Deer hunting in WI

Jamie comes from a hunting family, and Wisconsin nicely times their hunting season to be the week before Thanksgiving. So, we headed from Washington back to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving and deer hunting.

Thad gets his own hunters orange vest and hat

Thad and Jamie with the doe Jamie got on opening day Jamie with the buck he also got on day two And what do you do with the deer? Cut it up for eating! The two deer gave over 100lbs of meat (that's JUST the meat-no bones or anything else)!

Visit to the gulf

Our trip south took us through Mississippi ~ so we decided to stretch our legs and dip our toes in the gulf.

Thad's toes first experience the beach!

brrr! this is pretty cold in spite of the sunshine we love the beach!

Tennessee in the fall

Here are a few pictures from our trip through Tennessee, near Elizabethton where Jamie did his flight training. Sure is pretty in the fall!

Thad on his first big hike - doesn't really have the shoes for it!

Thad - sittin' on a ledge

fall road - the leaves were falling as we drove through

a cute covered bridge

Language learning

Sometimes I think that Thad can speak German...he tells me "nein" which I think is "no" in German. Ahhh, and so it begins. But then I do really think that he is learning English pretty well. Last week he said "howareyou" to Auntie Julie (we both heard it! you can ask her:). And sometimes I think I can distinguish a "momma" in his chatter--especially when he's laying in bed not wanting to go to sleep.

Fall in Wisconsin

It was a beautiful fall day here in Wisconsin! Thad and I sat on the front porch of Jamie's parents' house and watched the corn field across the road being harvested. Being a city girl, I keep making comments to Jamie like, "that looks just like a picture"--having grown up around here, he just thinks these sights are normal :)

We're planning to leave on our big trip south and west next week, so we have to enjoy all the pretty sights while we can. Though we are excited that we'll be traveling in the fall, and we'll be able to enjoy all the fall colors as we drive along!

EWWWwww!

mole cricket

Have you seen one of these? I had never seen a mole cricket before I was confronted with one in our house in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea, as I stumbled into our darkened bathroom in the middle of the night (this was sometime early this year...maybe Jan?). Jamie was gone on an overnight flight, so it was left to me to deal with the large dark jumping thing--if I wanted to make the bathroom safe for use! Happily, I didn't have my glasses on, so I couldn't see it very well :) Bravely I found a shoe, took care of the thing, scooped it up on the end of the fly swatter, and threw it in the burnable trash can!

A couple of other times one has made its way into our bathroom. Jamie offered to show me their really neat front legs--just like a mole, for digging, but I never really wanted to take a look. I didn't get a good look until last week, when I came across this photo as I was looking for pictures to show to a homeschool group we were speaking to. This fellow really is quite a marvel of God's creation, even if he is not one I'd like to meet again in a dark bathroom!

PS-Jamie feels that I should add they are completely harmless...I'm just being melodramatic.

Bear Woods Blue

Thad likes talking to his teddy bear, Bear Woods Blue