November 2 - Bye-bye pumpkins. Once pumpkins start to mold, it's time to say good bye and a fun way to do that is with, FIRE!
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| Starlight kitten glows from within... |
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| with a little help from Dad. |
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| Smoking pumpkins! |
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| Pumpkins a la flame |
November 4 - Graigry turns 14. This means a later bedtime and that he is old enough to go to the church dances. That will be fun to watch. :)
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| Clothes - yay. |
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| Black socks - he was complaining about not having clean black socks (he doesn't like white ones), so... Happy Birthday Buddy! |
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| Dragon cap from Gma Hibbert; It's become his favorite thing to wear when it's cold outside |
November 10 - Friday night and we decided to let the kids decide what to do as a family. They said they wanted to go to the mall, each with $10. We would draw names and they would buy something for that person. Eric didn't really want to do it, but I told him he couldn't tell the kids to make a plan and then tell them no, so off we went. (Xela was at work.)
We went to Washington Square Mall because the parking is free and things are cheaper (and the overall mall quieter) than if we went to the downtown mall. When you walk into the southwest doors, the first thing you find are these kiddie rides...
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| Graigry the bus driver |
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| Neta is a little too tall to drive this machine |
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| Copper-copper-crime-stopper Nate |
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| Aurora out on a 2nd date |
November 18-24 - FINALLY FLORIDA!!!
It had been over two years since we'd visited John and Diane and we were LONG overdue. I convinced Eric that we should go down for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas becuase I wanted to be home for Xela's last at home Christmas and didn't feel too bad about leaving her home to work during Thanksgiving. I also had more days off during the week of Thanksgiving and more than anything else, we hadn't been down in a long time. We would figure out the finances.
We drove most the night, not making our usual stop in Tenneessee, so we could get to Florida Saturday morning. Once we crossed the Florida border, the sun had started to shine and we stopped for gas. Eric noticed the engine smoking so we popped the hood and checked things out. No coolant. I knew there was a coolant leak and had coolant in the car; I just hand't thought about checking it in route (can't see smoke in the dark of night). We coaxed the Dodge to Crystal River and arrived alive, only a little later than expected (thanks to Eric's speedy driving while we slept).
John borrowed a radiator pressure valve and we found a crack in the radiator. A new one was ordered and put on the schedule for replacing on Monday morning. In the mean time...
SWIM TIME!!
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| Three Scott monkeys swimming in the pool |
RADIATOR REPLACEMENT TIME
John picked up the radiator and then Graigry, Ro, Eric and John went up to the barn to take out the old and put in the new. As much as they would rather swim and play, I was glad they went and enjoyed themselves on a project with their father.
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| Graigry's up for the mechanic's lesson |
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| And tries on this mower for size |
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| Smiling Ro decorated with grease |
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| Don't ask me where their hands went; I have no clue But think this is an awesome pic! |
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| Putting things back together |
ZIP LINING
John and Diane looked up several places to go as a family. One place we all thought would be fun, and hadn't ever tried before (except Graigry at Scout Camp), was a zip line obstacle course. It was run by a Christian group and called Tree Top Adventure at Faith Haven. It was a blast. John watch and took pictures from the ground. I tried to take pictures in route. I don't think I've seen John's pics yet.
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| Getting geared up |
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| Up goes Nate |
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| Neta's face says it all; she was extremely nervous and slow going |
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| Seeing the ground 20 ft below can be quite intimidating |
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| I think this picture should have gone before Nate's picture |
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| Neta has more confidence come the end of the course |
O CHRISTMAS TREE
With extra happy to help hands, Diane's trees were up in about an hour. Kids enjoyed getting items out of the garage attic and hanging decorations while listening to Christmas music on a vinyl record.
BOATING
We always go out on the boat. This trip we brought cooler weather with us (much warmer than Indiana, but cool for Florida). It was supposed to rain, but the sun shone one us up until the last 15 minutes when we cruised back to the dock. No gator sightings sadly, but we very much enjoyed sun bathing in cool 60ish degree weather.
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| No, there is not a man overboard; just looking for fish and the crystal clear water. |
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| Of course, there are boat driving lessons |
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| Didn't jump in this time, but did dip our feet. |
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| Like I said - Crystal Clear Water |
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| This is just funny |
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| Nate's turn; good thing you don't need your feet to drive |
I thought it would be fun to visit a beach and I knew there was a man made beach a few miles down the road, so instead of going to Homossasa Springs, we went to this beach on the Gulf. Kids had fun exploring along the rocks and looking in the water for the sand crabs or hermit crabs, whatever they're called.
Then, they went to the other side of the beach, barefooted. Eric and I had just laid down on our towels to enjoy some sunshine when Neta came running back saying that Nate was bleeding. Eric ran to get Nate and before they got back Graigry came hopping back. They had both cut their feet on busted shells. They hadn't seen the sign saying to stay off the rocks or to wear shoes until it was too late.
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| A kind onlooker provided a bottle of water so we could rise their feet. There was a decent amount of blood (& I didn't even get woosie!) |
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| Crawling back to the van |
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| Neta hits a jackpot John has a gambling machine in his garage & the kids liked to pull its arm. |
We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, got our yearly quota of Wii playing in and ate more than we probably should have. It was a great week in Florida. We intended to leave around lunch on Friday so we could have a day of rest before getting smacked with reality. We left a little later than planned because Eric wanted to surprise John with some hot water in his "dog house" and as is typical for any home improvement project, it took longer than expected.
We had cake and ice cream for my birthday (no plans to throw up in the car and spend the night in a parking lot this return trip) and headed out closer to three o'clock. At least this way we would miss any rush hour traffic through Atlanta. We got home Saturday morning, did minimal unpacking and then took naps while looking forward to our next trip to John and Diane's.
November 27 - Christmas decorating for Family Home Evening. As is the tradition at the Scott house, the first Monday after Thanksgiving is put up the tree evening. We went to the duplex storage unit and got out the Christmas decor box and then had to make a second trip when we realized the tree was not in our basement. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold outside yet.
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| Captains of the Mulch pile |
We did get the decorations up on the following Saturday and the tree hung upside down, glistening in living room, providing it's warm glow throughout the downstairs every night.
