October Update

Here we are at the end of October!
The last few weeks have been so busy.  I've wanted to get on here and let everyone know what we've been up to but it's just easier (and faster) to do Facebook updates these days.  (The super old computer I have to edit pictures on also doesn't help.)

Let's see...what have we been doing this month?
Celebrating our 9th anniversary with a kid free weekend "camping" at Nehalem Bay.

(Yes...that is Gabe reading a BOOK!  He actually almost finished the whole book during the course of the weekend.)

Levi went on his pumpkin patch field trip with Grandma G and his class.
Levi has been taking swimming lessons 2 mornings a week.  Silly kid still hates to put his face in the water but can float on his back for 10 seconds!

When I asked Levi what he wanted to be for Halloween months ago, his response was "Something scary."
For awhile it was a ghost and he finally decided it doesn't get much scarier than a skeleton.
So here's our little scary skeleton dressed up at the zoo on Saturday.

And the elephants, including baby Lily sure were playful.
It was so much fun to watch them splash and wrestle in the pool!

We carved our pumpkins.
Levi and Daddy wanted to make their Jack-O-Lanterns "scary".  I decided mine needed to be happy.

As you can see, this kid is really excited about Halloween and being scary.  It's all he talks about these days!

Last but not least, we took Gabe's project car for a spin this weekend!  His smile might not show it in this picture, but Gabe is very thrilled to have it driving.  (I won't tell you what his top speed down Multnomah Blvd was...) Now to get it to pass DEQ and get the new tags, renewal and such.

We're looking at another crazy week around here but I'll try to be a little more prompt with pictures from trick-or-treating.

Pumpkins!

Not such a beautiful weekend to head to the pumpkin patch.  But since the month of October is turning out to be busier than we'd hoped, yesterday was about our only choice.  Foggy, drizzly weather and all.

We did manage to find some nice pumpkins.

Levi took a "quick" spin around the patch on the tractor barrel train.

He looked a little worried while the "train" was going but said it was fun when he got off!

Someone at our house is getting really excited about Halloween!  He was also not very happy when he was told he'd have to wait a few weeks to turn our 3 pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.

Apples!

This weekend we've had the most amazingly beautiful fall weather.  I think it's been especially sweet since we had that crazy rain/wind storm last weekend!

Saturday we went east to Hood River to pick apples.

Like I said...BEAUTIFUL!

We picked some Jonagold and Gala apples for apple sauce.

We picked some Empire apples for baking.  (Currently there is a dutch apple pie cooling for dessert tonight.)

And of course we had to pick some Honeycrisp apples simply for eating! 

The sunshine has been a blessing since it also allowed us a chance to clean up the garden and yard in preparation for the next 6 months of rain!
We're hopeful for more fall weekends like this.

Rockford & Chicago IL

We were able to explore a bit of Rockford's Riverfront Museum Park on a beautiful Saturday morning before wedding rehearsal started.

Apparently our filter (or lens) has some fuzz we didn't know was on it!

Rockford has a pretty neat natural history museum.  They have an adolescent T-Rex fossil skeleton they call Jane.

And some really neat triceratops fossils too.  This near complete skeleton is Homer.

There are no museums like this here in PDX so it was fun.  We were pretty amazed!

The finale of our weekend in IL was a quick trip to the Windy City for an architectural boat tour.  We heard from many people that it was their favorite thing to do when in Chicago.  Since we had a very limited time, we decided to give it a try.  The weather was PERFECT!  It was a great day to be on the river.
Here's the tallest building in North America.  The Sears...no...wait...the Willis Tower.

And the view of the city from where the river goes into Lake Michigan at Navy Pier.

Such a whirlwind of a trip.
Hopefully we'll get back to Chicago again at some point!
Maybe a house on the lake with some Cubs baseball and deep dish pizza.  Anyone want to join us?

Bryan and Jackie

got married on Sunday near Rockford, IL.
It was quite a whirlwind of a weekend.

But it was a beautiful wedding.
And we are so happy for them.

The weather was amazing.  The orchard was beautiful.  The bride was stunning.

There was a really cute ring bearer and flower girl too!

Levi did a great job helping little Brooke down the isle.
But he did spend a lot of the wedding doing this...

Levi did drop the glass ring box on the ground while Bryan was saying his vows.  Nothing was broken and the pass off to the bride and groom went just fine.  Thankfully!

I love this picture because that's Bryan's parents in the foreground.

And I can't leave out these handsome groomsmen.

We were able to squeeze in a few non-wedding adventures.  (Like swimming in the hotel pool.)  I'll try to be back this week and share about those.  We all came down with a cold and are very exhausted from a long weekend of fun and very little sleep.

Pre-K First Day

First day of Pre-Kindergarten Interview:
Age: 4

What is your favorite color?
Blue

What do you want to do when you're a grown up?
Well, probably put boosters on rockets.

What is your favorite music (or song)?
Robyn
(This kid loves to dance!  And his dance moves are getting even "better".)

What's your favorite book?
Jack and Annie
Is there a Jack and Annie book you like the best?
Ghost Town at Sun Down

What was the best thing that you did at school today?
I don't know.

What do you want to learn about in school this year?
science
crocodiles
rocket ships
astronauts

What are you really good at doing?
tracing letters

Birthday Weekend

I wanted to get out of town for my birthday weekend.
So, we drove 45 minutes south to Champoeg State Park to camp and celebrate my 35th birthday.
It was great!

We spent a few hours tasting wine at a couple wineries.

Enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch and a nice bottle of pinot gris.

Our time at camp was spent napping (me-since my shin splints are still healing), and hiking to the river (Levi and Gabe-so that I could nap in peace).

I think the cookies we baked in our "oven" in the trailer were Levi's favorite part of the weekend.

Of course, Gabe and Levi made my requested carrot cake with cream cheese frosting when we got home this afternoon.

I sure do look exhausted in this picture.  I guess a week spent on crutches and not being able to work out really caught up to me.  Hopefully this isn't how 35 is always going to look on me!

It was an awesome weekend.  Lots of quality time with my guys...just what I wanted.

Check back tomorrow or Tuesday.  Levi has his first day of PreK tomorrow!

Accomplished: Goal of 2013

Gabe and I did our 5k this morning.
The goal was to run the entire 3.1 miles.

And we (almost) ran the whole thing.

I started running once a week after school on the treadmill in January.  But this summer I really ramped my training up.  I've been training hard all summer.  Getting up three mornings a week to run before Gabe leaves for work.  I was feeling really great until about a month ago when my knee started hurting while I was running.  I started icing it after runs, got a new pair of shoes, and got a brace for my knee.  Then after my runs last week the pain stuck around longer and was starting to be my entire leg from knee to ankle.  After my run on Monday morning it hurt so bad that I knew I needed to rest for the rest of the week to get ready for today's run.

Our run started off pretty good.  Then about mile 2.5 the leg pain started.  It was so intense I was in tears because my goal was to run the whole thing but I couldn't even walk without pain.  So we walked for about a 1/4 mile and then did a run/fast walk to the finish line.  At which point I wanted to scream because I could have run the whole thing if my stupid leg wouldn't have quit on me.  I was ready!  I haven't felt this healthy and fit in a long time.  I also wanted to scream because I haven't been in so much pain since giving birth.

I never thought I'd like running.  But it turns out I really like it (dare I say love it?).  So after I figure out what's going on with my right leg, we're doing a 10k next year for sure.  Well, I am at least...hopefully Gabe will decided to do it with me.

Good bye, Summer...

We're sure going to miss you!

Our holiday weekend was spent relaxing and having some fun.
We went down to Salem for the State Fair on Saturday morning.
Levi said the best part was cotton candy.
We did enjoy looking at the animals.
Indulging in fried food.  (The bacon corn dog...so not worth it.)

And going on rides...of course!

After about 3 hours we were hot, tired and ready for a nap.  We all crashed when we got home!

A holiday weekend is also a good time for Gabe to invite a few friends over to enjoy his amazing Kalua pork, play some yard games, and drink a few beers.  Good times!

We also managed to squeeze one more zoo trip into this last weekend of summer.
Baby Lily now gets to play outside with all the other lady elephants.  She was having a great time playing with this stick...and bugging her aunties!

And we had great seats on the lawn for the bird show.  Several birds (including this owl) literally flew right over our heads.  So neat!

We have enough cucumbers to feed a small village.  So we decided we needed a way to preserve them a little longer.  Pickles!  Gabe came across this recipe for small batch fridge pickles, and we thought we'd give it a try.

We don't have pickling cucumbers, so they may not turn out quite as crunchy.  We'll hope for the best!  This cucumber salad recipe I made for our staff lunch potluck on Thursday was a hit.  Just in case anyone else is looking for ways to use their cucumbers.

July and August sure flew by!  I guess it's time to say "hello" to the excitement of school, pumpkins and lots of fall color.

Tom's #60

Grandpa Tom turned 60 yesterday!

So we went south to help him celebrate the momentous occasion.

He had a music gig here, so we enjoyed the music and helped harvest the hops crop too!

They "pay" the hop harvest volunteers in beer (or boysenberry lavender soda...if you're Levi).

It was super fun to be with Tom on his birthday.

And we picked a lot of delicious Cascade hops.  Next year, when we go back, we can brag about drinking the hops we harvested.  And Levi will enjoy more yummy fruit soda!

Blackberries on the Alsea

This weekend we met Grandma Winnie on the Alsea River to camp.
We pulled in very late on Friday because traffic was CRAZY getting out of town.  It took us an hour to get from our house to Wilsonville.  That's a trip that should take about 20 minutes!

So after some breakfast, we got our first glimpse of the campground and the river.  We quickly figured out why the campground is named Blackberry.  And Levi shoveled these into his mouth after throwing lots of rocks in the river and catching a really big crawdad.  (Actually, Gabe jut reached in and picked him up...But Levi did carry him around on a stick for a little while before we let him go.)

Blackberry campground is 15 miles inland from Waldport.  So the weather at camp was nice.  The fog on the beach was a different story.  It was dense but it wasn't windy or cold...can't have it all when you visit the Oregon coast.

Levi was determined to pick up every single piece of dead crab he found in the sand.  Such a typical boy!

Waldport is a pretty tiny beach town (population about 2,000), so we drove up to Newport to have some lunch and check out the sealions.

Other highlights were definately all the little inch worms we found falling from the trees all over our campsite!

And who doesn't love a great s'more?

Certainly not this kid.

It was a great last camping trip of the summer.
Literally...I have a two day conference tomorrow and Tuesday, and a planning meeting in the morning on Wednesday.  I'm really not happy about going back to work.  Sure wish summer could last forever!

#4

There have been some serious birthday festivities happening around our house the last few days!

Levi invited a few friends, and some family, over to celebrate with him on Sunday.  (Lots of friends weren't able to make it, so it was a small gathering.  I think that's unfortunately how it's going to be for this kid since he has a summer birthday.)
But we still had a "blast".
Lots of balloon rockets were shot off (and are now stuck on the roof)!

Lots of pinata smacking!

Candles were blown out, cake and ice cream consumed!

And of course lots and lots of presents!
It was a fun (and exhausting) afternoon.

Yesterday, Levi and I took our first (and probably only) trip to the aquarium.  (It wasn't very good.)  Levi does love looking at the jellyfish and he spent a lot of time "petting" the sting rays.

Since the aquarium is around the corner from Gabe's work, we met him at the park down the block and had lunch.  And of course, the boys had to shoot off the cool new rocket blasters Levi got for his birthday.

We ended the day with more presents, and taking Gramma and Grampa G out for dinner at Levi's favorite restaurant.  (Since Gramma's birthday is TODAY!)  There had to be more cake and ice cream too!

Awesome celebrations for a really awesome kid!

We are excited about the adventures year #4 brings!