Last Weekend

This past weekend we enjoyed the beautiful Fall weather with a hike at the Niagara Gorge.

Actually, during the week Lara and I snuck out there by ourselves when the kids were in school for an "anniversary hike".  We also celebrated with lunch at Viola's Submarine House, a well known local joint.

 This weekend Gracie also got a last minute invite to a birthday party from a friend, Ava, that moved away over the summer.  They were both happy to see each other and Gracie also loved the Ninja Warrior gym.

The other fun part of the weekend was trick-or-treating at the Haunted Harbor in Tonawanda.  Lara made an awesome guinea pig costume for Grace, and Grant dug up some of my old memorabilia and went as a prom king.  This event seems to keep getting bigger and bigger with more boats participating and more and more people coming.  Grant wasn't too excited to go but in the end, he did agree to dress up.

Going Rogue

This past week we found the Saturn's replacement...a 2008 Nissan Rogue with 80,000 miles.  We called about a lot of cars, looked at a few, and kept finding junk.  We finally found this one that was AWD, seemed to be taken care of, and we got it for $4700.  Hopefully it can live up to the standard set by the Saturn.

October

October started out with our first RV trip!  We spent 1 night at Sinnemahoning State Park in PA.  We saw quite a few elk including 2 big bulls.

We went on a beautiful hike right from the campground.  We didn't see any elk in the woods there but saw lots of beautiful forest.

Lara definitely made full use of the kitchen cooking a delicious squash/pasta dinner and a nice hot breakfast the next morning.

The next weekend was our second RV trip.  We traveled south to Edinboro for homecoming.  We spent our first night in the McComb parking lot so we were right there for our race the next morning.  

We all ran the Kilted Mile on Saturday morning.  Both kids ran great and we were quite proud that Gracie ran the whole thing without walking.  

We stuck around for the parade and the community luncheon.  After that, we hiked around campus for a bit before heading to Aunt Amy's for the rest of the day and night.   

The rest of September

The weekend after the tough mudder we were back at Papa's to pick up the RV and watch the Fiscus girls run a cross country race at Commodore Perry.

We decided to pitch the tent in the carport since bad storms were in the forecast.  It ended up being a good decision as we got tons of rain.

The notary had quite a few issues transferring the title but eventually, after giving up on the computer and doing via paper, we got our Winnebago Warrior.

We also had lots of other September fun including...

ice skating,

Light the Night,

and hanging out in the RV.  We haven't taken a trip with it yet but are anxious to!

 

The only bad news of the month was the death of the Saturn.  It sure seems to be a blown head gasket and at this point isn't worth the money, time and energy to fix it.  Lara and I have had that car since 2004 when we lived in Texas...before marriage and kids.  We got it, for $1500, thinking it would last a few years and we ended up driving it for 15 years and 260,000 miles!  No shame in that, but now we are one "car"ing it until we find a suitable replacement.  RIP Saturn, we hate to see it go, especially when it still looks so good!

A few more nights in the tent

This is the second weekend in a row that we camped out but this time we were at Papa Jim's.  It seemed like we couldn't get out the door...and when we finally did, we came back to the house twice for a book and the rain fly!  We eventually got there (~9) and were happy to see Papa already had a fire going for us.  After a quick tent set-up we relaxed around the fire a bit. 

In the morning, I was off to meet Jason and his friend, Bob, to run my first Tough Mudder.  It was ~9 miles with 25 obstacles.  We had a blast!  It wasn't quite as hard as I expected but was even more fun than I thought it would be.

It was especially nice that Dad, Lara and the kids surprised us and showed up to watch.  It took about 4 hours to complete it!

The day after the race we went to look at a motorhome and decided to buy it!  We have been keeping our eyes peeled all summer and just felt like this one was the perfect fit for us...a Winnebago Warrior.  It was Sunday so we couldn't bring it home (& it was getting a new alternator), but we will be going back to get it soon.

Then we went back to Papa's for a few games of cornhole, a hike to Grandpa Law's memorial site, and Gracie went for a chilly swim in the pool.  We got home in time to watch the 2nd half of the men's US Open finale.

Weekends don't get much better.

Activities

This is the first year that Grant could play an instrument at school and he chose the trumpet, "because it is the loudest".  His lessons start during school on Thursday, his tennis lessons start back up next week and he is doing intramural sports after school one day a week.

After taking the summer off, Gracie's ice skating lessons started back up this week on Monday.  When I asked her how much fun it was to have lessons again (rating from 0-10), she said it was a 10. 

We are also still finding time to get outside and get a little exercise as a family.  Luna sure loves a good hike in woods.

First Day

The next day it was off to school.  Both kids were up early and raring to go.

Almost School Time!

We dropped off Gracie's supplies at school and met her teacher on Wednesday.  It is Gracie's first year at Huth and the first time she will be at the same school as Grant.  She's so excited and doesn't seem to be nervous in the least. 

Since we were in the school, we scouted out Grant's classroom and locker too.

Both kids were happy to find out they have some good friends in their classes.

Labor Day

Friday morning we rolled out to Forget-me-not for a few days of camping.  Jeff and the boys camped with us the first night and Grandma camped with us the second night.

 

Then on Sunday it was off to the Great Stoneboro Fair.  Jase and Heather didn't make it this year but we had lots of fun with Papa Jim and Aunt Denise.