November-ish

When we last left off, it was right before Halloween.  A lot has happened between then and now.

Halloween was fun!  The kids got SO much candy...again.

In early November, Sarah and I joined our neighbors and another couple for a weekend in Hermann, MO.  We stayed at a really neat old B&B that was walking distance to downtown.  We also took the wine tour on Saturday and visited a bunch of thee wineries.  It was a lot of fun and the weather was BEAUTIFUL!

The cellar under the Stone Hill Winery

Gorgeous day!  We sat outside at the Oak Glenn Winery up on the bluff soaking up the sun and enjoying the day.

Me and my lady!

The kids stayed with Grandma Cas in Boonville.  I think they played in the leaves the entire time we were gone!  They made a house, complete with kitchen and toilet (the bucket) :)

Zonked after the long weekend.

Sarah's Birthday!

Owen got her a sweet desk lamp!  He was so proud of is.

Elsie got her a cook book, which was also very thoughtful. 

I got her a box of Mahomes Flakes...

...not really!  Inside was a trip to Sanibel Island, Florida for February!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!

Owen had his 3rd Grade Concert

Elsie has been doing GREAT with her trumpet.  She practices it on her own all the time.  So glad she likes it.

Like I said, ALL the time!  :)

She even practices on our Conch shell from Florida!  :)
(no joke, she's the only one who can make it sound really loud.  she's been blowing it when the Chiefs score TDs!)

Elsie had her concert too.  First one!  They did great!

Elsie had to make a Lakota Sioux village for school.  It turned out REALLY neat.  She's so crafty.

I was able to get a few mountain bike rides in.  There are some neat trails around the area and I've been exploring them this fall. 

This is the Kansas River Trail in Lawrence.  It's a 9mi loop.  Not too difficult, but pretty long and very cool scenery next to the river.

This part of the year is prime time for Cub Scouts.  We got to visit the Leawood Fire Station for one of our meetings.  It was really neat and of course the kids loved it.

Fireman Joe, who is Isabelle's Dad, gave us the tour

For Thanksgiving, the Pack had a competition to see which den could raise the most food donations.

Winning Den got to throw pies in Kevin's face!

Here's the man, all spiffed up.

We learned flag etiquette from Jason, who is in the Army.

One of our Bear Adventures is to learn about woodworking tools, and to make something fun and something useful.  We had the scouts over to our garage to practice.  It was fun watching them all use woodworking tools.  We made simple tick tack toe boards

They are coming back next week for the rest of the project...assembling bird houses!

Elsie even got in on the fun!

Guess who's back???

A few weeks ago we got our first snow.  Wasn't much but "you know who" was out there enjoying it.

I thought this was awesome from Owen

Last weekend we went to Boonville for Grandma's Birthday.  Sarah had the idea to get her a painting of the beach where we spread Dad's ashes when we were in Hawaii.  She found a local artist and framed it.  We hung it above Dad's urn and it looks wonderful. 
Happy Birthday Grandma Cas!

See ya!
Ryan