Sunday, November 15, 2020

Finding Community Caves & Spearfish Falls

Earlier this Fall we spent a day driving through the lovely Spearfish Canyon in search of pretty leaves and also two stops/hikes we hadn't done before -- to Community Caves and Spearfish Falls. The day did not disappoint. We found and thoroughly enjoyed both.

Community Caves is a short but seriously steep scramble/hike up a wash of loose rocks. Mabel did a fantastic job and we were pleasantly surprised by how large the caves were once we arrived. Afterwards, the much easier hike to Spearfish Falls was welcome and the change in scenery made it feel like we were somewhere completely different world even though we'd only driven a few miles in between them.


The hike up!

Luke was first to the top - of course! 


































Our usual picnicing spot didn't have any parking spots available, so we found a beautiful place along the road to have our lunch.























Sunday, November 8, 2020

Wrapping up October

I know, I know ... we're already a week into November and I am just now posting about October (AND I still have two more September-era posts I am hoping to do!) We had what felt like another very full month. With the weather continuing to cool down, the pressure to be outside doing as much as possible on the nice days is pretty intense and makes me feel a bit frantic sometimes -- as we try to wring the very most out of any warm, beautiful days. In spite of several "snow days" and a below ZERO morning, we did our best to enjoy all the big & little the moments together..

Enjoying the Fall Festival in Box Elder -- the kids each got to pick out a FREE pumpkin!


Driving through the Black Hills, catching the last of the Fall foilage.

A fun day at Sheridan Lake with some homeschool/MOPS friends. 

Family day at Angostura Resovoir -- the BEST beach-like sand in our area! And...it wasn't crowded!

Hiking at one of our favorites, Little Elk Creek -- 



Even better than a beautiful hike? A hike with a swing out over the creek!


An evening playing at Canyon Lake Park here in town. Such a pretty place!

Homeschool fun -- experiments inside and out!

A snowy weekend. My shovel crew deserves hot chocolate AND we found a perfect used set of bunk beds for the kids! Hurray!

Halloween highlights: making cat & jack o'laterns, costume time with friends and family and counting up the candy from the piƱata! 


Wednesday, October 28, 2020

September Reminiscing -- Getting back to school

In this season that has felt unsettled in so many ways, I've been double-thankful that we were already homeschooling and I didn't have to wrestle with what to do for this school year.  Although a lot about homeschooling looks different than before I am thankful that we are able to continue together at home.

We had a fantastic first day (on September 14th), starting with our traditional first day of school hike, a park picnic and a little table work too. We all experienced a few bumps with the trasition from our wonderfully unscheduled summer to the school year, but we're all looking forward to this new year of learning!




















Hiking at Buzzard's Roost 













The fall bouquet the kids collected on our hike.  So pretty!




Picnic at the park and feeling very happy to get to spend my days with these guys!


Monday, October 26, 2020

September Reminiscing - Celebrating our girl!

Mabel turned FIVE last month and we had a great day celebrating her. She had been giving me the specifics on her cake for months ahead of time (in her chipmunky voice and with detailed hand gestures: "first mom, a layer of chocolate, then fudge, then crushed up oreos and another layer of chocolate, with fluffy pink frosting all over and Lowly the Worm on top). I did my best to get it right, but she did provide me some feedback that the cake wasn't exactly how she'd imagined it. Next time, maybe? :-)


The kids get to pick their meals for their birthday -- breakfast is usually Lucky Charms :)


A beautiful day at Center Lake 

Present time! Some of her favorites: A big-girl swing for our swing set, a cozy robe and dance lessons.

Love this girl!


Thursday, October 22, 2020

September Reminiscing -- Heart Friends & First Snow

September really went by in a blur of so, so many {mostly} wonderful things. 
Labor day evening we received two visitors -- one was incredibly welcome and truly wonderful while the other one was not so much. 

Our welcome visitors were our very, very dear friends, the Deeds Family who we met when living in Guatemala. They stopped by the Black Hills as part of their summer vacation for what was supposed to be a few days of camping together. After over two years without seeing them, we were thrilled! Unfortunately, we also received over an inch of snow that same evening followed by below freezing temperatures. We changed gears from camping and instead had a great time hanging out at our house and doing some local hikes. The snow & freeze killed most of our garden and flowers, but we had a most memorable "summer" visit together. 
















Morning of September 8 -- not too much snow & it looks pretty, SO glad not to be camping in this though!

















SUPER happy to get to be around our table with this family! (Jason's out of view, but on my left!)
















In typical fashion for us, we forgot that if there is a little snow in town, there will be a lot more out of town! Oops! Snowy, but we had a great time playing at Rock Mazes.









































































We had so much fun just being all together in our home, chatting, doing puzzles, eating & reading
















Sharing one of our favorite hikes - Little Elk Creek









































A special, final evening together in our backyard, complete with Will leading us in worship songs.