West Point

We made the 6 hour drive from Niagara Falls to West Point so we could visit Dustin's old school and see some of his family and friends.

We drove onto West Point Saturday morning for the football game. The first thing we saw when we came in the gate was the new prep school campus. Dustin attended the prep school when it was in New Jersey but it has recently been relocated.

At the game we saw cadets from his old company and got a picture with their mascot - the G4 Guppy!

 

We sat with the band for a little while and it was good to see them doing some of the same things that they were doing when Dustin was there. But the band is very loud so we moved to our seats to watch the game.

We got to spend some time exploring the campus. Grace's favorite part was the leaves of course!

 This is the bridge where Dustin proposed.

 And the fall colors over the reservoir were beautiful.

While Olivia was napping in the car I took some pictures of Grace enjoying all of the leaves that were on the ground.

It was nice to be able to go back after more than 5 years and see good friends and family!

Pumpkin Patch

One Saturday in October we visited a The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina, TX.

With our admission we each got a cup of food for the animals. Grace fed the sheep but then decided that wasn't her thing and so she let Olivia have the rest of the food.

 

Olivia loved feeding the goats!

Grace was tired of feeding the animals and wanted to check out the pumpkins and hay bales.

 She sat so still and smiled big for the camera!

Then Olivia joined us but she didn't want to sit and take her picture. She wanted to climb on the hay and the fence.

We let the girls pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.

Grace decided she would rather leave hers for another little girl or boy to take home. But she did want to go for a hay ride!

It's like Christmas!

I got a package I had been waiting for. And who doesn't like getting things in the mail? I wouldn't have expected it at all until today except for half of my order from Amazon came on Wednesday. So I check on Thursday and nothing. Again on Friday and nothing. This morning, still nothing. So we went to the BX and Dustin had something we needed to mail but we needed to buy envelopes first. When we went back to the post office I had him check AGAIN. And he came out with a box!

My new yoga mat is here!

Isn't it just so cute?

And even cuter is this nice little bag to carry it in.

My old yoga mat is currently being used to keep the rocking chair in Grace's bedroom in place. Before we put it there we would hit the wall or the closet door. Not good considering most of the time she would have just closed her eyes when it happened.

And do you want to know what made it feel even more like Christmas?

Definitely NOT the weather... it had finally started to feel like fall and yesterday we didn't even use the AC! But today we were turning the AC on by 9am.

The candles we have been lighting around the house have helped make it feel like fall...

But Grace got and early Christmas present and THAT made it almost like Christmas.

I like to shop early. Very early. I get that from my Mom. I had some of Grace's Christmas bought the very day after Christmas last year. We have already bought all of her Christmas and birthday gifts for this year. So sometimes we decide that she could use (well... maybe enjoy would be a better choice of word here. Especially after you see the video...) one of the things we had stashed in the spare room waiting for our Christmas tree to go up so it could go under it. She has been walking as long as she has something to push. And we figured since we had the cute little shopping cart we should go ahead and let her use it. She is still a little short but she had fun pushing it around the house!

Here is the video... but first a disclaimer

Please excuse the mess of toys... Making messes is one of Grace's favorite things to do. She especially loves when we let her dump an entire basket of toys (the more the merrier, right?) and she loves to pull one ball out of the bag at a time and throw it as far as she can.

Also, please excuse the cheerios that are scattered across our floor. Again, Grace loves making messes. I think we will be finding cheerios after we move!

If I were to take this video now you wouldn't see the cheerios and you wouldn't see the toys piled on her play rug. But then you wouldn't see Grace because she is asleep in her bed.

Fall?

It seems everyone is talking about fall. And here there is nothing that feels like fall. The weather is hot and muggy. We can still wear shorts flip flops. There is no need for a jacket or sweater even at night. I have been wearing my jeans because it makes it feel more like fall around here but that just results in being even hotter.

We did, however, find a pumpkin patch (well, the closest thing we can get over here - a bin of pumpkins in the commissary). And we found the perfect one for Grace! I can't wait until we are able to take Grace to a big field of pumpkins. I think we will end up buying whichever one she chooses to make up for this year and next only having a commissary bought pumpkin.

Maybe I should go ahead and put up the rest of my fall decor. By the time the weather starts to feel like fall we may be ready to put up our Christmas tree.