Robin Hood...

Robin Hood and Little John walking through the forest, laughing back and forth at what the other'n has to say. Reminiscing, this'n'that, having such a good time, oo-da-lally, oo-da-lally, golly what a day!Robin Hood - Oo-De-Lally lyrics

This is our theme song as of lately. Golly what a day!!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We went up to Medora this past weekend and did a little sightseeing. We were able to do a little "hiking" with Avery in tow...

"DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS" missed that sign.
(eating a curly fry)

Family pic

Bismarck Zoo

Sunday afternoon, we headed over to the zoo since it still is open on the weekends.

This was our favorite exhibit, the Bengal Tigers. They had this golden tabby tiger, which is among 30 in the world. It was so pretty! It had no black in its stripes, and was huge! We enjoyed watching him with the other 2 tigers, a white Bengal, and a traditional Bengal tiger.
Tyler liked to see our ISU mascot in the flesh!

Just a swinging!

Tyler and I took Avery to the park right before we headed out Trick-or-treating. She didn't want to leave!

Baking Disaster

I do enjoy a good cookie once in a while. Encouraged this week by others to "bake something" I attempted, good naturedly, of course, to bake cookies in a kitchen that I am unfamiliar with, but with my favorite chocolate chip recipe in hand, I began the near fiasco...

To begin, no electric mixer. Found a hand mixer, began the task of mixing, and the crisco and the brown sugar became a lovely lump stuck inside the paddles. Lovely. Then recalled where I had seen the electric mixer and vwa-laa, magically mixed. However, was missing said lump-which I suppose is needed.

Looking for teaspoons, tablespoons, anyone? No idea where to find these items. Continue on my merry way, needing to add 2 tablespoons milk. Not hard, one would think, right? Wrong. Promptly overfill guesstament spoon, pouring more or less 1/2 cup of milk into dough...yikes. Try to pour out what I consider excess, losing vanilla, I'm sure, so I add more vanilla, looking around to see if there are any witnesses to this catastrophic excuse for an experienced "chocolate chip cookie baker." Good thing I chose to do this experiment when all were away, and Avery fast asleep downstairs.

Next, the baking. Ah, yes, the baking. All ovens are not created equally. First batch, bottoms burnt. Second batch, tops still doughy. Third batch, not really sure what is wrong with them, but the good thing is I happen to be married to a garbage disposal. No worries there. He'll eat them all and ask when there might be more coming. Not this week, I think!

Halloween!

All Hallow's Eve

Avery was going to be a kitty this year for Halloween, and she was. But I also became a kitty, and then Daddy did as well...3 black cats. We headed out around 5 p.m. to the Olson's neighborhood, which turned out great once Avery realized that ringing doorbells=treats, lots and lots of treats! By the end of the night, she didn't mind the cat ears or tail, and I think we even could have gotten away with no whiskers on either Mommy or Daddy's faces!

Grandpa Dennis, Avery's good friend and co-consipirator! We spend an awful lot of time here, as they are like our parents away from parents! They take good care of us here in Bismarck! We had a pizza party here after some cold-weather trick or treating.