This cider-making business is about to get me down.

We're closing in on 200 gallons of cider...and we've still got plenty more to do...although Kim says we're on the downhill now.

I'm so over it....

Every time we drive to Father-in-Law Kenny's to press cider, we pass this mobile home property with the sign out front:

"Thieves will be shot, survivors will be shot again."

You might be a redneck if....

It's been a big birthday week for the Gray bunch.

Kristoffer, our oldest, turned 31 on Monday.  (How can THAT possibly be???!!!)

And then on Thursday, Daughter-in-Law Anique turned 27 and that same day our baby girls were one.

My how time flies when you're having fun!....

Hard for me to drive by a posing heron without stopping for a quick shot....

Last October, Aunt Ruth came to visit us from North Carolina with her friend Earl.

We'd never been around Earl much, but we really came to like him.  And our respect for him grew as he took care of Ruth and in his own way suffered along with her when she found out shortly after her trip that she had terminal pancreatic cancer.

Sadly, Aunt Ruth died this past June with Earl and several of her family at her side.

I got an email from Earl last weekend that said he was passing by our way and planned to stop for a visit.

Dana was gracious enough to dress the girls in the outfits Aunt Ruth had given them when they were born (which they have just now grown into) for a quick photo with Earl.

If such things happen in heaven (Earl says Ruth did not believe they do...but how do any of us really know?....), Aunt Ruth was surely smiling down upon us that afternoon...

As I was putting my fall decorations on the porch, I discovered a spider had made his own home there.

I think I shall leave it for awhile...a very realistic Halloween decoration, don't you think?!

Kaden was a bit of a grump the afternoon I photographed the twins smashing their birthday cakes, and was not a bit cooperative when I wanted to take his photo.

Something tells me his mood was a combination of a too-short nap plus the fact that the girls were getting all of the attention...

That hug may or may not have been motivated by sincere brotherly love...or Gramaw's coaxing...

I'll never tell.

On our agenda today:  the official one-year birthday festivities this afternoon.  Can't wait! 

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!