Busy October and November

It's been a very busy couple of months since our last post. Kyle has really taken well to school. As he likes to say, he really really loves it. Work has continued on the deck and we've gotten to a good stopping point for the year. We've gotten really lucky with the weather lately so the last four weeks have been perfect for working outside and finishing up the deck and also for getting the yard winterized. This yard is fairly large so it takes a good three weekends to get all the leaves raked up, grass cut short, beds raked out and then other odds and ends. We need to get lucky for a few more days so the garden can get tilled up.

The picture above is of Kyle in his Halloween costume. He wasn't very keen on the entire dinosaur costume, this is all that he ever put on, so this is the best we could do. He still enjoyed the tricking or treating and did pretty well.

Dad spent some time traveling in October, actually had a trip over to Italy. Below are some pictures from Zermatt Switzerland, home of the Matterhorn. It's important to know that there is no parking in Zermatt. Long story, but if you ever travel to this part of the world, park your car when you see a big train station marked "Matterhorn Station" in Tasch, regardless of what instructions you have or what the GPS says. Otherwise, your in for even more adventure on a single lane road.
Here is a picture from the small town where we stayed while in Italy. Really nice place, you can't have a bad meal (no matter how hard you try).

Here is Kyle with his new big-boy bed. He has outgrown his toddler bed so it was time for an upgrade before his feet were hanging off the end of the bed. He is pretty happy with it, he has to climb up the end of the bed to get in - which is a bonus for him.
I did the Medtronic Marathon up in the Twin Cities in early October. Here is a picture of me, Mom and Uncle Chad after the race. It was a great day for a marathon, cool and cloudy and a fantastic race course. Highly recommend this race if you are looking for a fall marathon.
We put the decking on the deck expansion project two weeks ago too. This is good enough for now. The photos below show the final touches on the new decking. The deck is finished in cedar, looks and smells great. You can clearly see the addition from the new wood, I think this is going to be the perfect size from what I can tell. Godd to be done for a while on this project.
Here's Kyle on the new deck.

Four weeks ago we got the old structure trued up and then the new structure built for the addition. The pictures below show the progress of this step. This was pretty tedious as the the old structure wasnt' very true and also had lots of whoops in it. We learned a lot about reinvigorating an old deck.