Halloween to Thanksgiving

The rest of October and November have been busy and fun.  Here are some of the highlights.  

Sarah Avery's school was extra festive before Halloween.  

We didn't make it to Taylor Swift's famous Eras Tour, but we saw her movie with friends.  

We had as much fun as the kids did.  

Our Swifties

They spent the entire 3 hours dancing in front of the screen.  

The next day, Peter chaperoned Sarah's Girl Scout troop on their trip to Mount Vernon.

And the next weekend was extra exciting because Peter and Susannah had their 10k race.  This is them at the expo.  

They had a great race day experience.

I think Susannah is hooked.  

And these girls finished up an awesome field hockey season.  They only lost 2 games!

Sarah Avery is loving her new 4th-grade freedom and runs all over the neighborhood visiting friends.  

We were so happy to be back in our house for Halloween.  

My earrings matched Sarah's costume.  :)

The gang before trick or treating.  

The following weekend, Peter and I headed to Charleston for his 20-year reunion at The Citadel.  We stayed at a beautiful historic hotel downtown and had great weather.  

Meanwhile, back in Alexandria, Miss Allison took the girls to Cox Farms for some fall fun.  

We spent Friday morning at Folly Beach.  It was great to see the ocean.  

Friday night was the big reunion party.  

This is the view from our hotel room.  So gorgeous. 

I spent Saturday morning by myself while Peter attended the parade.  Brunch for one was awesome.  

Citadel grad and Congresswoman Nancy Mace gave us her box seat tickets for the football game.  

Peter was delighted to spend the weekend with these guys. 

Peter's friend Jamie organized the reunion and was a wonderful host.  

The next weekend was another exciting one--we had tickets to see Shane Smith and the Saints, Peter's favorite band.  

It was so fun hearing all of our favorite songs in person.  Peter was giddy.  

In other exciting news, Susannah got braces!!

Thanksgiving was extra special this year because we hosted Uncle Hollis, Presley, and Papa.  These girls got busy right away decorating festive cookies.  

Peter was so excited to have 3 days with these two.  

And this almost teenager was such a champ about keeping Presley entertained.  

We had traditional desserts for our feast, 

but went the untraditional route for our main meal, steaks, twice-baked potatoes, mac and cheese.  We did have one traditional staple, green bean casserole. 

Peter did a fantastic job on the steaks.  

Papa taught his granddaughters about his journaling hobby. 

Our guests headed home on Saturday morning and we spent Sunday decorating our advent wreath at church.  Now we are ready for the Christmas season!! 

We hope that all of you had a happy and delicious Thanksgiving.  We are thankful for all of our friends and family and we hope to see some of you very soon!  
 

Fall Fun and Visitors!

September has come and gone as I type this on October 14th.  We have had a busy and fun-filled last few weeks.  Beautiful weather combined with some of our favorite family visitors has made for a wonderful start to the fall season.  Here are the highlights......

Sarah Avery has really settled into her new sport of field hockey.  She plays offense and has even scored a goal!  

We spent a Friday evening watching the Nats play the Braves.  It was extra exciting because the best player for the Braves hit a record number of home runs on the opening at bat.  

It was such a fun time---the girls are finally both old enough to enjoy the game without needing 20 trips to the bathrooms and concession stands.  

It was a gorgeous night.  

And we even got to meet the presidents!  Susannah is still terrified of mascots, even as an almost 13-year-old, so she sat out of this photo op.  ;)

Speaking of Susannah, this little runner is training for her first 10k and is killing it.  She and Peter do long runs every Saturday and spotted this big Georgia flat during one of their runs through Old Town. 

They usually do a point-to-point run that ends at a coffee shop and then I pick them up.  They are getting excited as the race is 2 weeks away!

Grammy was our first visitor since we returned to Crest Street.  We took her to opening day at our neighborhood pumpkin patch. 

We had the best visit.  

We loaded up our wagon with lots of options for indoor and outdoor fall cheer.  

Another Sunday, another field hockey game.  These two were playing some pre-match cards before heading to the field.  

Sarah Avery was delighted to have Grammy in town to watch her game.  

The very next weekend, Aunt Beth, Sidney, and Emma arrived for a whirlwind tour of our nation's capital.  

We started at the National Archive and then made our way through most of the highlights.  

The White House is always a must-see.  

As is the Washington Monument.  

We had great luck with the best weather.  

Views from the World War II Memorial were so beautiful.  

We ended our day in front of President Lincoln.  The rest of the weekend was full of eating, shopping, and a visit to Arlington Cemetary, where I neglected to take photos.  

 We are so grateful to our visitors!  We hope all of you are having a happy fall.  Love and hugs from Alexandria!