Wii time

The rule around here is no TV or Wii on school nights. I'm finding that to be easier to enforce when it is warm and light outside in the evenings. As usual, with the onset of winter comes the onset of more gaming at our house. Now the kids are old enough to play some of the games. This is Makena doing an obstacle course and Reese...well...eating cake, I think.

Linville Caverns

Everybody had Veterans' Day off last week (a foreign concept to people living in towns not heavily populated with bankers). We took the day and drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and toured Linville Caverns. I hadn't been into caverns in 30 years and my memory (as a 5-ish year old) of Longhorn Caverns near Austin had always been this massive and expansive space. These are downright claustrophobic..and slimy with all the water running down the walls. But so cool! We spied two bats ("about the size of a chicken nugget" was the description the guide gave us. gross.) and some blind fish. Poor fish.

We started the day with a good old fashioned, Southern, fattening breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Everybody needs to learn how to play that confounded game.

Then we did a little bouldering while we waited for our turn in the caverns.

Didn't really get many good shots in the cavern- I spent more time trying to ensure that my lens didn't get whacked into a 30 zillion year old stalactite.

After the caverns, we tooled down the parkway and found a good picnic spot. Reese's movie star diva came out in full force (that's string cheese in her mouth).

Halloween

Par for the course, I guess. Or, I could look at it as only being two weeks behind instead of two months. You choose.

At the end of the pumkin carving, a character named "Balance Girl" appeared. We'd never met her before. Apparently, her preferred attire includes nightgowns and headbands a la Roller Derby girls and she walks along the uncoiled water hose (her balance beam). She has made a few spontaneous appearances since...but you never know when to expect her.

The girls were both flappers this year. Strangely, Reese's flapper-headgear was very similar to Balance Girl's...