Family, Food, Friends, Football . . .

. . . if you asked Austin what he was thankful for this year, he'd probably list those things, in that order. So it was great that the unseasonably warm weather made it possible for him to have all of them together this year on Thanksgiving day.

The sunshine was glorious, the feast was delicious, and the backyard football game was great fun. If the snow holds off next Thanksgiving, we may have to make it a new Gray family tradition to host a Turkey Bowl on Turkey Day.

Hey Dudes!

Austin and I just got back from a weekend at a Dude Ranch outside Tucson, Arizona. Since my sister Christina and Austin's uncle Richard both live on *real* ranches, I never imagined us going to a tourist ranch to be "dudes." But it was a great adventure!

I was there for conference, so I spent most of the (beautiful, warm, dry!) days inside talking about history, while Austin went on hours of trail rides through the desert, on Guiness and Ice.

Me and my horse N.C. managed to get a few rides in during the afternoons.

Austin got on a "cattle penning" team and I think that was the highlight of the weekend for him.

The food was amazing -- this is a picture of the breakfast spot Austin rode to one morning (while I was in a meeting, sigh.)

It was so nice to get back to the west and spend some time enjoying a very different kind of natural beauty than we see around us in Vermont! It's funny how much it feels like home.

Happy Halloweekend

I'm not sure when Halloween ceased to be a one-night event and turned into days of activities. Count Floyd the Vampire (Gavin came up with the name and elaborate backstory) and his sister Laura Ingalls definitely made the most of it!
Lucy headed up the crafts crew to be sure our house was sufficiently festive. My craft project was figuring out how to make a Laura Ingalls costume. Pioneer costumes aren't really in fashion these days. Gavin's vampire suit was much easier to find at Wal-Mart. But you know our Lucy, she always has to choose the unusual theme, and she insisted on this one.
Lucy was certainly the only pioneer girl at her school's UNICEF parade.

There were Halloween parties at their friends' houses, and Halloween carnivals at church and at the school. . .

. . .and lots and lots and LOTS of Trick-or-Treating. Norwich opened the dorms to Trick or Treat on Wednesday night, the ward Trunk or Treat was Friday, and by the time the actual Halloween night came around the kids nearly opted to stay home! But in the end we went out and hit Central Street, Northfield's famous Trick-or-Treat row, and snagged a few more bucketfuls of treats.

The funny thing is they don't ever actually eat the candy. They just like to trade it with each other. There's been a lively candy exchange going on around here which the parents have managed to get in on a few times, scoring Kit-Kats and Twix and other good stuff.