From Conway Spring, KS. Thanksgiving lunch with the Miller side of the family.

Here’s some shots from around Holloween. We went to Louisburg Cidermill to get lost in the corn maze and eat hot cider and freshly made donuts. The Williams2 and Haydens hung out with us Holloween night, and we made carmel apples between the doorbell rings of hords of hungry mutant children.

Alyssa and Brent were celebrating their anniversary, while Kate and I hung out with the kids for a few days. The highlight was the trip to the pumpkin patch where there was much mud to be had.

More pics of the kidos here.

While I was in California stuck in meetings all day and barely hanging out with the Pearcys, Molly flew out to Colorado for a visit.

When I got back later that week we went for a hike up McCullough for one last time (I think it’s like my seventh trip up the ‘ole gulch, but still a beautiful view).

Then the next morning we had a visitor in the driveway looking for some treats.

We then took Molly on an off-road adventure over Mosquito Pass.

And at the top of the pass there were some anxious snowboarders getting some early season practice in.

On the other side, in Leadville, we had a looong lunch, then headed for another short hike up Mayflower Gulch where we explored what was left of old Boston Mine.

The next day we woke up to Kate’s birthday, and Molly and I served her icecream in bed as requested by the birthday girl. We then packed up and drove to Colorado Springs to ride the Cog Rail Road to the top of Pike’s Peak (Kate has a thing for trains if you haven’t noticed).

Then sadly we trudged to Denver to drop Molly off at the airport. But since we’re leaving CO behind and moving back to Kansas City in a week, we’ll see her and the rest of the gang soon enough. Where did our year go?

See more pictures of time with our last visitor to our mountain retreat.

The whole Sawyer/Sweigart clan came to visit us in the mountains for a week. Despite the gloomy weather, we experiences several fun hikes full of wildflower covered meadows, rocky mountains, abandoned mines and raging waterfalls. Here’s some choice shots from the week:

We had a lot of fun exploring our mountain, but I think Maddox enjoyed it more than any of us. Alyssa posted a poem that he wrote, entitled “Mountain Friend“… it’s a must read.

And these are just the tip of the iceburg, so go see all the rest of the photos from our family vacation in the mountains.