What September Looked Like

September=Softball season!

So fun to be back on the St Francis softball team this year.

Had a lot of fun playing.

Sunrise...

Sunset.

For Labor Day, we stayed in town and played.

Went downtown one evening.

Stopped at BoxCar Arcade.

Dominated Space Invaders

And had fun racing each other

It was a beautiful evening to walk around downtown.

We got dinner at Mellow Mushroom,

which we found out Caroline doesn't like.

Andrew and I went birding at Price Park.

It's a hot spot around here and we met a couple other birders,

including the president of the Piedmont Bird Club.

Look at all those goldfinches!

I forgot what all these birds were now.

But it was fun to try to get pictures with my new little 

camera with a good zoom.

Another day we drove out to Burlington.

We ate lunch at The Lost Cajun.

So yummy.

Especially the beignets!

We missed Whit when we stopped at 

The Owl and Rabbit and I got this cute

bird out of the art-o-mat.

One of our favorite art stores.

We also stopped at the Alamance County

Historical Museum.

It's a restored historical home.

We got a tour with an excellent docent.

It was a great little spot to learn about

the history of the area.

I can't remember the name of this thing,

but it's like a giant music box. Pretty cool.

I got my diploma from Planet Money Summer School

for the second year in a row. I may have missed my

calling in life to be an economist. 

Our little hummer is still hanging around.

Our fridge has been slowly dying for the 

last few years. We finally bit the bullet

and bought a new one.

 So pretty!

And Andrew can have crushed ice again,

which he missed so much when the ice

maker broke on our old one.

When I'm walking during seminary, I 

sometimes try to bird at the same time.

But I'm still not very good.

I don't know how to identify them

if they aren't actively singing so Merlin

can identify them for me.

Fun YW hanging out at Piper's house

Sonia is my softball team captain.

She's also on one of my tennis teams.

On this day, we got to play doubles together in

tennis and WIN and then that night, our softball

team WON. What the heck?? Double chicken dinner???

Woo hoo!

Had a fun temple trip with Robb and Starr.

Robb is Andrew's first counselor.

They're an amazing couple and I love rubbing shoulders with them.

NC Folk Fest!

It's the best!

Love getting to hear music from all over the world.

This woman's voice was fantastic.

Piper came with us downtown.

Unfortunately, it was raining.

Fortunately, they were selling gelato!

For FHE, we got to draw pictures of scriptures.

Scripture pictures if you will. :)

They were Isaiah verses.

Can you tell?

Care Bear and I were impressed with this 

juggling unicycler on the side of the road!

It's fun to see her learning new skills.

We attended our first meeting with the Piedmont Bird Club!

I don't mind hanging out with people who are 20+ years older than me.

And they know their stuff when it comes to birds.

We walked around the park for a little bit afterward

and got to see a couple new birds.

I'm not sure exactly why I took a picture 

of myself eating a popsicle...

There are some birds that are migrating through NC

right now. We tried to head out and find some.

But it was too dark.

One morning, after I dropped C off at school,

I headed to Winston and looked for some birds there.

My favorite was this downy woodpecker.

Can you see him on the top of that big branch?

Care Bear made us some yummy fish for dinner.

My next meet-up with the bird club

was to watch the Chimney Swifts.

It was so cool to see a huge bird tornado.

They circle around this chimney for a while

and eventually one of them flies in and the rest

all follow. They sleep in the chimney.

 

I got to see a Belted Kingfisher across

the lake one day.

So pretty!

Lots of pretty skies in September.

Can you see that big spider?

It was huge!

I tried to put my keys in the pic for reference.

Care Bear and I saw a possum on the drive to YW

one night. She thinks they're cute. I think they're creepy.

Care Bear and I took a day trip to Elkin for the 

Yadkin Valley Pumpkin Festival.

It was such a fun day together!

We missed the weigh-ins.

But they had some giant watermelons.

And even more giant pumpkins.

Look at those things!

They look like they're melting.

They had lots of street vendors.

We found some great stickers, artwork,

candles, and Halloween decor.

And Care Bear found some new plants. :)

We did a little geocaching afterward.

I think we found 3 of the 4 we looked for.

Levitating leaf

The one we couldn't find was near this tree.

What the heck is that thing?

Andrew got to have the coolest,

most spontaneous experience.

He has been purchasing BYU football

NTF's for the last few months.

He got a call from the parent company that

makes them, informing him that he'd won

a free ticket to a home BYU football game

and an on-field pregame experience.

How do you say no to that???

He had enough points to get a free airline

ticket out there. And within just a few days,

he was on his way!

What a fun bonus visit to see his parents!

Down on the field.

Awesome.

He had to get a Cougar Tail while he was there.

His Dad and Tony also got tickets to join him,

but I guess they didn't take a pic together?

He had a super fast, super fun weekend.

Jayne and I went to the Botanical Gardens

in Kernersville one afternoon.

We got to see Monarch caterpillars

getting ready to make their cocoons.

There were also cocoons all over.

This is milkweed, which they eat.

And we saw several monarchs flying around, too.

It was our first time visiting those gardens.

We both enjoyed it.

My awesome ministering sister brought us a 

dozen doughnuts to celebrate family day.

We bought this clear tubing for the piggies to play in.

They aren't as impressed as we hoped they would be.

I thought the moon looked cool.

I saw this at Gabe's and totally should've bought

it for Andrew.

Pretty skies at a softball game.

Andrew usually can't make it to my games,

but he was able to watch one this year.

And he got to watch my best defensive play of the season!

Woo hoo!

Hurricane season

We got a lot of rain.

And some pretty high winds.

But thankfully, no damage.