lovely autumn day....

Today was a good day. My sister-in-law, who homeschools four of her kids this year, came over for a visit. Since my kids aren't allowed any television or video games during the day on school days, they found things to do. The little girls played dolls, the boys with Hess trucks and Jon's train, some Nerf guns....they went outside and picked a few pears, rode bikes, climbed trees, ran around.

Emily came over this morning too, we planned for this weekend's grill at the soccer weekend at church. She took Kathryn and Suzanne and two cousins out and about...they went to lunch in the small city, then shopping.

Kim and I had coffee, and lunch with the kids, but mostly sat around talking all the live-long day.

This afternoon, I made a nice dinner. I peeled and cubed four butternut squash, peeled some potatoes, and put two fat chickens into the oven. I made gravy, and mashed up that squash and those potatoes, with lots of butter. The six older kids (and one cousin who stayed for dinner!) had to leave for the youth meeting, so they began eating before I even finished preparing all the food...I ended up eating all by my lonesome, then cleaning it all up...life is certainly still busy enough.

I talked to Paul this afternoon, too. I miss him. He's in France, still. On Saturday he took a day trip to Geneva, Switzerland. I was in Washington, D.C., and he was in Switzerland. :) It's nice he enjoys himself on his work trips, but I do get a teeny tiny bit jealous. How can he have fun without ME? I am kind of kidding. Kind of. I did have fun without him, but all the while we were looking at interesting things, I was thinking how much he would enjoy it.

Our weekend away to visit Sam was so totally fun....I drove about 3/4 of the way down, then Abigail did the hard part, the city driving part, while I navigated. She did fine, she is more chill than I thought she was. When we got to the base, we had to all get out of the minivan while a few MP's searched it. The box of Frankenberry cereal I had brought for Sam fell out of the back hatch when they asked us to open it, I thought Kathryn and Suzanne would die of embarrassment. They didn't find anything illegal, so they copied down Abigail's license number, and let us go.

Sam was pretty happy to see us. He showed us around base, and I got in trouble for taking a picture of the barracks he is going to be moving into. It has a nice sign out front, and is a handsome old Virginian building, but the soldier who chastised me for photographing it said it isn't allowed, taking pictures of buildings on base. He said that if the military police saw me, I would be in BIG trouble. Oooh, scarrrrry. not.

We drove downtown and got some dinner from Chipotle, then went to check into the hotel. We dragged in all of our extra bedding and pillows, and settled down for a fun evening of snacks and talking and being silly. A few of us went up to the pool...a heated pool on the top floor, with such a beautiful view of D.C.

Saturday was tour D.C. day, and I loved every minute of it. I won't bore you with the details, but we saw memorials and the Smithsonian, and walked right up to the Washington Monument. I loved the warm windy sunny weather, and loved watching people. Such a huge mix of people, from all over.

We got pretty hungry, despite the huge amount of snacks I lugged around in my purse. So, to Pizza hut we went. We ordered pizzas, then went over to McDonalds for coffee for me, and milkshakes for some of the kids (and chicken nuggets for Kathryn). Back to the hotel we went, for another fun evening....

Sunday, we packed up all of our stuff, and headed to a shopping mall in the city.

It went by too quickly, and before we knew it, we were saying goodbye to poor Sam, who in his sweet charming way made it known that he would truly miss us.

Anyway, it was an excellent weekend. I did miss my little girls though, and a few of my older ones too. And Paul. I love missing him though, knowing that he will be home soon and we will be so glad to see each other. I am very thankful for him, and for what we have.

It is quiet in here now, the kids have all gone to bed, the bad dogs are snoring, probably dreaming up plans of what to get into tonight. Last night, they ate my pies.

I made two pumpkin pies, and an apple pie when Aaron came for a visit yesterday. We then went to Target, and to the grocery store, heading home with visions of pie for dessert. I made hamburgers for dinner...I ate mine with no bun, but I did have some pie. Oh it was good. Well, those dogs somehow got the rest of the apple pie, and almost a half of a pumpkin pie, out of the glass pie plates on the counter, and onto the floor, where they ate some, and left some all over the floor. That apple pie was excellent, those bad dogs. It was made with apples we picked from the orchard, the crust made with butter...

They also got into the garbage, which I had forgotten to put up on a chair, and ate all the grease that I had poured from making the hamburgers, into an empty can. The can was again empty, on the living room floor. rrrr. Bad dogs. But, they are extremely cute and cuddly and they look so innocent.

Ah well. I need to get to bed so I can get up and take my walk in the morning.