We had a fun fall!

Wasn't quite fall when the kids went back to school (hate that about our school schedule) but off they went. For the open house shortly after it started Meghan's class brought in clothing and made stuffed students to sit at their desks. They looked awesome.

We celebrated the end of summer and beginning of fall with a camping trip up to Monte Sano. It may be local and only a few miles from the house but once you are up there you can forget you are in the city. Great state park! We had McDondalds up there camping with us and one of the other great things about Monte Sano is friends can come up for the afternoon and evening even if they aren't campers and they did.

Matthew became eligible for the Order of the Arrow in scouts and was elected into it by the other boys in the troop. (We had five elected this year.) Matthew, Sam McPheeters and Joe Rivenburgh did their Ordeal to become members in mid September. On the way down it rained cats and dogs. Luckily it tapered off and was a great weekend for them to do their service projects and go through their ceremonies to become members of the OA.

Fall also means football and the West Point Society of the Tennessee Valley decided to meet routinely at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Jones Valley. Matthew loved going with or without friends. He loves the wings and love the never ending flow of Dr Pepper or Mr Pibb. Nice to get together with other grads for some of the games when we could and nice to finally see Army winning football games again.

In October, we headed over to Alpharetta, GA to see TobyMac, Third Day and Michael W. Smith in concert. Great time and we love our Christian music. This was Michelle's early birthday present.

Also in October Mike and Matthew went backpacking up in Fall Creek Falls, Tennessee with the scouts. The weather was perfect with highs in the mid to upper 70s and lows at night down to almost freezing. The only down side was the extended dry period meant we couldn't have a campfire. Great time though and it was the first backpacking trip for some of the boys in the scout troop.

Still in October, Meghan had been asked to dance in Firebird with Huntsville Ballet and that was performed on October 30 over in Decatur. They performed both Firebird and Dracula and they were great shows.

For Meghan's birthday in November she wanted a Hotel Birthday party like she'd seen in the American Girl magazine. We set up a registration desk at the front door, Matthew threw on Mike's old Full Dress gray jacket and tar bucket to be the bell boy and all the girls had to sign in as they arrived at the hotel for the sleep over. Meghan loved it and Matthew didn't have to have his arm twisted until it broke off to play along.

Now that Whitesburg Christian Academy has had its first graduating class they did Homecoming up right. They had a great spirit week with differently themed days and then had a huge turn out for the boys and girls basketball games on Friday night.(Not big enough for football yet.) On Saturday night the middle school and high school had their Homecoming Hoedown out at Tate Farms. Chili cook off, line dancing and square dancing, hay rides and a bonfire. Wonderful time and the kid loved it. Great to see kids allowed to act their age instead of being pressured to act more grown up and misbehave at a school dance.

For Thanksgiving we headed for The Villages in Florida to spend it with the grandparents. Great time as always.