out Thanksgiving baskets to families in need. The turkeys ended up being 2 hours late, so it was more standing around than helping, but it was still nice to get out in the community:

Abby and Kaymin

Since we were already downtown, we walked to the Farmer's Market to buy some applies for our Thanksgiving pie, and then back to our car by way of Gearhardt's, where we stopped off for some chocolate cake and Benji enjoyed watching the chocolate being tempered:

The adults finished the day at Stonefield for a date night, where we were able to see the tree illumination:

Fall Drink Showdown

One of our bucket lists items this month was to concoct a new fall drink. We decided to each come up with our own recipe and then do a round robin tasting:

Some of the ingredients we could use

Abby sampling mom's toasted marshmallow and caramel steamer

Benji also trying it

Cub Scout Shenandoah Hike

Benji's Arrow of Light Den decided to take advantage of the fee-free day at Shenandoah last weekend and head out for a hike. Abby had to work so the girls stayed home, but the boys had a great, if a little bit frozen, time:

Cozy November

As we spiral towards Thanksgiving and the weather gets colder, we've been spending more time at home and making fewer plans. This past week, we put up our Thanksgiving decorations and ended the week with a Shabbat dinner at home:

Clarinet Boy

Benji practicing his instrument:

Abby's Art 2018

Abby is once again enrolled at art in school, after taking a year off to fit in other courses. When I met with her art teacher, Ms. Sweet last week for conferences, she showed me this beautiful piece that Abby had painted for their last assignment:

Election Day 2018

The kids and Kevin were off, but we headed out to vote early:

It was a gray day, but the rain let up as we got home and a gusty wind made it rain leaves, which the kids enjoyed trying to catch: