Autumn in Central Ohio

It's been a year since the kids have seen their cousins, so we thought it would be fun to spend 

our first weekend together camping at Wolfie's Campground for their Halloween party. 

Our first ever Cousin Campout!

They organized a potluck, an outdoor movie, campfire with hot dogs and s'mores, 

costume contest and trick or treating. We had such a fun time together!

At Grandpa's house, Grandma raked a huge pile of leaves for the kids to play in. 

Now that I'm into birding, I was looking for hotspots nearby and found this great, little trail system in Westerville called Boyer Nature Preserve. I also enjoyed exploring Mud Hen Marsh near Hoover Reservoir.

My brother hosts an annual Halloween party complete with a scavenger hunt, costume contest and games for the kids. It's fun to see everyone in costumes there.

Carving pumpkins!

Trick or treating at their cousins' house.

Taking a walk with Meemaw at Woodside Green Park.

We were blessed to spend lots of time with our friends Chrissy, Shaun and Wade in their gorgeous, new, built-with-their-own-hands home! Asher and Journey attended their first tykwando class with Wade and loved it. They also fell in love with their kittens and Asher says he's going to get a kitten when he's an adult.

The kids helped out with construction at Grandpa's barn. Here they're caulking the floor seams.

The Columbus Zoo offered free entrance to military on Veteran's Day, so of course we spent the day there. This zoo is one of the largest in the country and is always changing. This time the Australia's Nocturnal Building was new to us and we really loved seeing the tree kangaroo, kiwis and our first wombat! 

I spent quite awhile admiring the birds in the Australia aviary. I was particularly smitten by the golden pheasant.

We spent a weekend with our family, Susan and Ned, at their house in the woods.

The kids were excited to see how Ned cooked the chicken on a rotisserie for our dinner with Marty and Lynn.

We did a fun Christmas gift exchange where we all sat around the table and drew names to find out who we were "buying" for. We had an unlimited, imaginary budget and went thru a stack of magazines, cutting out our gifts to each other. It was a super fun activity where we all learned more about each other! I think it's something we should do every year.