Cute as a bug!

Pre-Costume! "Daddy's Under My Spell" - Check out that braid!

Hope had a fabulous time last night. It didn't take long at all to get the hang of things. Amazing what a motivator candy can be. :)




Hope has been talking about Olivia coming non-stop for a week. She was so excited for this day. We started out with jack-o-lantern pizza and then got the girls geared up for a night on the town.













Here we go!

Hope is such an instigator right now. Can't you see the scheming in this photo? What do you think she's whispering in Olivia's direction?

Walking up to our first stop of the night. Olivia wasn't too sure about what to think. Some of those costumes are pretty scary. They didn't seem to phase Hope too much.

Dave and the Girls

A Quick Breather

Are we having fun yet?

Princess Olivia

"Cute as a Bug" Hope

Friends - Dave & Amy with Olivia, Beth & Ron with Hope...& Olivia's "wonton," aka wand. :)

Olivia cooking with Ron when we got back - Those goldfish fried over the lantern flame are pretty tasty. MMMmmmmm...

Thirsty Girls at the End of the Night


Favorites

The Best Birthday Wish Ever!

Oct. 18th was my birthday. Hope started out that day with a spontaneous "I luf ewe mama!" We always say our "I love yous" but this was the FIRST time that Hope said it first! What an awesome way to start my day! I'll share some more photos from that day another time, but here is a fun video. It was a pretty great birthday!

October 17, 2008

These are some photos from our evening after our busy Gooseberry Falls visit. This batch was all taken along the shoreline outside our lodge.





It was the funniest thing...Ron brought a rope along (never a Boy Scout, but always prepared). Who knew it could be such a fun toy. You should have heard the giggles from chasing the ends of that rope around! I think Hope added grass stains to all the jeans we had along that weekend.





Admiring the Waves and the Sunset

Tom

Good evening everyone -

On this day one year ago our friend (and Ron's co-worker) Tom was severely injured on the job. I will never forget when Ron called me to say Tom got hurt. I thought...OK so we'll send a card. He'll be out of work for a couple days. Maybe we could make a caserole to take over for the family. In no way could anyone have been prepared for what was to come. Ron said, "No Beth. It's bad." Just shy of two weeks later we said goodbye to our friend.

If you'd like to read my two posts from a year ago, please visit here and here.

So, on this day, I'm asking people who visit this blog to please say a prayer for Tom's family. His wife and two children have been incredible witnesses this past year. INCREDIBLE. Also Tom's mother has continued to update his Caring Bridge site on a pretty regular basis with stories, memories, and prayers of her own. She is a beautiful writer. Tom now has a new niece born just a couple weeks ago. His brother and sister-in-law I can imagine are filled with mixed emotions of joy over the birth of their daughter and sadness at the loss of their brother. Their entire family is going to have some challenging days ahead of them as they re-live the experiences of a year ago. Prayers for peace during this time would mean so much.

Also, as I asked a year ago, please include the building trade workers in your prayers. We often forget that they are in dangerous positions everyday. I know I take for granted that Ron will be at the dinner table in the evening after a day of work. He just will. This day for our family will forever be a reminder to us of many many things, but included will be the important ideal that we must NEVER take our family for granted. Say "I love you" and mean it. Always kiss each other goodnight. Take EVERY hug you can get and hang on tight. These are lessons that Tom would want us to take with us. We miss you Tom. We love you Kim, Marlena, and Vincent. And, we're praying for your family on this day and always.

Beth, Ron, & Hope

North Shore Vacation

Last Thursday (Oct. 16) we headed north for a long family weekend together. It was wonderful! The colors were spectacular. Many of the trees were bare already, but that doesn't mean there wasn't color. The landscape was gorgeous!

We left that first morning at about 10:00 and after a quick stop at the bank, we headed back home for things forgotten. :) Please tell me we're not the only ones who get down the road and then have that "oh, shoot!" moment. Anyway, we finally got going and decided to head to the twin cities and then north on hwy. 35 (a.k.a. the "racetrack"). We had a detour around some construction and then took our time on county roads. It was a beautiful drive.

When we finally arrived at Duluth it was about 3:00 and we were ready to play. Here are a couple of the photos we took at the welcome center where we stopped to stretch and have a snack.

We're happy to be out of the car.

I think Hope tried out every rock in this photo to find the perfect one for her little bum.

"Duluth is this big!" If you look carefully you can see the famous lift bridge at Canal Park just above and to the left of Ron's head.

After our stop here, we eagerly jumped back in the car - not a hint of sarcasm here :) - for the rest of our drive. We took the North Shore Drive and enjoyed more scenic views of the lake. We checked into Grand Superior Lodge and ventured across the steet to the Rustic Inn Cafe. We had a tasty dinner but they get no prizes for speed. Perhaps that was a reminder to us that we'd left our busy life for a few days.

Hope was excited to unpack her toys and play while we were getting settled. (Favorite New Doll)

Friday morning we got up and had breakfast at the lodge. We sat at a table overlooking Lake Superior and saw a waterspout while we were waiting for our meal. It was pretty cool! We heard about it on the news that night, too. I've searched for photos of that one on the news websites but haven't had much luck. You can see the warning to sailors on the National Weather Service website though.

Then we headed to one of our favorite north shore sites, Gooseberry Falls. We found a couple geocaches here which was fun, too. Here are some of the highlights.

She takes my breath away.

















More to come...