Sept and Oct misc

For my birthday this year Chad and I spent the night at the Clearwater Casino after dancing to some great live music from New Jack City. The next day Chad helped me to make pizza for dinner and mom and dad brought over an angel food cake for dessert.

While Jamie was visiting Carrie, Jason, Sydney and Makenzie in Texas the rest of the family took a mini boat trip to Poulsbo.  The only problem was that Tristan came down with croup and mom and dad had to come and pick him and I up so that we could go to the ER (everywhere else was closed).  They quickly got us in and after a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, they gave him a dose of steroids and sent us home.  I took him home that night with a new humidifier and the next morning he was doing much better.  After picking up his prescription, we headed back out to Poulsbo to see Abby and Chad. After lunch I left with the kids while dad helped Chad bring our boat home!

It was a beautiful day so we took a walk down the boardwalk.

In the middle of September Chad had to take a business trip to Japan.  Here are some pictures from his walk to the plum grove.

Tristan and I took the ferry and lightrail to meet Chad at the airport.

One Friday evening Jamie and I built a vinegar and baking soda rocket with a kit he had gotten last Christmas.  On Saturday morning, we took it to the school field to try and get it to take off. Kristy, Pat, Lulu and Ruby were with us to watch too!

On the first try I got baking soda and vinegar all over me.  On the second try I held the rocket sideways but the pressure still blew the stopper right out!

Finally Chad got the thing to go up a few feet (a far cry from the 100 ft that the box proclaimed)

Kristy and the other kids stood back.

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Dad and the kids during a Monday night football game.

Pat helped Chad take the boys (Jamie, Tristan, Otto, and Isaac) on a guys trip to Blake Island.  Sounds like it was an, er, interesting time.

 the ferry at night

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Jamie was in a class play (he's far right) as the narrator (in Spanish)

Tristan was thrilled to take his big brother to the airport.  He was not so thrilled when he couldn't get on the plane with him.  Jamie had a great time and did great on the plane by himself.  Read more about his trip here: http://www.sydkad.com/blog/jamie-visits

 

Halloween

Halloween seems to sneak up on us each year since Abby's birthday is the day before. We had yet to even buy our pumpkins so when the kids got home from school we went searching for pumpkins. Apparently, that is no easy task on Halloween day. Safeway was out of pumpkins. Midtown market had a few but they looked small and terrible. Finally QFC had a bunch still out and they were only a $1 each - score! So we started carving our pumpkins and when Chad got home he helped out too. I was a mean mom and stuck Tristan's hand into the guts of the pumpkin. I was just trying to tease him but he started to cry and I felt terrible. After the pumpkins were out we ate dinner and got the kids dressed up. Chad went trick-or-treating with them while I stayed home for other trick-or-treaters. After that we took the kids to see great Grandma and finally onto Grandma's house where we got lots of candy and yummy popcorn balls.

Jamie and Abby were dressed up for costume day at school - Jamie wanted to be lawyer and Abby wanted to just dress-up fancy.  They chose to wear these things instead of their real costumes because they were more comfortable and because they aren't allowed to wear any capes or hoods or accessories to school.

You can see Tristan's little "sweet" tattoo that he got at Abby's birthday party.

Rapunzel

Jedi Knight

Dinosaur monster again this year (don't know what we'll do next year when this doesn't fit him anymore!)

First day of school photos

1st grade

3rd grade

Preschool 3's

15 yr anniversary

Our 15-yr anniversary was this year in August.  Since Chad was scheduled to be in a wedding 2 days later in Southern Oregon, we decided to make that into a trip. We left a day early and headed to Grants Pass.  Note: Grants Pass is a washed-up town! Most of the town is full of empty buildings.  They did have an awesome wine-bar that we went to for our anniversary dinner (and the food was amazing too!).  The next day we went to the kitchen store which was also great, besides that, I can't recommend anything else.  Our hotel/lodge was highly rated on yelp but it was only so-so.  Plenty clean and friendly but just a bit cheesy.

The hotel/hunting lodge?

Looking for lunch, we happen upon a brewery - Chad thinks it's fate.

Great view and outside seating!

 The wedding was at Buckhorn Springs Resort (a small private resort facility).  We had our own mini-cabin. It was a single room with a kitchen.  The shared bathroom was down the pathway. The first night we stayed there we went to a rehearsal dinner and then a welcome party nearby (both in the town of Ashland, Or  - known for it's Shakespeare festival).  The next day I went out with a few of the girls back to town to see the shops while the guys were setting up (we also got lunch, to be useful!).  In the afternoon was the wedding:

Chad was one of the groomsmen.

We had the first small cabin, the bathhouse is at the end.

The reception on the lawn.

In my party dress, waiting for the dancing!

 Buckhorn Springs has a history of being a medicinal resort (you can read more here http://buckhornsprings.org/buck-history/history/the-tolman-years-1890/).  The reason stems from it's Carbon Dioxide springs which you can see bubbling up in the stream in this picture.