Happy early holidays!

Hey there!  A rare early December post, well before we can highlight Christmas activities.  But this way we can catch up on b-day and turkey day stuff.  Here goes:

Fall in Lawrence was beautiful.  The trees were in full color and seemed to hold on just a little longer than usual with mild weather this year.  This is Carson throwing the football.  Do you see the football??

Conner decided he loved his custom made Halloween costume so much, that he wanted it stuffed and kept on his bed as a sort of stuffed squid sleeping buddy.  Can't get one of those just anywhere!

Here is Carson's scout den getting a behind the scenes tour at a KU biotech research lab.  Ironically, the same facility that Daddy worked in during his first years as a KU employee.

Conner's delayed b-day party finally happened with the Parracks and his best friend Preston.  He asked for his party to be in the Bass Pro Shop, and the crew is pictured in front of their huge aquarium. 

We hosted Thanksgiving this year!  First time since 2011.  It included all the boys' g-parents, one great Aunt, one great-great aunt and Uncle Ted's whole family (plus their exchange student from Finland).  So yeah, really great to have them together at the house!

A little hard to see the kids' table behind the grandmothers, but fourteen in all.  On a sad note, Mummy got super sick after pulling the whole event together so beautifully.  She spent the afternoon in bed.  Not fair!!

And here is our runner.  His medal is for 1st place in his age group for the KU Veteran's Day run.  The course snaked through the KU campus, which was hilly, but really fun.

Conner helped put on a play at St John's!  He is third from the right and was in charge of lighting for a portion of the production.  The boy can manage electronics.  It's a gift.

Crazy hair day.  Not sure there is much more to say about this one.

Please circle all the things in the first picture which do not appear in the second.  :-)  The whole family went up to campus the day before Turkey Day to witness the implosion of an old KU residence hall.  It was crazy loud and very cool!  Not something you do every day.