Halloween Fun 09

Check out our slideshow of Halloween Activities for 2009! Avery said it was "the BEST Halloween ever!"

October Snow Storm

We had another one of our CRAZY Colorado snowstorms this week . . . except that this one came a little early (PRE-Halloween!). Chase predicted a "hard winter" way back in early September. He said, "I saw birds flying South early, and they were moving FAST!" He told me we'd probably be Trick or Treating in the snow. Well, looks like the Human Barometer was right! The storm that came in Oct. 28 and 29th left us with over 2 feet of snow (the official measurement was 27.7 inches). Just check out the pictures below to see how it looked in our own backyard!

Our Laura Ingalls Wilder Field Trip

See below for a slideshow from our very fun trip to De Smet, South Dakota to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites featured in her books from By the Shores of Silver Lake through The First Four Years. This is where most of her stories took place (and the ones closest to us). Since we read the entire series of books this year, we were excited to see where these fun stories took place over 125 years ago. We loved touring the Ingalls homes and old schoolhouses in De Smet, and got to go inside the actual first school they attended and the Surveyor's house they lived in during their first winter in the Dakota territory. Laura thought it was a mansion--but to us, of course, it was tiny! The Ingalls homestead was a fantastic place to visit and was the actual site of Pa's quarter section claim (we even got to see some of the actual trees Pa planted when they lived there). They had great activities for the children and we all had a lot of fun. Enjoy the photos!