For my birthday weekend Geoff and I met my parents up in the mountains for a nice retreat. We did some hiking and it was so beautiful! The leaves changing colors were amazing. Of course I couldn't help stopping frequently to take pictures, but I won't put them all on here :) It was great spending time with Geoff and my parents.

With my dad. He and I make great hiking partners because neither of us is in a hurry and he taught me how to stop and notice all the little things around me and be grateful for nature's beautiful creations.

We came upon this tree as we rounded a corner of the trail and it just glowed it was so red! (See the previous picture also)

Kidder

Well, Kidder isn't technically ours. She belongs to a friend of mine and we are actually watching her for a year or so while my friend finishes her doctorate program. Kidder is a rat terrier and is about 2 years old. For the past few weeks or so she has been running outside (through her doggie door) whenever Geoff or I come home. We had no idea why she was doing this, so I decided to watch when I was home and Geoff came through the door. As soon as Geoff opened the door Kidder ran out to the back yard, headed left, jumped and sniffed all along the left side, the back wall, then the right wall of the yard before coming back in. She was doing a perimeter check! I think it's so funny! As you can see she's not very big, so I don't know what she'd do if she actually ran into a real threat! She's really friendly, too, and would probably lick someone before she bit them!

Kidder is really good with kids and they love her. She's also claimed one of the couches in our front room and wasn't too pleased when Geoff used it to take a nap! She squeezed in anyway, though!

with Bryant, Avery and Jeremiah

I recently went to Ohio to visit my sister and her family. It was a lot of fun!

With Bryant by a river (whose name I can't recall!), but isn't the sunset beautiful?

Avery playing pirate, which is the boys favorite game to play.

I loved having little Jeremiah, "little J" as his brothers call him, fall asleep in my lap.