October/November

 We enjoyed some Halloween Geiger cutouts to start October.  

We snuggled in and watched every single Harry Potter movie as well.  

Arya did some trick or treating with friends this year and I forgot to get pics of our decorations and Halloween goodies.

If Caleb's home, wherever he is, you will find Bowzer.

We thoroughly enjoyed our annual chestnuts

Caleb has made a ton of progress on his leg...obviously the most important being Monty Mole

Caleb was working on Thanksgiving.  We decided to bump our meal to Sunday.  It ended up working out perfectly because we still got to enjoy the food and football. I'm really really thankful our kids are always so understanding of moving around holidays to work with Caleb's schedule.  They're the best! We had all hands on deck this year.  Casen made the roasted carrots. Arya made the baked beans and jello salad and Caleb made his always perfect pecan pie.

And then when it came to the actual Thanksgiving day, Casen got to do a ride along with Caleb.

While the boys were at work, Arya and I got to get the house ready for Christmas.

Our yearly ornament choice this year was an oyster shell from where we stayed this summer. 

August/September

 Now that we're well into October, I suppose I should get to the last couple of months.

We've had some pretty quiet, uneventful months as far as the big stuff, thankfully. We've just been super busy with kid's school activities, Caleb's work schedule, and appointments.

August 14 Caleb and I celebrated 16 years.  Did we cancel our fancy steakhouse reservation to order takeout Chinese with the kids?  Sure did.

I'm extra thankful for the easy years we get now that we've been together this long. I hope I always have to pretend not to see the candy bar you sneak into my groceries at checkout. I'm the most thankful for 16 anniversaries with you.

This year I think he got me one of this best gifts ever.  We're usually really frugal with TV, it's just not something we prioritize.  And you know if you live in this area, football season means you get to see the Commanders, Steelers, Eagles, and Ravens.  This year he got me sunday ticket, so I am able to see every single Patriot's game and it has been amazing!

August 19 the kids started school.  This year they had 6th and 9th graders go on Monday to check out new to them buildings and get a feel for it all and then the not new kids got to join on Tuesday.  I loved how this worked out giving mine that extra day off and a little bit shorter of a first week.  Arya is now getting on the bus at 6:30 am so pictures were a little difficult in the dark...and Casen is now 7 inches taller than me, so I get to break out a chair to get a picture.

Casen got into a culinary class this year and has already brought home cookies and biscuits to share.  He's also somehow old enough to be in classes like physics and driver's ed.  Arya got into some really cool classes like digital design and medical detectives.  She's still excelling in all advanced courses and is part of the ACE team this year.  They do competitions against all the other schools in our region and they actually just placed first.  They move onto the championship in a couple of weeks.

And now we get to move on to the month of Halloween where the Geiger household thrives :) 

July

 July was our last month before school starts back up again.  

We did another little mini getaway to the Northern Neck.  It has been so awesome to take trips this summer to places we've never gone to before.

We got a house with the most beautiful views and the entire water facing side of the house was windows, so we got the view literally everywhere we went.

Caleb got started on his entire leg tattoo.  Next is adding all the color in.  You can peep our whole family in the characters.

And we worked to finish our full kid's summer bucket list.  I think we finished in record time this year and we're already looking forward to next.  It has been such an amazing summer and I can't believe it's already over.

Now onto 7th and 10th grade!

May/June

 May was a busy month for the kids wrapping up their school year.  It was lots of ceremonies, and state testing, and planning for their next year.

Arya had her chorus concert, which was amazing.  She also had some awards ceremonies.  Now that Casen is in high school, they have his during school and parents aren't invited, so I don't have the pictures from his stuff.

I, of course, got spoiled for Mother's Day and we also finished up the school year with a trip to Brusters.

For the past few summers now, we've made a summer bucket list as a family.  We really really enjoy it, so this year was no different.  The kids always surprise us with how simple their choices are.  This year is things like go to the beach, family lego night, and go fishing.  I think we knocked four things off the list right off the bat with our mini trip to a little beach town.

I forgot to get pics of our airbnb, but it ended up being our favorite one we've ever stayed at.  We got to make smores, play new games, enjoy empty beaches at night, and go to the cutest restaurants.

Once we were home we decided to cross the family lego night off the list.  The boys picked a set and us girls picked a set and we got to spend the evening working on those.  It ended up being one of the most fun nights we've ever had.  I highly recommend.

For my birthday this year, Caleb surprised me with tickets to go see Gavin Degraw at a winery in Williamsburg. He was playing an acoustic set and it happened to be the day after my birthday. Williamsburg is one of our favorite places to go to, so we hired the kids as dog sitters and got a little get away for the day.  We ended up getting to be so close at the concert, too.  

And then Casen somehow turned 15.  He's at the age where there isn't much he asks for anymore.  He wanted to spend the weekend fishing with his friends and have a game night with us, so that's what we did.

And we have honestly had one of the best summers as a family that I can remember.  Any night that Caleb is off, we are up way too late playing games and having the best time.  We've had so many fun adventures and in about a week we get to head to our next one.  I'm so thankful for this family and I'm already bummed for them having to go back to school.