Keeping Busy

The beginning of this week found the three of us up in Grayling for a few days. Rod was teaching at the academy, and the benefit of my not having a job meant Victoria and I could join him. We got a hotel with a great indoor pool, hot tub, and kiddie wading pool, as well as an indoor play structure with slides, etc. This was the view out our hotel room door:

Normally, the trip would have been nothing short of fun. However, those pesky eye teeth are giving Victoria a heck of a time, and between that and having to sleep in a pack n play for three nights made everyone a little cranky. Needless to say when we got back home last night, none of us felt much like going out trick -0r- treating. I never got around to carving any of the pumpkins we have, but by the looks of things this morning, that got taken care of with out me!
Yup... the stupid squirrels are infesting our yard, our trees, our lives! At any given moment, there are at least a half-dozen visible in the yard. Olly has been running his little behind off trying to chase them off, but there are just too many for him! The Old Farmer's Almanac mentioned that every few years Oak trees have an abundant-acorn year. That definitely is the case around here. The amount of acorns is insane - but apparently still not enough for some greedy squirrels.

Today we spent a good portion of the afternoon attempting to clean up the yard. Three large tarp-fulls of leaves left the yard, in addition to a few piles that were burned. It was a perfect day for working in the yard... just the right temp to be comfortable in jeans and sweatshirts. Victoria started out all bundled up but gradually shed layers as the afternoon progressed. She had a blast playing in the leaves!