Tomorrow we are heading to one of the most well preserved ghost towns in this area: Vulture, AZ.
It is a ghost town in the real sense of the word, not commercialized, only the owners/caretakers live there and things were just left lying around...pretty cool!
It started as a gold-mining town in the 1880's
We'll take LOTS of pictures and post them Sunday sometime.
Well, we've been going to two bible studies for the past month and really love it. There are kids Evan's age at both and Caitlin gets a day with her 'friends' too.
The first bible study is for Mom's only, two wonderfully nice women take care of the kids while we get an hour and a half to chat and discuss our study for the week. The next session is MONEY...
The second bible study is just for the kids. It's at one of the Pastor's homes (his wife coordinates and leads it). We sing and tell them bible stories and they get to play and have a snack!
I am in the midst of the new member class at Christ's Greenfield Lutheran in Gilbert. We really like this church and I was happy to find such an easy fit without so much work! It helps of course that we just moved from one LCMS church to another but we really 'fit' here! I'm getting involved in several of the groups and events coming up over the next few months and Evan started Sunday School. They start taking them at 3 and I was sure he'd be 5 before he'd go. Despite the tears at first, he seemed to enjoy it though. We'll cross our fingers for this week!
Evan is having fun with preschool at home! We have been doing some projects that I hope to have posted over at Adventures In Preschooling later this week. He's learned a LOT about pumpkins and apples this month.
We are planning to go camping over Halloween weekend! Probably in cabins up in Williams - just west of Flagstaff. Yes, it will be downright COLD! We'll keep you updated on that crazy plan.
We are also planning our trip back to KC for the week after Thanksgiving and we'll be there for about 3 weeks.
Yeah!!!
It's pretty amazing to be here this time of year...we don't have the lovely changing leaves and sometimes enjoyable rainy gloomy weather (Melissa and I like it anyway). We aren't wearing sweaters or jackets, or even long sleeved shirts (heck, I still don't have any jeans in my wardrobe) but it is FALL! And, best of all...we are heading for about 6-7 months of beautiful weather!
The weather has undergone a dramatic shift from HOT, like 100+ every day just two weeks ago, to cool. And I realize that most of you will think 'cool' must mean I'm crazy because 'cool' here is like upper 80's-lower 90's. Just come visit us and you'll see what I mean. It's NOT at all hot. It feels warm and happy late in the day and at night it's been in the 60's. We open the windows most of the day and turn the air on only late in the afternoon while the kids are napping and I'm getting dinner ready.
It's also getting dark here by 6:30...that's the weird absence of DST! Which, I realized, will be coming your way soon and we'll only be 1 HOUR difference. That will have a big impact on my ability to communicate with you over the phone! For some reason the two hour difference always meant someone was eating or sleeping when I was free to talk!
So, because the weather was cooler over the weekend (the highs were only 82 and 86 and we're in for the nice cool weather again this weekend!) we decided to do our pumpkin picking early.
There's a great HUGE farm nearby (Schnepf Farms) in Queen Creek and we spent Saturday evening there. I've posted some photos below...
Our big girl!
Amazing sunset...
Cute kids all around!
Our train ride! This photo makes it look like we're moving at the speed of light!
Evan's FIRST roller coaster ride...and he LOVED it!
I'm hoping to put ALL the photos from the night at the farm on the slideshow at the top of the blog! Assuming the computer will cooperate with me!
I just couldn't help myself one night a couple of weeks ago...
We went to a local ice cream shop (where they actually make their own ice cream from local milk!) Udderly Delights and had ice cream for dinner!
Of course, we then had to have dinner for a snack but it was fun regardless.
See -- everybody looks happy!
