Nothing's Better than Family in the Fall

One of our batches of visitors was extra-special, and the girls crossed off the days for a couple of months until they arrived. Dude and Mom Owen stayed for a week, but we packed that week to the brim and spilled it all over the floor, and when they left, it seemed like they'd only just arrived.

 We followed the now-yearly tradition of going to the apple farm for their free haunted barn and greedy animals, a visit which was marred only by John's station wagon popping a tire at the base of the exit driveway.  Before that, though,  everything was peachy....or apple-y;  take your pick.  (PICK?!  Groan.  I didn't even intend that one.)







 Mom O. even treated us to a wagon ride.  Six bucks per family, and they were kind enough to count us as only one family, which, I suppose, we are.


 

Because the owners filled the woods along the trail with whimsical cutouts, a game of "I-Spy" ensued.  Luci clearly spies something, but your guess is as good as mine.

I know what I spied.  In spite of a wagon that was too jouncy for clear pictures, I tried to capture this girl.  Who gave her permission to grow so old?!

I also snapped this funny interchange.  (Luci still spies something, and your guess is still as good as mine.)

It was cold and windy.  Luci shrewdly sat next to Grandpa, smart girl.

 

Mom O. used the flash to capture some of the horror inside the haunted barn.  Oh, the horror! Even laid flat on the screen, it gives me chills.

And where are the greedy animals who need no food?  Don't worry.  We didn't neglect their swollen, little bellies.

I keep waiting for one of the animals to explode like an over-filled balloon.  One of these days, it's bound to happen.

We also slipped into the children's science museum after church on Sunday.  We hadn't been there in ages, and the girls used up enough energy for a battalion.  I don't know how Dude and Mom O. were still standing by the end of the day.  I would have happily been carried back to the car on a stretcher, but no one offered, more's the pity.

And amid a myriad of other wonderful doings, Dude and Mom took the children to Chuck E. Cheese's, early morning, mid-week.  We got 60 free tokens from Internet coupons and arrived to an empty wonderland.  (I take that back. I think there was one small girl under two there when we showed up, and I don't blame her a bit for wanting to just sit and watch our urchins roam the place.)  

They had a blast and are still talking about it, weeks later.  I share only one picture from this enormous day, and I share it to brag about another benefit of home learning.  While other children sit chained to their desks under fluorescent lights, ours ride the best school bus ever.  

And if that doesn't sell you on the virtues of home learning, you're a hard sell, and I don't know what will.

 

We had a lot of fun cooking fancy meals for them, but the best thing we baked was a birthday cake the night before their departure.  Happy Birthday, Mom O.!  We love you thiiiiiiiiis much!