I don't know if you were able to see this dress, but it is from Afghanistan!  Ben got it at a market before he even met Emily!

Here are a few photos of Steve as he's leaving to report to Basic, then one of him emerging from his first opportunity to excel in the gas chamber, and then a photo after graduation when one of his platoon buddies came over to him in the restaurant where we were having a pizza and thanked Steve for all the laughs--told me he'd been assigned by the Drill Sergeant to give a joke of the day for the platoon, and that it had really made a difference for all his platoon mates. Steve should have a few 'war stories' for the Christmas gathering, and he looked great when I got to see him.

See you all soon. Love, Dad

Christmas

This is Ben.  Are we going to draw names for Christmas?

Natalie Laughing Big Time

You have got to check out this video. I tried to post it on the blog but the file was over the size limit for this site. Katie made Natalie laugh like crazy last night - hilarious!!!!!
You have to watch the whole video to the end, it is a riot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLGR9ScYqu8

Best pic

This is my favorite picture from our pictures yesterday.  The leaves were nice and the girls looked great.

Family Pictures at some park in Clarksville

Halloween

Halloween was uneventful, but we did get pictures taken at a park nearby.  The highlight.  I'll attach some pictures.  Halloween night we just chilled and handed out candy.  I told Marinda to give a handful to each kid, but her orders were one each.  So, we have a ton of candy left.  Good for me.  I pounded quite a few Fun Size candybars last night before Marinda hid the bag from me.  We watched 100 scariest movie moments on TV last night.  It was pretty good.  #1 was Jaws, #2 was Alien.  Psycho was up there, too.  

Halloween&Voting

Like father like daughter.

Like mother like daughter.

Emily's patience wearing thin with ridiculous parents.

The girl on the right is getting baptized tomorrow.  Her baby was a rabbit.  Me looking really scuzzy again.

Alright, it's time for the Ward Halloween Party!  Emily was pumped.  The camera time was kind of blurry.  Everybody loved my moustache.

Trip to the Smokey Mountains

Pat and Nancy were kind enough to come watch Emily while Ben and I were able to get away to the Smokey Mountains. This is the view from our cabin.  The sun was about to come up.
Another view from the cabin.

This is the Chalahula (did I spell that right Ben?) skyway.  It was a "scenic detour" that took us out of the Smokey Mountains and into No. Carolina.  It was the most amazing road I've ever been on, but unfortunately we got there just as it was getting dark.  The views were amazing and the leaves were in the height of their color change...reds, yellows, and golds.

Hoot 'N Holler

Ben and I went to a "classy" dinner show where Ben was called up out of the audience and got to be totally embarrassed.  "Scaps" is the comedian there and he had the four guys on stage (including Ben) sit on four buckets and then lay each other's heads on their laps and then they removed the buckets.  Make sense?  It was kinda dumb but I felt super bad for Ben because it was already a stretch for him to attend the "Hoot 'n' Holler" dinner show, and then he had to lay his head on that guy's lap with the short shorts ;)  hehehe


Abrams' Falls that we hiked to
The deck on our cabin.  Can you see us rockin' there in 40 years?

Appalachian Trail

This is us hiking part of the Appalachian Trail