We have been having a wonderful autumn. It is our favorite season by far, but who can’t love when the temperature is comfortable, all the apples are ripe, the pumpkins are ready, and now the leaves are starting to change.

We did go apple picking in September. We picked 40lbs of apples and 10lbs of pears, as well as 6 pumpkins. Don’t ask me why we need so many pumpkins, obviously those who pick the pumpkins are not involved enough in the carving process. We ended our time at the orchard with a wagon ride, which the kids always love. After the orchard we headed to Hennigar’s Farm, another popular place for the kiddies. All in all a wonderful time in the valley, and it wasn’t our only time to the valley this autumn. We were recently down in the Valley again on Thanksgiving. My mom, as well as Mike’s parents from England accompanied us to the Valley and we stayed in a beautiful cottage on the Bay of Fundy. Everything in this cottage was mad of drift wood, and it had so much personality. This year is was my turn to run the Valley Harvest Half Marathon. It went well, the weather was beautiful and despite Under-Training and Over-Resting (again) I did really well. Also on this weekend the kids got to participate in their first race. Robbie ran 400M, with the 3 and 4 year old boys, and Charlotte 800m with the 5 and 6 year old girls. Both kids happened to have a friend who was also running. It was so funny to see the differences between their personalities. First went Robbie, who started like a shot, ran over one kid accidentally knocking him to the ground. Then as the race continued and he realized he was miles ahead of his buddy, he kept stopping to wait for Logan. Charlotte on the other hand, had a much more graceful start, but it took not fime for her to completely forgot that she knew anyone in the race. She never looked back. They both did awesome and the BEST part for me, was not only seeing them race, and having fun but was when we were in the car and Charlotte said… “I’m proud of myself”. Wow! What a fantastic and empowering thing to hear!

Also over the fall, Charlotte is starting to get the hang of school. She is still a little down in the morning, I wish that her transition was better, as academically she is strong, but socially she is quiet and shy. Finger crossed this is just a stage and that it gets better soon. Robbie… well going to daycare is like the arrival of the Robbie Road Show. There is (no kidding) clapping, high fives and all sorts of “Robbie is Here!”. Yep he will be the class clown and will love every minute of it. Mae is enjoying daycare and has settled in wonderfully. She had one day where she bit another kid, but luckily that hasn’t happened again. And that really, was the only negative over the nearly 2 months since she started daycare.

I went on a little trip. I flew back to Saskatchewan for my cousins wedding, and then to Calgary for a friends wedding. It is amazing (even to me) how many miles I covered in a weekend. I flew Halifax-Ottawa-Saskatoon Thursday after work. Then Friday I drove 3hrs to Regina to see my grandma who was having some health issues. After our visit I drove straight back to Saskatoon and went to the wedding Friday night. Got up Saturday flew to Calgary, went to a wedding on Saturday, and then on Sunday headed back to Halifax via Toronto. Whew was I tired! But it was 100% worth it. Next time I am going to make the trip longer and definitely bring the whole family. I really missed them.

The kids have started their fall/winter programs. Both Robbie and Charlotte take skating and Charlotte has ballet once a week. In January they will join swimming but right now my mom is taking Robbie and Mae to the pool on the Mondays that she watches them. This makes Charlotte jealous, but she needs to go to school, and there just is not enough time to do everything. Time is so precious, and how I wish I had more of it. But life continues to chug by. It has been so long since I posted that I just can’t seem to pick one particular ‘funny’ story to share, so I’ll try to be better over the next few weeks and update again soon.

I've attached some random photo's. I decided I'm better off getting a post made than trying to make it perfect and including all the photos from our busy, and fun last 2 months.