Fall Leaves

The leaves right now are simply gorgeous! Nate took a few pictures around the neighborhood today. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure, whether you're able to enjoy the changing leaves color where you live or not.

tm

Apple Picking

Fall is my favorite season. I love the changing leaves, the crisp cool weather, baseball ends and football begins, and the bake-able foods--specifically apples and pumpkins. We were able to go apple picking to a place I've gone almost for the past 9 or 10 years, Royal Oak Farm Orchard. This year I was able to introduce my sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces to it. We had a great time, despite the rain. We ate at the delicious restaurant, picked apples in the downpour, got some delectable apple cider donuts, fed the goats at the petting zoo, and rode the carousel. Great times were had by all!

Hitching a ride to the orchard

Fun despite the rain

"Come here, Mr. Goat. I have food."

Puddle jumping!

Carousel ride

Kalli grinned every time she passed her mommy.

 Lewis fam

And a few more pics in a collage (a few will be repeats, but they're cute pics).

tm

Family Time (Part 3): All Together

Here are a few of the "whole family" shots that we were able to take. Aren't we beautiful? Haha!
Seriously though, it was wonderful to get to spend a little bit of time together this summer.

 

 

The McMillan Clan - August 2011

Family Time (Part 2): The Nephew Fix

Just a snapshot of our nephews from our recent get-together. Enjoy the handsomeness!

tm

Family Time (Part 1): The Niece Fix

In August, we were able to get the whole D&B McMillan clan together and enjoy some time together. More pics to come of the whole fam, but here's a snapshot of our nieces.

I love these girls!
tm

My creative husband

I've been wanting to brag on my imaginative husband and the creativity God has given him. He has been taking full advantage of our garage since we've been in our home and it has become a weekend workshop in all seasons. He enjoys working with wood and loves designing useful projects for our home. This is a project he made in August in about five days.

The creation of a coffee table. Final product in lower left.

For those who care about such details, the coffee table was made out of red oak and measures 29 inches wide from each point to rounded side and is 18 inches tall. The little reddish triangles, stained in Red Oak, come out of the top and the bottom shelf to become six coasters (four on top, two stacked in the bottom). The main body of the table is stained in Ebony, followed by three coats of Gloss varnish.

I love the design and functionality of this table...and I'm pretty sure the Ebony stain is my new favorite stain. More projects to come!
tmm

Grandma's Photo Shoot

My sister, Lisa, and her husband, Peter, and their two daughters went on vacation to the East Coast recently and were able to stop and see our Grandma Boyle near Ocean City, Maryland. They also found a photographer to do a nice photo shoot of them with Grandma. I wanted to share a quick link to the photographer's website where she posted a few pics.

I may be a bit biased, but I think my grandma looked GORGEOUS and the girls are just adorable! Lisa and Peter look good, too. ;) See for yourself at the photographer's website.
tmm

Wedding!

My sister Amanda and new brother-in-law Jake were married this past Saturday. I wanted to post a few pictures from the beautiful event.

 The wedding ceremony

The wedding reception

The bride was beautiful and the groom handsome. Congratulations, Jake and Amanda!

tm

Chicago Blizzard of 2011

I am a fan of snow. I love to play in it, build in it, eat it, jump in it, and pull my niece in it. I don't even mind driving in it most days. The blizzard that hit Chicago (and many other places in the Midwest) reminded me of my senior year in high school when I worked "blizzard duty" at our local radio station. This year, I was working again - Founder's Week, Moody Bible Institute's annual conference for students and alumni. We always joke that we need to pack warm because Founder's Week seems to always be the coldest week of the year, or at least month. This year we had a blizzard. We were broadcasting all of the morning and evening sessions with music and speakers...."the show must go on!" I was working evening sessions and thankfully we had enough of a heads-up from the National Weather Service that we were able to get a room to stay in Tuesday night, the first night the blizzard hit. This is the view from our window.

2 Feb 2011 - View from my hotel room

People were the strangest thing to watch. Because the sidewalks weren't plowed, they headed for the streets to walk (see above and below). There weren't many out walking and those that were didn't seem to remember that cars were also using the roads. We (in our car) trailed behind a group of three men walking at one point -- they were oblivious to us behind them. The city looked like a ghost town covered in piles of freshly fallen snow. It was quite beautiful in an eerie way.

2 Feb 2011 - Chicago street

Lake Shore Drive was also a mess. Lake Michigan waves were crashing onto the road (which is already something crazy to see - let's make them 18-25 feet high and add blizzard temps and winds plus snow!). Cars were stuck when they closed down the road so people waited for hours, then abandoned them (below). It was quite a sight!

2 Feb 2011 - Lake Shore Drive

The clean up efforts were slow and with last weekend's melt, much of the snow is disappearing. But here are three people working quickly the next day on a parking garage roof I can see from my office window.

2 Feb 2011 - View from my office window

 
The whole thing was an adventure. Founder's Week happened with a bit more effort. MBI was closed for one day that many of us got to work because of the conference. But everyone who was there appreciated our efforts. And listeners on the radio didn't know any different - other than a few more weather jokes and a few speakers that were changed.