Fall Fun

 Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit and we were able to enjoy fall activities at Thomasson Family farm in Enumclaw WA.  

 

 

She thought it was crazy that grandpa was asking her to pose with an ear of corn.  I love her expression here.

 

 

 Milking a cow

 

 Corn box is always a favorite.

 

 Slinging apples into the field

Avery recently learned Cat's cradle and has been playing non stop.  Thankfully Grandma knows how to play and can do the left pinkie grab.  I fail at that one every time.

 

 They decided to try on old costumes.  I guess they grew a little in the last 5 years!

 

 Avery 4 years old and Alia 1 1/2 years

Birthday Adventures!

 Another amazing birthday cake to go down in the books.  Scott found this recipe in a chocolate cook book we bought at an estate sale.  The cake was similar to a reine de saba because it was more fudge like than cake like.  The center was a combination of white chocolate and cream.  

 Nice picture- I said,"Let's take a picture of the cake before we eat it."  Apparently that meant let's eat the cake now because they both tried to stick their fingers in it.  

 On Saturday we drove to the Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest to hike Granite mountain.  We hiked 3,800 feet over four miles to get to the peak of Granite mountain.  It was rated difficult which we didn't realize until we got home.  In total it took us around 3.5 hours to climb to the top and then 2 hours to hike back down.  It was an 8 mile round trip hike.  We wondered why so many adults we saw on the trail kept commenting on how strong our kids were.  One lady even stopped and said, "Wow, you rarely see kids on this trail."  Avery and Alia did an amazing job.  I guess this is the trail most people hike to train for Rainer.  

 Once we made it closer to the top the views were amazing!

 Time to refuel.

 I love how intense Venus's face is here, she just wants Avery's snack.

 

 

Maia is really a mountain goat.  She loves climbing trees!

 

School is here!

 Yesterday we enjoyed our last official day of summer and went canoeing at Raab's Lagoon.  The kids really wanted to try out our inflatable raft we bought years ago so we towed them behind. 

 Once we finished canoeing the kids each had a turn on their own paddling the raft.

 Today was our first day back to school.  Alia is in first grade this year and is in the multiage program with Mrs. Wilson.  She is in a classroom with 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders.  She will stay with this group of 1st graders for the next three years.  She will also have the same teacher for 2nd and 3rd.  Her teacher this year is retiring after the school year is over.  She absolutely loved school and kept saying, "It was the best day ever!"  Her favorite part today was working with her third grade buddy and making a tin-foil tube.  She was also ecstatic that she answered the science questions right when the teacher asked why the tin foil ball fell faster than the tinfoil tube.  

She lost another tooth yesterday.

 Avery is in 3rd grade this year with Mrs.Wilke.  Despite all of his reservations he had he was in good spirits this morning.  He said he was excited to see how the day went.  His favorite part was of course recess so he could run around and gym class because he got to exercise.  

We started soccer last week.  This is their first year.  Avery wasn't too excited at first because there were a lot of players that had been in for a few years and were really good.  He did enjoy the scrimmage on Friday. 


 Alia loves soccer and is a very determined girl.  She loves to practice soccer and wants to get better and better.

Yearly Picture Update

Bubble Run!

 We joined 20,000 people today in Everett to run the 5k Bubble run.  

 

 She was so excited and so very competitive.  She didn't want to stop running the whole 3 miles.  Every time she would see someone in front of her she would say, "Oh they can't beat us Mom!"

 There were 6 different bubble machines through out the run.  Each shoot had so many bubbles!

 We made it through!  Alia would just giggle.

 The bubbles were so high I had to hold hands with the kids so I didn't lose them.