Family Pictures

My Mom took some pics of us at the pond on VT campus and there were a few that turned out pretty good.  We just can't seem to all be looking at the camera at the same time.

I love how much the simple act of tossing leaves up in the air gives my children so much joy!

This picture is just to show how crazy it is trying to get 3 little boys to sit still and smile for a picture!  I need a DSLR!  

Checking out the water.  

Burning some energy!

 Last leaf on this tree.

Walking the Huckleberry with Grammy

There is a trail in Blacksburg called the Huckleberry Trail and I had never made it over there to walk it until my Mom came for a visit.  We put on our jackets and grabbed Simon's tricycle for a little ride, knowing we wouldn't make it too far.  In fact we ended up carrying his tricycle part of the way back!  It was a nice walk though and I can't wait to go back and try to do the whole thing.  I think it's 6 miles!  We went a grand total of 1 mile.

He posed a little for me here.

 Then Grammy got in the shot.  So cute!

I'm not sure what they were laughing about here but it must have been funny!

 Always with the tongue sticking out.

The trees we were walking under were lovely.  Unfortunately after our walk we smelled dog poop and sure enough Simon had some on his shoe!  What made it worse is that Grammy got some on her jacket when she was swinging him around!

Hiking Up Gateway Trail

Last Saturday we set out on a hike up Gateway Trail.  It's close to home and we've wanted to go for a while  and finally got around to making the effort.  It's a 1.6 mile hike that we didn't complete.  Maybe we will make it all the way next time.  These guys just start complaining of being tired, bored, hungry, thirsty, etc... 

Josh reads the sign for us.  Now that he can read he likes to tell us what everything says.  

And we are off!

It was easy going at first but once we started going up into the mountain it was challenging.

I really had no idea that it was part of the National Forest.  

As the trail became steeper the complaints became more frequent.

We did let them stop for rests and water though.  

The trees were changing into their fall colors and were just gorgeous.

I took photo after photo of their beauty.

We collected pine cones and acorns to decorate with at home and it was fun to have the boys searching for these treasures and to hear them say, "I found one, look at this one!".

The littlest hiker fell down on the way back.  He just tripped on a rock and scraped up his arm.  He did not want us to touch it or look at it.  Poor thing.