This year we went to Bead Lake to find a tree (note to self, scope out a better place to look for a tree). This was more of a hiking experience, although the trails are wide and well maintained. It's more that the little ones are wimpy and it was cold and I didn't make Maeve wear her heavier coat. But we found a great tree that may be our best one yet. It's not too big, it looks great! So far, it only has lights and isn't getting ornaments because the combination of our sons and our puppy will mean chewed and ruined ornaments and I'm just not down for that this year.

Our yearly tradition - chocolate making! These are all the photos I took. But we did it! We spent a whole afternoon making chocolates.

That yearly tradition! Although this year, I made the pancakes on Wednesday which really through my kids for a loop! That was an adjustment. I didn't want to add that into Thursday morning turkey trot and meal prep, which was smart because I ended up with a sinus infection.

Okay, check out these cuties! This year, Ira and Enoch were firefighters. They love wearing the firefighter dress up at the children's museum so hopefully this is a costume that gives us some future play time too! They were SO cute! I'm thinking of taking photos of Ira in his firefighter costume every month and making a calendar. If Enoch enjoyed his more, I'd do that for him too, but he's picky about his clothing and taking these photos required a bribe.

Maeve was Alice in Wonderland and Holly was the White Rabbit. Holly loves to craft up portions of her costumes. It's great!

Greta, sadly, went trick or treating with her friends. She was "Thing 2" and we missed her. Hopefully I'll get to snap some pics of her but now she's in volleyball season.

Oh Halloween. Weirdest holiday ever. What do we do with all the candy???

What a treat it was to plan this weekend with our big girls (The Core Four) in Winthrop. We stayed in a teeny tiny cabin. Our main event was hiking the Maple Loop Pass. It's 8.5 miles and a 2000' elevation gain. It took us about 4.5 hours. There were some cold and wet moments, but the views were amazing the entire time! I loved doing this hike and I'm so proud of my girls. The larches were gorgeous. I was amazed at the green, bright yellow and grey color combinations. How can I make that into pottery?? 10/10 recommend this hike.

We also mountain biked a bit. Greta requested that our next trip have zero trails.