That Time

It's pumpkin time and everyone knows it. My roommates and I spent our weekend at the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins on our living room floor. When we finished, we lined our front steps with four big jack o'lanterns and are now in the process of costume planning. Oh, it's officially that time of year where we wake up to dustings of snow and half-eaten-by-deer-pumpkins and make big pots of soup on the stove specifically for leftovers. It's cool and windy and leafy and good. 

- K

One More Thing...

It's the last time. I promise, we won't post pictures like this for a while. They're a little over the top, I know. But I just couldn't help it. I liked these ones too much.

- K

Just Bits

Just a few things that I've been up to...
     -I made some seriously tasty pumpkin cinnamon rolls this last weekend with friends.
     -I've been trying to eat more vegetables- roasted some broccoli with olive oil and salt for lunch.
     -My final successful attempt at a watercolor for Nathaniel. (You don't want to see my first two tries.)

-K

Our Fourth

Today, we are celebrating our fourth ACCD (Annual Celebration of Continued Dating). Amidst the studying for Spanish and physics, we're hoping to go out to dinner at some point. It's been a pretty rockin' four years. We won't write much however, because honestly we can't remember most of it. We hear from our friends that it was a blast, though. And by this time next year, we'll surely have been dating for at least a decade.

- N & K

Cold Enough

We get out of bed these mornings and our hats and mittens go on. We fold laundry from the dryer to warm our hands. The mornings are sub-30's and we're not used to it yet, still content in our summer bodies and not quite ready to adjust. But at least the skies are blue and clear and holiday feelings are hovering.

I received this poetry anthology from a creative writing instructor I had last semester. I think it will make for good snuggled-up-in-my-warm-bed reading material.

- K

Plum Days

I found some time to make a Plum Compote this weekend. Nate's parents have two big plum trees and they sent a bunch of fruit with us to Oregon. But it was just too much to get through so I decided to make a sweet and sour ice cream topping. Just plums + 1/2 cup water + 1/2 cup sugar + dash of cinnamon. Super easy. Oh, and I made a carrot cake for a friend's birthday celebration too! 

But the best news for this weekend: the smoke is finally clearing. When I wake up in the morning I can actually see beautiful blue sky. And clouds and sun and airplanes too. I missed the sky quite a bit. It is so nice to have it back. 

- K

BEND-AR

This past weekend, we made the eleven hour drive to Oregon to participate in the Bend-Adventure Race. For those of you who don't know what an Adventure Race is (which is probably most of you, because we'd never heard of it before either), it's kind of like a triathlon...but on crazy Mountain Man steroids.

In teams of four, you complete a course made up of mountain biking, trekking, kayaking and caving all while navigating with a map and compass. The goal is to reach as many of the check points as possible as quickly as possible; found on top of cliffs, under bridge tresses and at the backs of caves.
 

We met up with Nate's sister and her boyfriend to make up team "Montana escape Velocity" (MeV). Together, we raced for 13.5 hours straight, coming across the finish line tired, bruised, and swollen.

Now, back in Missoula, we're able to look back and be glad we did it, but fair warning to those considering the sport: The fun parts of the race don't really become apparent until you can see them in retrospect.



- N & K