More books

Book Cub update:
Our book for August, that was discussed in Sept., was picked by Linda. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is considered a classic . It was a good read. When we met we had an "Oriental Theme" and we feasted on P.F. Chang's, Lieu's, sushi and I made crab rangoon and a cake. It was so delicious. I brought my camera to document the evening but had such a great time, I forgot to take pictures.








Kelly chose the September book, Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. It is about the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup in Paris of all the Jews in WWII and it intertwines the story of a girl taken in the roundup in 1942 and a modern day writer asked to do a magazine article on the 60th Anniversary.

So my pick for the November book is The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacob. It is very light hearted chick lit, I hope it will be perceived as a nice break from some of the heavier novels we have been reading lately.
I am really enjoying it and am almost finished reading it. I listened to her second book "Comfort Food" on my trip up to DC and really liked that, also.

I have put in a request to have the author call us during our book club, I think that would be very exciting!!!

Halloween in Maryland

I realized (after I had uploaded about half the pictures) that it may have been better to separate the trip pics into separate posts. OH WELL!!!


I would have titled this one "Why Aunt Karen won't be invited back" The kids had fun playing with my make-up. Everyone, even Tommy tried some on.




















"Halloween Parade at St. Mary's"












Tommy as a Skeleton/Zombie
















Lauren as the Hollywood Starlet

Sydney is a Diva

The first night I arrived, Lauren and Sydney introduced me to playing airplane. Sydney couldn't get enough of being in the air.

Before the Trick-or-Treating and before dinner, Lauren and Sydney took me on a guided tour of their neighborhood.

Running up and down hills (at work this is considered a punishment but not my nieces, it is just fun.)

Some pretty poses

and a self portrait.

The beautiful decorations

Trick or Treating........

I would have titled this post "Why Uncle Dave is welcome back anytime" He is just a big kid, or at the very least their favorite jungle gym

Here is a pic of Sydney and Dave playing with the Wii, as I watched.

Hiking

The Sunday following our fun night at the Blue Ridge Grill, Dave and I meet up with our friends the Jimenz's family to go hiking. Trust me I look rough, but we had a great time!!

Eating lunch after hiking our first trail.

On our way to our second trail. It was a bit of a drive to say the least.

We stopped on the side of the road for this pic.

Here are some pictures of what we saw while hiking.

Juan and Migelina

Plus Janelle and Juan Miguel

Like I said ROUGH!!!

Jake came with us and had a super time.

The trails we stopped at the second part of the trip

We ventured on all three moderate hikes

Dave, once again acting like a big kid.