On Monday, for FHE, we took a little hike up to Battle Creek Falls, which is beautiful and a little bit strenuous, but short!  It's close to Kevin's work, so we picked him up there and all the kids got to run in and tell him we'd arrived and see his office again.  The kids loved the hike and running and climbing and seeing all the fall color.  Then we had a picnic and stopped for Krispy Kreme on the way home.  Fun times together!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were full of piano lessons, ballet for Beth, starting Karate for Ben, a rained out tennis match, a shift at Funfinity, cross country practices, and a ward funeral.

Friday Cali and Chey left dressed in skirts for school for their home tennis match that afternoon.

I watched them play and they won 6-1!  Kevin went to the Regional Final cross country meet where Mariah finished 9th in varsity and Megan finished 11th for JV (cutting 2 minutes off her time in one week). 

JV Race

Meg

Varsity Race

Meg and Mariah!

Beth and Ben and I went to the ward luau to help in the kitchen.  Cali and Chey were already there getting ready for their hula dance.  Kevin came screaming into the parking lot with Megan and Mariah two minutes before hula showtime!  (Meg, Mariah, Chey, and Cali have been going to rehearsals for this hula dance for three weeks now, twice a week, sometimes for two hours at a time.  I was thinking, "What?  Are you crazy?  It's just a little dance during the ward party!"  No, no, no.  It was AMAZING and I repented of all my grumpiness in an instant making my momma throat grow dangerously tight as I hooted and hollered for their awesomeness!)  Four of my daughters were in the group of nine and well, did I mention how awesome they were?

Wow!  Wish you all could have been there.  Grandma and Granpda Gazdik came and so did over three hundred of our new ward family.  It was a rousing success and a great time.  We ate pig, too, and had lots of cupcakes.

On Saturday, I decided it was applesauce canning time!  Kevin and the kids picked the apples while I delivered bread for Relief Society.  I knew our little tree had produced a good number of apples this year but I didn't quite realize that it was so much!

So we got all set up and with two strainers being manned by two people each at a time (this is a really good project for a big family!), we finished by about 6:00 with 74 quarts.  My feet hurt but I was so proud of all my workers and for our little tree!

After that, the kids could go back to the leaf hotel that had been calling their name all afternoon.  I'm super glad to see it back, truth be told.  :)