Autumn Adventures...
We have had a lot of fun things to do in the last two months. I just love the fall weather we've had because we were able to still enjoy the outdoors like it was summertime, without baking in 90-100 degree temperatures. At the end of September we took our first family camping trip to Huntington Beach State Park - Murrells Inlet, SC. We decided to tent camp, and, well, it was an adventure. We were visited by raccoons every night, slept on an "airless air mattress", were invaded by flies and mosquitoes, and we realized our digital camera was dysfunctional right as I was about to snap a photo of an alligator. The photos you see are from disposable cameras. Lucas thought this was great, however, because we let him use the camera on numerous occasions. Boy did he think he was big stuff! We took a family "crabbing" expedition to the pier at Myrtle Beach on Saturday morning. The wind gusts were terribly fierce. Lucas was miserable, our crab net broke in the violent surf , and the winds were so forceful, that they straightened my hair. NO JOKE! Our outing was cut short, needless to say. To make up for the huge disappointment, we took Lucas to Captain Hook's miniature golf course (this might have been the highlight of his trip). He was a little cautious about walking on to Capt. Hook's pirate ship. It was so cute. All of it was so real to him. He will tell you that he saw the "real Tinkerbell". Our camp site, though in a wooded area, was within walking distance of the beach. You could actually hear the waves crashing as you drifted off to sleep (in between the sound of Chris scaring off the raccoons, and someone's dog barking at the raccoons all night!). Chris and I really enjoyed our dose of history at the State Park. The Atalaya Castle is located just a few miles from the ocean, and is now property of the State Park (http://huntingtonbeachstatepark.com/Atalaya.htm.) The Atalaya arts & crafts festival was held that weekend and we got to tour the castle. It was very beautiful and rich with history. Despite some minor woes of camping, we had a blast. On our way home, we stopped in Charleston, one of our fave tourist spots.
We had a fun day in October at the pumpkin patch with Mo & Grandad Minton. Mo agreed to ride the cow train with Lucas (i had to do it last year!), we picked out some fave pumpkins, and Lucas and I had Dada swing us on the big tree rope swing. I was nauseas, Lucas was scared, both of has had a thrill, though.
For Halloween, we took Lucas to his cousins' church event: "Trunk or Treat". He loved seeing Aidan, Cameron, Anna, and Garrett in costume. His favorite, though, was Garrett who merely stuck a bag on his head and called himself: "Bagman". Lucas is still laughing about that. He and Aidan walked around making native Indian sounds and saying, "how!" A few days later on the way to school in his Scarecrow outfit (for our school scarecrow party), he asks, "mama, what does the scarecrow say?" I think he wanted some kind of sound to go with his outfit, like the Indain sound. I was left befuddled and told him what the crow said. "Caw-caw" seemed to pacify him. We made scarecrow cupcakes together the night before. That took forever, but it was worth it to see the smiles on the kids faces.
Something we've seen a lot of this month - smiling faces. Hope this message and the added photos to our website will bring a smile to you today. Enjoy the rest of the Fall season, have a Happy Thanksgiving, with love from the Mintons. Until next time...

Chris, Karen, & Lucas Minton