Halloween

This year for Halloween, we thought we were going to get away with not finding  a costume. Not so. Our ward did a Halloween party with a costume contest. We knew we weren't going to win with our last minute thrift store and hot glue costumes, but we knew we would stick out more if we didn’t dress up. We were the best (only) house hold objects there!!!

Amy the Lamp:

 

Benjamin the Q-Tip:

Benjamin acting like a naughty little kid who doesn’t want his picture taken.

 

Benjamin did a great job at the Doughnut on a string competition. He was the first one to get the doughnut off the string, but our friend Skylar was the first to swallow. So, its debatable who won.

On Halloween day, I had to work until 8, but Benj came home early to greet all the many trick-or-treater’s. After I got home, our friend from India, Mintu, and his wife and daughter came over for homemade doughnuts. They brought their own version of doughnuts. They were made from lentils and were savory. They were DELLICIOUS.

We try to make the most of our Holidays, because it’s the time we miss our family the most. We are grateful for such good friends and neighbors who make it easier to be away from family on holidays.

Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Woods… and thanks to my husband, we took the correct one.

I know this is kind of redundant, but we ventured out to high banks metro park again. We kind of wanted to walk through the woods with all the fall leaves. We were just a little bit late in the season. About half of the trees turned red and yellow and then dropped all their leaves. About half stayed green. They will probably turn pretty soon, but we went when there were a lot of bear trees and green trees. There were still quite a few pretty yellow trees and a couple red ones. It was still absolutely beautiful. We walked about 2 miles through the woods, passing streams, squirrels, blue birds, cardinals, deer, meadows, and even an ancient Adena Native American burial mound. The pictures don’t do justice.

More of Benjamin’s mushroom pictures.

We started walking on one trail and switched over to a different trail so we could start heading back to our car more quickly. After a while is started getting a little dark and it started to rain a little, too. The trees covered us and we didn’t get wet at all. We came to a fork into the trail. One path would lead us away from the car. One would lead us back to the car. We had a map and there was also a little map on the trail. I walked right up to it, studied it for a bit and started walking down the trail. Benj stopped me and said, “Amy, which way leads us back to the car.” I pointed down the trail I was sure lead back. Benj said, “Amy, come look at the map again. Which road on the map goes left and which one goes right?” I pointed to the right ones on the map and Benj said, “And if your on the trail we are on, which one goes right and which ones goes left.” And I pointed and Benj said, “ So which one leads us back to the car.” I pointed to wrong one again. Benjamin just started laughing. He started walking down the correct trail and saying, “Just trust me.” I didn’t believe him the whole way straight back to the car. Thank goodness my husband has an amazing sense of direction, because I have awful awful awful sense of direction. I cannot read maps and I get really stressed about navigating. Thanks Benj for leading us down the right trail. I didn’t want to be stuck in the rain and dark.

Ward Campout

Last weekend we had a fun ward campout. The turn out was huge and we all had lots of fun roasting marshmallows and exploring the woods around Allum creek. We didn’t stay the night because I had work the next morning, but we stayed for the dinner and festivities.

We had a beautiful big clearing enclosed in trees for the campsite.

There were yard games to play. A little Bocci, a little corn-hole here and there. Benj and some of his friends are playing bocci ball in the above and below pictures.

We had a really yummy dinner of grilled hamburgers and lots of sides and dessert. My favs were the coconut lime sugar cookies and the home made baked beans. AMAZING! Later that night we did roasted marshmallows, starbursts, and crescent dough. Yum! I didn’t really get a good picture of the campfire. Just this candid shot of people around the fire pit area.

Benj to a lot of pictures of plants and wildlife:

 

The following are all the different kinds of mushrooms and fungi that he found in the trees:

Yes, that’s fungi growing on that tree.

We love our ward and we love beautiful Ohio!

Highbanks Metro Park

About a week ago Benj and I drove about 15 minutes away to Highbanks metro park. Surrounding Columbus are about 20 or so metro parks, which are like big nature preserves with trails and trees and creeks. Its is 1,159 acres with 11 miles of trails and hikes. There are two Adena Indian burial mounds and prehistoric earthwork. There are also 100-foot high shale bluffs that tower over the Olentangy River and lots of deep ravines. We didn’t have much time to explore like we wanted to and we didn’t get a ton of great pictures, but we had a blast walking along one of the nature trails. We are for sure going back in once all the leaves turn red and orange.

We entered the nature trail through that little hole in the trees.

Benjamin took lots of pretty pictures of plants.

He had better luck getting pictures of plants than I had getting pictures of him. He was on one. I could not get him to make a normal face. He just likes to see me get flustered. He thinks I’m cute when I’m flustered. I love him. He should know by now that any pictures I get go straight to our blog for everyone to see. Haha.

 

Thanks for the handsome smile, babe (finally).

And just because I thought it wouldn’t be fair for me to post a bunch of crazy pictures of Benj, I thought I would even it out with a really really really bad picture of me. Just to make it even. I look scary!

We a saw a two deer and a frog. The pictures of the frog didn’t turn out very well, but it was a cute little green thing.

We will definitely be going back!