November

 We enjoyed a few fall activities like caramel apples

Caleb was pretty excited for this headline in November

And the main event was of course Thanksgiving 

October

 September was a bust pictures wise.  I realized the last picture I had taken on my phone was the kids first day of school, which was in August.  

The kids are now going to both be in school full time, so if it is possible to have even less, that'll probably happen.  But I will note for memories sake, we've had a lot of fun nights of games and yummy food and staying up late that just didn't make it to the highlight reel.

We headed a little west this month to tackle the largest corn maze on the east cost.  It's 34 acres of corn and a lot of fun  We went several years ago with family when the kids were very little not realizing how giant it actually was.  This year we had a little bit better of an idea and decided to go with the trivia maze for some help that we were headed in the right direction....it still took us over 2 hours.

It's only about an hour away, but we decided after all that walking it'd be nice to stay there for the night, so we got a room at a really cute hotel overlooking the mountains and grabbed some yummy food and drinks at a local brewery.

We weren't sure what the neighborhood would have as far as Halloween this year so I bought a bunch of goodies and set up a scavenger hunt.  Our area ended up having a completely normal trick or treating experience, so Arya chose to go out with her best friend for the evening.  Casen is at the too cool for dressing up stage, so he stayed home and enjoyed the hunt and we got to spend some one on one time with him playing games.

Now onto November :)

August

August 14 Caleb and I celebrated 11 years 

Caleb's been enjoying Three Crosses whiskey since we moved here, but we finally got to go check out the distillery in person.  It's really neat that one of the only distilleries in VA happens to be a short drive down the road.

And August 24 Casen and Arya embarked on their first day of school.  I'm so thankful Powhatan let us have a vote, heard everyone's opinions, and I really do think picked the best option when I know none of the options are ideal.  The kids go two days a week for now, half the kids going early in the week and half going the latter.  Arya will switch to full time in a couple of weeks, but for now they're enjoying half in school half virtual, with any child having the option for full virtual that doesn't feel comfortable going to school.  

July

July started out with a really fun 4th of July at home.  Our county held their first ever fireworks show and it was nice to take the kids.

We then went on our annual New York vacation where we, quite literally this year, traveled the entire state of New York.  I'm not sure that will ever happen again, but we were able to see so many people this trip.

We started in Western NY visiting Caleb's brother, grandma, and uncle.  We hadn't seen most of them in at least five years so it was a lot of fun catching up.  

Then we stopped in to see my sister

Then we got to see our parents.  Also, just a disclaimer, we did tons more things, but this is all I got as far as pictures, and even some of those are borrowed.  

My kids turned into fish and I think were in the pool 95 percent of the time.

Papa got a tractor so the kids had to test it out

We also got to see Caleb's sister and family at his parent's house

The kids also got to see Caleb's service brick in Brasher.

Then we stopped by my brothers and family

Have to make a stop by the Wind Chill

And Pat has a super fun pizza oven that we got to make amazing pizzas on

We finished out the trip at my youngest brother's house and even squeezed in a birthday party.

We are finally back home and already quite enjoying our August here in Virginia.

June

June is usually a really busy month for us.  Unfortunately, covid had other plans.  

We had to put my 30th birthday plans on hold for now.  Not ideal, but staying in a hotel and enjoying restaurants and beaches just isn't in the cards yet.  We enjoyed some yummy food and drinks and made the best of it. 

Father's day was also the day after, but Caleb was working, and again, couldn't do much in the form of plans, so we just enjoyed another family day with no pictures.

 On the 26th we celebrated the official one of year being in this home.

I still haven't gotten around to the full house tour, but honestly, everyone that's come here has said that pictures don't do it justice.  We really have found more and more things to love about it and Caleb and I are still talking about how thankful we are to have made it here.  It's our own little quiet peace in the woods, minutes away from all the accommodations we love, secret rooms to store all the things we want tucked away, the perfect basement where we spend I think 90 percent of our time as a family, the kids get to roam freely in their entire upstairs abode, and the times we're not in the basement we're usually gathered around the island in the kitchen, our other favorite place to be.

And then somehow we blinked and on the 30th we gained a ten year old.  He's grown up so much this year.  He is one of the most caring and compassionate people we've ever met.  He loves all things boy still.  His favorite activity is building creations with his Knex, mostly guns.  He wanted a surprise birthday theme this year.  I went with Nerf, as it's still one of his favorite hobbies.  Caleb unfortunately had to work on his actual birthday, so a couple of days before he got to pick out anything he wanted to eat and drink at the store.  We set it all up and had a full day of games.  He got ice cream filled cupcakes because unfortunately Brusters is closed and he's not really one for cake.