Boo!!!

Happy Halloween everyone! We've had another busy week, most of which revolved around one of the kids' favorite days of the year... As I mentioned in the last post, Hope's mom and dad were coming down for another visit. They arrived on Wednesday, and helped Hope get various Halloween events put together. This included carving pumpkins the day before Halloween (you can see one of the products above), as well as picking out the pumpkin seeds for roasting:

and even just acting as a distraction for the kids:

With the beautiful weather we were having, Rich and I decided to make a canoe trip along the nearby Saline River. I've canoed this river with several of my siblings, so you may remember it... Anyhow, we put it off the Old Warren Road and headed downstream.

The morning was clear and crisp, but not really cold, and the bright fall sun lit the limited fall colors we have, like these baldcypress just beginning to turn:

Baldcypress are a deciduous conifer, kind of like the larch we have up north, but more closely related to the redwoods and sequoia. We canoed a number of miles south along the Saline River, periodically stopping along the gravel bars to hunt for keepsakes:

This is the same route that brothers John and Bob (along with our friend Mickie) had taken during Thanksgiving some years ago. On this trip, the Saline River was swollen with recent rains, and was running about 8 feet higher (and much faster) than the river did this week. Because of the high water at that time, we had a chance to paddle into the woods, but we couldn't see any of these gravel bars. This trip, they were quite exposed. We originally had stopped on one to stretch our legs, and as we walked around, I pointed out a small piece of petrified wood on the bar. Then another...and another...soon, we had our hands full of petrified wood and some other neat rocks. After picking that bar clean, we continued downstream, and soon came upon another bar, also with a lot of small pieces of petrified wood. We kept stopping on the bars and picking up wood--we soon had several dozen good pieces each. I also found a couple ancient Indian potsherds. The lands surrounding the Saline River are filled with petrified wood (not the pretty, multi-colored stuff from the west, but well-preserved chunks nevertheless) and Indian sites, so finding these items was not a surprise. We probably spent a couple hours searching a half-dozen gravel bars.

We eventually reached the landing where our van was parked (we had parked it there at the beginning of the day, and then Hope shuttled me back to the put-in point). We returned home, put the canoe away, and cleaned ourselves up for the big event of the day--trick or treatin'! But first, we got to watch them lay a new layer of blacktop on our road:

We were initially worried that this paving would keep us from tricks or treats, but they finished our street quickly. Here are the kids in their costumes (try to guess what they are):

Stephen and Bumpa enjoy some quality candy time together...

Ann, Rich, and I stayed at home to hand out candy while Hope took the kids around the block. Our neighborhood is VERY popular for trick-or-treaters, so we bought multiple large bags of candy, and gave it all away:

Well, except for the pieces we ate ourselves. On Saturday, we took a trip down to a small town in northern Louisiana called Oak Grove that has a small vegetable stand that sells satsuma oranges, a very flavorful and juicy type of orange grown along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. These oranges are not bred for long-distance shipping, so you can't find them everywhere. They are very similar to good Clementine oranges, if you've ever had those... After a stop at this market, we then drove over to the city of Monroe, Louisiana, to a restaurant we like to stop at--Cypress Inn on the Bayou:

You can see how it gets its name. It was a beautiful evening, so we ate outside on their deck overlooking a cypress- and turtle-filled bayou. We didn't see any alligators swimming about in the water, but we did have some breaded, deep fried gator as an appetizer. After a hearty dinner of fish and shrimp, we returned to Monticello. Today (Sunday) was a much quieter day, if you ignored me yelling at the TV while the Packers lost a close game to the Tennessee Titans. Here, Nahma and Stephen enjoy a happy moment:

Tonight, we'll play a few hands of cards, and tomorrow Rick and Ann will leave for Michigan and we'll get back into our busy schedule. Hard to believe it's already November, and the holiday season is upon us...