of nephews and nieces

Cob and i traveled back east to Maryland and Pennsylvania to visit family for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, dues to a little...errrr....camera failure, we only have pictures of the first half of this trip, but so it goes.


our trip began in southern MD at my little brother's new home where he's been re-stationed in the Navy after many years in Jacksonville. this new move exposes his kids to two of the joys of the east coast that they've never really known before: changing leaves and snow! the first is happening as you can see behind us. from left to right: Stehpanie (Caleb's wife - a hot little pistol and awesome sister-in-law. she shamed ma and Cob by the condition of her home after only living there for one month. Cob and i have been in our house for nearly two years and still don't even have pictures on the wall!), Haden (son #2 - 6 years old, i think?); Caleb (my LITTLE brother - I'm the shortest one in the family), me and Cameron below me (son #1 - 8 years?), and Cob.
this is a second glamour shot of Cameron with the family pup - a true love hound!!

we spent a wonderful 3 days with Caleb and his family before heading north to Mom's house at the top of the Chesapeake Bay, where the colors were still delighting us with their brilliance. My other two siblings, Peter and Julie, met us at Mom's with Julie's kids and Peter's wife, Rachata. on Thanksgiving Day, we took a walk around the neighborhood to take advantage of the changing colors and the warm temps. so, what do you do on a walk with your nephews and nieces? well, it starts very normally...
and then you find acorn tops to make into whistles and things get a little musical...
and then you realize that the big leaves that fall from the trees make really good hats and things get more fashionable...(this is Timmy, Leeah, and Ty from L to R)
and then you roll down all the hills and things at that point definitely get a little weird.
back at Mom's house, the kids swarmed around a Japanese Maple that was two small for us to climb when we were kids, but sure does make for some nice pictures now!

and after all that outside fun, we learned that you can use crayons to draw on my Carhartts and it will all wash out...(that's Timmy and Talae on the right working their artistic skills)