Treats

Some Pumpkin Cupcakes (recipe here - http://affectioknit.blogspot.com/2007/11/happy-thanksgiving-i-took-these-pumpkin.html ) that I made for the Man-Cub's Halloween Party - probably the last year for school parties...

A little green witch that always makes me smile - each year when she makes her appearance on the cupboard...

It's been mighty difficult to practice - what with moving all the little pumpkins around - we manage 'though...

Happy Halloween

The Man-Cub painted this Halloween watercolor/crayon creation - and I love it...

Jack-O-Lantern

The Man-Cub carved his Jack-O-Lantern - I love everything about this boy - from his grass stained knees to his funny Jack-O-Lantern ideas...

...to his look of extreme concentration as he wields a very sharp knife...

...pumpkins are so tough...

...and his joy at his success...

...with a perfect replica of what he had in mind...

We had carved the pumpkin upside down this year (the Man-Cub's idea - not exactly sure why) - His idea also to use one of the small pumpkin shaped squash from our fall arrangement to be 'eaten' by the big pumpkin - and the little 'help me' sign stuck on a toothpick...

Of course you can't read the sign in the dark...

This Year's Halloween Costume

The Man-Cub chose an unusual character for Halloween this year - actually, it's not a particular 'character' but just one of the guys from the movie 'Holes'.

His advanced reading class at school read the book and then watched the movie (it's available in it's entirety on You-Tube if you haven't seen it). Unlike previous years I won't be dressing as the evil warden Walker (Sigourney Weaver - btw - the Man-Cub thought she looked like his auntie Karen - but he sweetly said that she didn't act anything like Karen). And he has requested going door to door in our neighborhood - in the past I have just driven him to the homes of several people we knew - Ah well - he is growing up...

There is also an orange cap with sun protection flaps - work boots and a wooden shovel to complete the outfit - will anyone know who he is - surely his classmates - but I don't know who else - maybe everyone who has seen the movie...

I was unable to find any orange coveralls in youth sizes - so I just bought a regular man sized one and cut them down and hemmed them up - they were baggy on the characters in the movie as well. Then we'll need to bleach them several times and get them really dirty before Halloween...

We Are Scouts

This is the title of one of the books that we bought at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor's Center - and the author David C. Scott sent me a nice email after I posted about it here. So, I'm putting a link on the sidebar if you want to purchase the book - maybe you have a scout in your life who would like the book - there's a preview available here http://redhonor.com/assets/WAA%20WAS%20Sample%20Manuscript%20for%20Web%20Viewing.pdf and the book is available for purchase here http://redhonor.com/book_detail.php?bid=8 - it's also available at National Parks and at amazon etc.

Back Home

We got up fairly early and drove back home - The highlight of the drive back was when we stopped at the Space Alien restaurant in Bismarck...

The Man-Cub said that he wanted to win 1200 tickets to be able to get the Alien head lamp - he won 1407 tickets (at a cost of $20 - well spent) - so he got some alien goo and a fistfull of Alien pencils for school...

The Last Day of the Mini-Vacation

Sunday it was cold and windy - so we were trying to stay warm - we went to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor Center and did the tour there - we saw the shirt Roosevelt was wearing when he was shot - yikes...

Then we drove around the loop one last time...
Can you imagine trying to cross that on foot or on horseback...
This is a vein of exposed coal - good thing it's no bigger...
We saw some more horses - these were pretty close to the road...

This is a golden eagle and our bird book tells us that it's a juvenile because it still has white feathers under it's wings - fascinating...

We saw another bashful buck...

...and a whole herd of Bison...

Some more wild horses - a bit thinner...


Then we decided to brave the wind and hike a little bit in the 'Wind River Canyon'

It was so windy that we were afraid to go very near the edge - but the views are spectacular...



Then still trying to keep warm - we found that the De Mores Chateau was still open - it was closed when we visited last year...
So we did the tour - this is their kitchen - remember it's just a summer cabin to them...
The Marquis' bedroom...
The Marquise's (Medora's) bedroom...
her studio...
The living room...
The piano...
The dining room...

More Canyoning

Then after lunch - we drove back to the Theodore Roosevelt park and here we did see a lot of wildlife - including an eagle It rained on us a little bit and the temperature dropped to 42 degrees - still pretty windy - but we got out and bundled up and hiked a bit.



This path is almost vertical - we had to use handholds to get up it...

we saw some more buffalo...

Some more wild horses...



and some deer...


They were just munching alongside the road - and we watched them for several minutes...

This little girl meandered across the road in front of us...


- another great day - and an evening spent playing pool - the Man-Cub won both games - he still talks about the tips that cousin Robert gave him - then we played a few games of keep up - which is just us in the pool hitting a beach ball back and forth across the pool counting and trying to see how many times we can keep it up - our record this trip is 116 - and I don't think I mentioned that we got an upgrade here at the hotel - so we have a suite with a jacuzzi - and every evening the Man-Cub and I get in with our bathing suits still on and put in bubbles - it's more fun than the hotel hot tub


We had the pool entirely to ourselves...

The Painted Canyon

We spent the day hiking in the Painted Canyon...
It was lovely - it was only about 52 degrees F - and the wind was gusting to 50 mph - so it was nice to be down in the shelter of the canyon.
The trail winds down from the visitor center through a thicket of Juniper...
More erosion and a small cave...
It smelled like Christmas and Thanksgiving as the wind blew over the Juniper and Sage...

It's funny how the rock formations look like things - this one looks like a bird perched on top of the ridge - we saw one that looked just like a bulldog too - it's like cloudwatching - only stone...





Nothing new - and we didn't even see any wildlife here - it was overcast too - so the colors are not so brillant - but we had a nice hike - and came back to the Visitors Center and watched one of their videos and bought a few Christmas presents.

Then we headed to the Trapper's Den for lunch - they actually have a pretty awesome salad bar - I'm kinda tired of eating salad bar this trip 'though - oh well.