painted faces.

halloween traditions. usually we do the normal pumpkin carving at halloween time, but because georgia is so humid, you can't really carve pumpkins because they will deflate into grandma pumpkins within 24 hours. so this year we painted our pumpkins instead.

recon.

the next military training completed on austin's bucket list: the army reconnaissance course (ARC). pretty much a bunch of sneaking around and spying in the woods, he totally loved it! as a part of his uniform for the sneaking, we had to make a ghillie suit.

the wolf's den.

austin and i love to go hiking and exploring, and the rolling green hills and woods of georgia make this so fun.

one saturday we visited FDR state park and hiked the wolf's den. it's about a 7 mile loop that follows a beautiful trail through the woods and along several small waterfalls. we loved it!

we had some adventuring fun along the way...

war eagle.

scored some free tickets to an auburn university football game = instant fans!

 we were super stoked to experience one of the south's greatest traditions of college football!

the game atmosphere was great with a phenomenal half-time show...

seriously, what marching band can do that!? they were insanely good!

fun fact: auburn's mascot is the tigers. however war eagle seems to be their slogan, and they iconically release an eagle that circles around the field before every home game (austin made sure we didn't miss this highlight of the game). so what is it auburn...war eagle or tigers? either way, auburn dominated the other small college team, and we ended up leaving after half-time, feeling proud of our new home team--although we could never give up USC or UT, ever.

trips to the city.

atlanta is a good 1.5-2 hours away from columbus, so when we go we like to make it into a day trip. atlanta is a huge city, with interesting skylines and architectural features. realistically we try to go about every other month and make a trip to the temple.

after our temple trip we of course need a good bite to eat, and look at the little gem we found right in atlanta...

chuys! one of our most favorite restaurants in texas, with the best creamy jalapeno and salsa you could imagine. austin was amazed that the restaurant had expanded out of texas, and was even more shocked that it was not bursting with people--he eventually concluded that it had to be new to atlanta and therefore no one quite knew about it yet. we were so excited to find a piece of home here in georiga, we now go as tradition after every temple trip.