Halloween costumes and pumpkins

Pink crayon, Candycorn witch, Twister, and Eloise. What a crew. Margaret and Caroline had a grand time galavanting around the neighborhood with neighbor Maggie and friend Anne.

Caroline carved "Winter, the tail-less dolphin" onto her pumpkin, while Margaret stippled an owl onto hers. Both very creative, and they did them entirely on their own this year.

Caroline's first choir concert

Caroline has started singing in the Olympia Youth Chorus this fall, and she had her first concert at the end of October. She was quite nervous, but did great! I can't wait for the Christmas concert coming up in December.

On pointe at last....

The much awaited milestone has arrived--Margaret is now learning to dance on pointe! Trying them on at home so I could sew on the elastic straps and ribbons (who knew???)

Warming up in class with her flats

Switching into her pointe shoes for the last part of class. They only spend 10-15 minutes in them at a time at this stage--it takes A LOT of practice to get used to them!

Even standing flat in them takes practice

Ta da!

Otherworldly sunrise in Olympia

I took this on the way to school in late October. It was so unbelievable that several other cars had stopped to park along the hillside to take the same picture. I've never seen anything like it!

Between jobs getaway to Grand Canyon & Zion National Park

Although anyone who has ever been to the Grand Canyon knows that pictures can't do it justice, I couldn't help myself from trying to take some anyway. Jeff and I spent a lovely (and chilly) day walking and driving around the North Rim. I experimented with some of the settings on our camera that I never use (sepia and black & white). We completely lucked out with the weather for that time of year--sunshine, with interesting cloud features, and an absolutely breathtaking sunset.

Unbelievable sunset

We took a quick drive through Zion NP on our way back to Las Vegas the following day. Definitely need to come back here again, with the kids!

Staycation weekend with the Barrettes

Enjoying some of the last of the beautiful fall weather with a little outing to West Bay Park. The kids went rowing and kayaking all by themselves (!) while the grown ups enjoyed some much deserved R&R in the park.

First Day of School 2011

End of Summer Camping Trip

Trying to get caught up on some blog posting... These are from our Oregon Coast/Redwoods camping trip at the very end of the summer.