The weather's finally getting cold here. Lit a fire in the fireplace for the first time (well, since we've owned the house anyways). Happy to report I didn't burn the place down.

Cody had his birthday party this Saturday. It was actually a lot of fun, even if some of the kids were on the hyper side. Gail organized a treasure hunt of sorts, with the treasure being the kids goody bags. Cody's party was set to a Harry Potter theme, so Gail made the treasure hunt go into rooms the book had. Cody's was Gryffendor Tower, or something like that. The final stop on the hunt was the "Whomping Willow". Whatever that is in the book, I don't know. But I got to play the part of the Whomping Willow, and as far as I'm concerned, if I get to whomp kids, that's fine by me!

I borrowed my old neighbors gilly suit (for those that don't know, a gilly suit is a suit with strips of burlap and camoflage hanging off of it. I looked like a huge bush :) and sat out in the lawn with all the leaves (Those suits work really well. My mother-in-law took a picture from our deck looking down at us. Aside from the cardboard wrapping paper tube I was using to whomp the kids with, you can't tell where I am). I sat very still, and as the kids came out, they saw me right away. However, I don't think some of the kids knew I was in there, 'cause when one reached for the bag, and I whomped him with the tube, he jumped. Pretty soon I had kids yelling and screamin' and laughin' and hollerin' (Sounds like a Charlie Daniels song) and I was a-whompin away with my whompin tube. Great fun.

After that, Cody had another birthday party to attend at McDonalds. Needless to say, when it came time for him to go to bed that night, it didn't take much to get him there.

Sunday, Cody and I went on a hike up Sugarloaf Mountain with our Indian Guides tribe. We rode across Whites Ferry, and then hiked up the mountain. It was a good hike...at least my lungs and legs told me so. The view from the top was great. Jon, one of the dads there, was telling us how they used semaphore from the top of the mountain to signal troop movements during the Civil War. It was a great hike.

All in all, it was a pretty nice weekend.