baby mouse

lucy had her debut performance in the hood river production of the nutcracker this past weekend.

she and her ballet class of 4 year olds were the little mice and they were so so so adorable!!

.....lucy and her little buddy sahale

showing off their tails.....

isn't she the cutest baby mouse ever!

...they didn't allow pictures during the performance so i don't have any of the 'big girl dancers' as lucy calls then but they are very well trained and it was a very well done show.

o christmas tree

we have officially kicked off the christmas season in this household. the pandora station is tuned to various 'holiday' channels. the lights are up on the house.

the first weekend of december is always our annual breakfast with santa at the westside fire station. santa followed by pancakes....a highlight every year!....

.....the following day we went to our favorite christmas tree farm. it was a crisp clear beautiful day. we chose a lovely big bushy tree (the best one ever) and cut it down....

....the kids helped with the cutting of our tree

...while dad finished up cutting the tree we amused ourselves with some silliness at the tree farm...riley wanted to take a picture...

.....then lucy wanted to take a picture

....we got the tree up and the kids decorated themselves with the lights

then put the lights on the cat....

.... oh and we also decorated the tree..... it is beautius!

.....its beginning to look a lot like christmas!

all hallows eve and fall fun

we had a great halloween again this year.

....we made our yearly trip up to the punkin patch. we found some lovely punkins, rode the tractor, went thru the corn maze....



....then we carved them....oh and todd's aunt nancy and his cousin lucas were out for a visit from denver, so they helped carve too. really strong punkin work this year. fun to have a little variety with the new carving talent in the house.


....todd and the kids went to a halloween party...isn't he beautiful? the little girls at the party thought he was a princess....


...then the big day came and we got our costumes on.
lucy was rapunzel, and she loved her long hair ('tangled' the movie inspired many a little girls costume this year)


....and riley was a grim reaper, minus the scathe.


....nancy and lucas went trick or treating with us too....

....they all got a good candy haul but more importantly had a lot of fun.

AND this should probably be a separate post but here are a few pictures from nancy and lucas's visit. it was super great to have them out for a visit, and share our world with them.

...lucas is an avid skateboarder and he achieved semi-celebrity status in our house (and actually in our small town) by the time he left.


...he can also jump freakishly high

....todd got him out on some mountain biking trails which he enjoyed...

.....and he got to help with the chickens, plus swing on a tire swing to complete the 'city kid visits the country' experience.

it was a great visit and the kids were especially sad to see lucas go!!!
.....hope you are all enjoying your fall adventures as well!

maui

todd and i were able to get away and spend a week in maui (technically i had a conference but really it was a vacation)..... and thanks to our wonderful mothers who watched our kids for us (they split the week) we were able to go alone and spend some much needed time together. THANK YOU MOMS!!


...and as an additional bonus my college roommate lisa and her husband brian planned their vacation to coincide and met us over there. so we got a little fun adult time too....and she is 7mo pregnant with her first so it was a great last hurrah for them!



.....it was a fantastic week. we were in south maui at wailea beach. we soaked up some beach time. snorkeled a bunch. hung out at the resort that lisa and brian were at and cruised the lazy river with the swim up bar........

.....enjoyed a beautiful island sunset


......we did this fantastic hike up into the rainy jungle. we were soaked by the time we reached the top. it was a far different place than the sunny beach we lazed at the day before.




....went on another great hike through a bamboo forest into a waterfall and swam in a tropical lagoon....very island-fabulous.



...it was so amazingly restful. we certainly missed the kids but so wonderful to have a little time to ourselves!
mahalo!!!

mama's wedding

as usual i am a couple of weeks behind in this post but after 30 some years of single life my mom got hitched!! WAHOO!!!

before they left we had a little ladies night out for her at a little hawaiian place.....she was a good sport!

then they 'eloped' to kauai and tied the knot on 9/10/11 (very cool wedding date if you ask me).

....and then she had a reception when they returned. it was a very nice gathering with chocolate and champagne (the kids loved it).


they did this sweet little ceremony with mom's grandkids and george's grandkids welcoming them to each others family....


.....and what a great picture of the campbell grandkids

we are all super super happy for her and george....congrats!!!