Pumpkin Patch

The kids love Bauman Farms pumpkin patch.  Because of a busy life we were left with one Saturday in October to go, which meant whatever the weather was doing we needed to go to the pumpkin patch.  Well, of course it was rainy, windy and cold.  The part was it was not busy at all.  The year before we went on a beautiful sunny day and had to wait a really long time in lines.  We all decided it was better with fewer people we just had to be tough Oregonians, which we are!  Both kids even went in the dark maze.  They loved the pillow jumper and obstacle courses.  Ellie did the zip line and we all love the apple cider. 

Fall Baseball

Jack decided to play fall baseball.  He does not want to play football.  We should have taken pictures earlier in the season.  It was really nice weather this fall.  In fact we had more hot days in the fall than we did during spring.  Jack moved up to AAA so he had to adjust to kid pitch and adjust to "the cup".  That provided a lot of family laughs.  But he did a great job.

Linfield homecoming

My family came with me to the Linfield homecoming game and then after the kids and Doug left and I stayed for the party.  It had been 20 years since I graduated from Linfield.  Really I can't imagine how that was possible.  I stayed with my best friend Julie and we got to catch up with people we hadn't seen for 20 years.  We had a lot of laughs followed by cheap beer at the Deluxe(if you went to Linfield you know where this is).  

Fourth grade

The day after Ellie started school Jack had his first day of fourth grade.  Once again he is coming to the school where I work, which is really nice.  He was very excited about his teacher for the year, Mrs. Fiskum.  She is great and he is having a really good year.

Ellie starts middle school

Ellie's first day of middle school.  This might have been a much harder day if she was at another school.  But luckily she got into a charter school JGEMS.  It is science based and very small(99 kids in the school).  She even had a science project due on the first day of school.  The first day was a little tough for her, but happily we can now report that she LOVES school!

State Fair

One of our favorite last events of the summer is the state fair.  We go every year and make a lot of great memories.  This year we only did a few rides since we just got back from Silverwood and we couldn't go on kids day.  But we did the ferris wheel and chair life as a family.  Ate yummy food, including our favorite funnel cake.  And of course had a great time looking at the animals!  

Opal Creek

Ellie and I went hiking at Opal Creek with my mom.  It has always been one of my mom's favorite places and it was our first time to go with her.  Ellie loves the outdoors and even got into the cold water.  

Idaho or bust

We wanted to go to Silverwood last summer and never did, so I decided we weren't going to put it off again.  So our last vacation of the summer was a road trip to Idaho.  Jack liked the idea of going to another state and Ellie was really wanting to hit the rollercoasters.  It took us 7 hours to get there and we we enjoyed the drive.  We stayed in a little dive in Post Falls, Idaho but the kids loved it.  We spent the first day at the water park for most of the day just going to the amusement park for a few rides.  Then after a little worry about the weather(there were some thunderstorms)  we spent the second day at the amusement park.  Ellie loves the big rides.  She did many by herself.  Doug did the old wooden rollercoaster with her once but found it too bouncy and I did it 4 times.  And boy was I sore the next day.  But we made some memories and we have all laughed at one of the pictures on the rollercoaster.  The kids loved Silverwood.  On the way home we stopped at Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery and Multnomah Falls.  It was a great trip and we are thinking of ideas for our family trip for next summer.