I discovered today that Spencer is fascinated by the camera and the sounds it makes. Here are a few shots of Spencer being himself in front of the camera.

We just got back this morning from a camping trip with our church at Lake San Antonio. It was also our first weekend with our new addition to the family, Spencer. Spencer is a four month old Jack Russell Terrier who quickly secured a place in all our hearts with his loving and playful personality. He made our camping trip even more fun. Our favorite moment was when he discovered several deer eating his dog food and proceeded to fend them off with vicious barking and determined snarls.




Right after I took this picture of Joshua, Spencer, and Arabella, Spencer decided to dive into the lake after a rock one of the kids threw. Atleast we know he can swim.

We encountered lots of different wildlife over the weekend. The main attraction Friday night was a tarantula that someone had picked up on the way out to the lake. The roads were crawling with them in the late afternoon.

The kids got more brave with each picture. The adults were the ones who were creeped out.


Dominic walked around with the tarantula on his hat trying to get a reaction out of people. Most people didn't notice until it was too late.


If there was one thing we learned, it was that Smores are sticky, but they're so good. It seems that everyone was left licking their fingers.



Even the adults weren't immune to the lure of molten marshmallow and chocolate squished between graham crackers.



Deer like Smores too?

I came across a Red Fox about five minutes walking distance from my house today. I actually had enough time to run home and get my camera. It was so busy hunting, that it let me get within about 50 feet of it before it even gave me a second look. I was amazed to watch this little animal roaming around basically in the middle of San Luis Obispo. I wondered where it lived and I was reminded of a verse.


Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Matthew 8:20

Halloween came and went, but I'm still confused on how exactly we should be referring to it. Do we call it Autumn Festival, Harvest Festival, All Hallows Eve, Hallowmas, or plain old Halloween? Last night we took the boys to a Mountaintop Carnival sponsored by Mountainbrook Community Church here in San Luis Obispo. It was simply billed as a carnival with no mention of being any type of festival. All four of us had a blast seeing all our friends and the creative costumes and games. While I understand not wanting to refer to the negative aspects of Halloween, I'm just a little confused on proper terminology. I thought I understood things until we tried explaining to our boys why we don't go trick-or-treating. I ended up researching the origins of Halloween for myself and that really left me confused.The History of Halloween Finally after much thought, we explained that what made Halloween negative, was the emphasis on witchcraft, evil spirits, and pagan rituals. Our boys seemed to understand that as long as we understood October 31st to be a time when we celebrate the "good harvest" from the year that God has provided and see that anything else is the foolishness of this world, then we can still have a good time.

The boys chose their own costumes this year and had fun trying to see how creative they could be. Dominic decided he wanted to be a tax collector because he said that even adults were afraid of the IRS. He decided against a costume at the last minute since only the "little" kids would be dressing up. Joshua came up with his own creation. We aren't sure what he was, but it was interesting. Something between a Jawa from Star Wars and a post nuclear conflict. He combined a Russian children's gas mask with a trench coat and a British Army scarf to create a unique outfit. He gave his character a strange long-necked appearance by putting the mask on top of his head, wrapping the scarf around his face so he could see through the fabric, and looking down. We all had fun and no one missed trick-or-treating or the witches and goblins.