They're back....

I like the fall. It's usually a nice relief from the heat and humidity of the Iowa summers and it just seems slower for some reason. (Maybe that's because the kids are out of the house now and we don't have football or cross-country to deal with anymore). I don't like the winter, and do not look forward to the snow and ice, but fall is nice. Maybe we can just go right into Spring? The thing it HATE about fall are the lady bugs, or more specifically the "Asian Beetles" that we get in our area. For those of you in Iowa that live in town, you kind of get what I'm talking about. For those of you that live out of town, you REALLY know what I'm talking about.

From what I read, they may have been accidentally brought to the US on a ship in the late 1980's. You see them on the first warm day after the first frost. Monday must have been that day. They usually stay in the corn and soybean fields, but now that the farmers are in full harvest, they start flying.   It was very warm and sunny and they decided that our porch and side of the house was the best place to be for the day!  Al called me at work and said they were so bad outside that they were even bothering the dogs (although, to be honest, any bug is going to bother Tai anyway).

There had to be thousands and thousands of them. They were crawling on everything. We spray around the windows, doors and everything twice a year, and it does kill them, but they just keep coming and keep coming.

They don't actually sting, but every now and then when one lands on you, they will bite. And they stink. The whole porch smells. I can't really tell you what it smells like, but it's terrible.  They must taste bad, because even the chickens won't eat them. Every sq. ft. of the porch has at least 15 or more, calculate that by 1,000 sq. ft.! And this is just one porch. When you really get to thinking about that, you can't even count how many there are in the area.

And the worse part is, you vacuum them all up, the next day you just get to do it again.  And the next day and the next day until finally it gets cold enough and they go wherever it is they go!

 

I'm ready for them to leave already!

Family.....

It has been years since we took an actual "family" pictures. I guess it's better late than never, right? Some of you have already seen these, for the rest of you.....enjoy! They were all taken at the park, seemed like the obvious place since we have been here for 17 years now! If you click on the picture, you can see them a bit better.

I love the look on Joe & Matt's faces in this one...

The kids: Joe, Sarah, Matt

Joe and Lauren

Morgan, Craig, Ava and Sarah

We have 6 dogs between everyone, so might as well try to include them in the family pics as well, right? These actually turned out pretty good, although Roxie (the Basenji on Al's lap) wasn't too happy with the whole situation, everyone else did pretty good!

 

I just love these of Sarah and Ava:

Baby it's cold outside.....

This weekend was the annual Hickory Hills Halloween Outing. We have had this celebration for 5 years now, and it's always been wonderful temperature-wise. Usually this time of year we are dealing with the "autumn beetle" (looks like a lady bug, it invades Iowa every fall when the farmer's harvest: I will write more on that when we actually have them invade us!) and the temps are usually pretty comfortable, sometimes even a bit warm (hot). This year it was unseasonably cold. No autumn beetles (which is a good thing), and sadly the trees are already losing their leaves, so probably not much of a color show this year.

So, back to the Halloween outing....This is usually the only weekend that the campground is completely full. People make their reservations early in the year to be able to have the perfect spot for this weekend. Everyone decorates their campsites festively, they have a costume contest, a haunted house and everyone just gets in the Halloween mood.  Especially since it's probably the last campout for most of them.

This year it was sooooo cold, though. The temps Friday were around 55 and the high for Saturday was a balmy 45 or so. And of course, you have to have the wind. The sun did peak out every now and then, but the best place to be was as close to the campfire as possible.....preferably with an alcoholic beverage in hand. Al had to run around and tell everyone to disconnect their water from their campers, as the low last night was only 20 degrees.  And there were actually a couple pop-ups even. That had to be a bit miserable in my opinion.  (Even though we had our camper in the campground, we didn't sleep in it for two reasons: the furnace quit last week. (brand new camper, who can figure?) and why would you sleep in a frozen camper when your house and king bed is only 1/4 mile away?) It's nice to have it there for the bathroom and as a place to put the dogs when they get cranky, but I'm not going to sleep there when my own bed is so close.....

But surprisingly, the campground was almost full (maybe 4 sites empty) and I think everyone had a great time. There were noticeably less kids Trick-or-Treating, but overall it was a good time.  This is Danielle, Colby and Kennedy. Danielle is a volleyball friend of mine that came out last year, had a great time and couldn't wait to reserve for this year. (sorry it was so cold this year! I PROMISE next year will be better!) Nice costume Danielle!

This is Dave, Ann, Dawson and Macie. They won the group contest: Buzz Lightyear, Woody and the whole gang. (Ann actually borrowed Al's Carharts! She had to have LOTS of pillows for stuffing, there is a BIT of a size difference)

Overall, I think it turned out pretty good in spite of the weather. The kids all had a great time and didn't seem to mind the cold as much as the adults. Although it was pretty quiet pretty early in the evening.  And I was sooooo glad to get back to the house with the woodstove roaring. I'm really not ready for winter or the cold. Maybe I'm just ready to go south, you think?