Wow, as it has every year, fall is flying by.  With all of our birthdays occurring in the fall on top of the regular holidays, Labor Day to New Year's each year is a blur.  We can't believe it is almost Halloween.  We've celebrated three of our four birthdays, taken a wonderful trip to Strasbourg, PA, to see Thomas the Train, and made several visits to the pumpkin patch.  Christy started her new job as a Watch Officer in the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center (NRRC).  Our bids for our next assignment are submitted and "handshakes" are supposed to be given out on November 5th, so we will know our next assignment soon.  The fall weather has been gorgeous--70 degrees and sunny most days, and life is good.  Our babies are growing up:  Claire took her first steps forward last night!

 

PapPap brought lots of fresh Ohio corn, which we cut off the cob to freeze and have fresh corn year-round.

The Hetrick Family came over to celebrate Nicholas's birthday with us.

 Nicholas did a great job blowing out the candles!

 Nicholas's birthday dinner request:  waffles!  No picture, but David's birthday dinner was "Oktoberfest Pie"

Nicholas loves his Thomas the train whistle (Mommy and Daddy aren't quite so thrilled with it)

 

Nicholas got a second birthday cake from Grandma and PapPap when we met up in Pennsylvania.  He loved his Mickey cake!

 

 Seeing and riding Thomas the train was SOOOOO much fun!

Family Photo Op in front of Thomas

The Train Museum was pretty cool, too!

 

 

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Claire is exploring solid foods.... the dinner roll was probably more fun to tear up than to actually eat, though

Claire at the hotel's playroom.

 Claire enjoying a beautiful fall day, in her first pair of shoes!

 

Claire also graduated from her infant tub to a blow up one.

 the Pumpkin Patch was so much fun too---we went out to Great Country Farms in VA, which has wagon rides to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard, a huge kids play area, a pumpkin Princess, pig races, and more

this is one of my favorite pictures

 

our firepit--David was able to pick up some free wood from a neighbor who cut down a tree in their yard

 

we got fall mums this year, although they didn't last very long

Claire at 10 months old!

We went to a cute French cafe near Nicholas's school for Christy's birthday

 

                                        Beautiful flowers that David gave Christy for her birthday



       We are looking forward to more fall fun with lots of Halloween activities coming up this weekend!

Labor Day and Starting School

We can't believe fall has finally arrived!  A surprise tornado destroyed our patio furniture last Saturday, which is very disappointing since it's been too hot to use it most of the summer.  But, so this week we had gorgeous sunny days in the 70's.  We enjoyed Labor Day weekend in Ohio and visited the Animal Safari and Canfield Fair (where Vice President Biden had just visited the week before).  We also got to see lots of relatives at the Machak Family Reunion.  We returned to DC to kick off the fall with Nicholas starting preschool.  Saying goodbye in the morning is still tough, but Nicholas' teacher says he's doing great--speaking French more than anyone in his class and with a great accent!  Not sure where he got that from as Mommy's accent is clearly American.  Speaking of which, Christy hopes to finish up French this month and start in her new office.  This past weekend we hosted a Trinidad Reunion/fish fry and enjoyed seeing many friends from Trinidad who are now back in DC for training.  Saturday David got to watch some Ohio State Football (go Buckeyes!) before the storm hit.  12 hours without electricity meant an impromptu dinner out, candlelight baths, and family bedtime at 8:30.  Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the extra sleep.  Thankfully the electricity came back on around 4 a.m.  Sunday, we went to our CSA farm's open house, with our friend Chelsia and her daughter Cora.  Nicholas learned how to make apple cider, and thanked the farm owner for "making him juice".  

This weekend, PapPap came down and he and David went to a football game.  Other than that a quiet weekend.  Happy Birthday to Nicholas and David!

 Animal Safari in Niles, OH

 yep Niles, not Canada

 the camels were hungry

 yep, I said Niles, OH, right?

 the buffalo were a little scary, but Nicholas' favorite none-the-less

 Machak Family Reunion

 Nicholas and his cousin Siena in their Buckeye gear

 forts are fun!

 bathing beauties

 Canfield Fair.... Nicholas wasn't so sure about the huge Clydesdale horses like his great great Uncle Vince used to raise, but he liked the little ponies that were more his size.

"Ohio Grown"

 our little pumpkin

 First Day of School!

making cider

Nicholas holding hands with his friend Cora