Weekend Away

Hi everyone,

Mom and Dad spent last weekend tucked away on an island all by themselves. Well, I guess they weren't really on an island all by themselves, but they were there without me which says a whole lot. It was a late celebration of their anniversary as well as mom's date to run her marathon. It sounds like they had a pretty good time, minus the super sore knees and terrible finish time. I spent the weekend with Grandma and had a lot of fun. 

Saying good-bye!

 Some of the views from the ferry ride.

Once they landed, they had a bit of time to walk around the city and grab a bite of lunch before checking into the B&B and going out for a carb load dinner.

Not the B&B!

 

 

And the after dinner view . . .

I'll tell you about Mom's marathon in my next post. I'm sure she would rather I didn't, but too bad for her because I am going to anyway.


Until next time . . .

Valley Farm Tour

Hi everyone,

Every year around this time many of our local farms open up their businesses and welcome us in to show us what they do. We have a few farms that we like to visit every year (even though they always have the same stuff), and then we also try to throw in a new one or one we haven't been to in a few years. This time it was tough because we had to squeeze the visits in around a birthday party, church, and a very busy weekend. Even with all that, we managed to sneak in a hay ride, some cow milking and petting, some eating, some alpaca petting, some crab buying, and some tractor riding. Whew! That makes me tired just typing it all out.

Here it is in picture form:

You can call me the "cow whisperer".

Awwwww, what a cute little itty-bitty baby cow.

Run away cow and little boy blue!

Perfect milking form - feet flat and close together, knees bent, back straight, arms straight, head tucked into udder.

Family tractor ride!

Hopping onto the tractor . . .

Shifting into gear . . .

Whoa, Nelly! (This is one of mom's favorite pictures!)

Until next time . . .

September, Come and Gone?

Hi everyone,

Whoa! It is October already? I can't believe that these last couple of weeks have flown by this quickly. It has been a whirlwind at our house, or so it seems from the lack of my updated posts.

The last weekend in September was a pretty big one for our family. Little girl, who had been living with us for exactly 18 weeks, went to her new placement. She is not going back to her family yet because there are still things that need to be done, but she did go to a new family who plans to keep her indefinitely until she is able to go back home. That has been a huge stress reliever around this household, that is for sure.

The other big thing is that we celebrated my great-grandpa's life and passing. Mom's grandpa passed away at the beginning of the week and we were able to head down on Saturday to be with family and attend his memorial services. We knew this was coming but it is always still hard to have a loved one die. What is kind of neat about it is that he passed away exactly 9 years to the day that his wife went to heaven. How cool is that, 9 years later on the exact same day!

The blue truck you see me clutching in my photo above is the one from his collection that I get to keep as a remembrance of him. I fell asleep on the way home from the funeral and Dad couldn't resist getting a picture of me before waking me up. I think part of the reason is that he wanted to document on camera that I do still fall asleep in the car because it doesn't happen very often!

Until next time . . . (and I really will update sooner than a few weeks this time!)

Crown Me a King

Hi everyone,

Grandma got me a subscription to a great kids magazine called Highlights. Mom remembers getting these when she was a kid too and was pretty excited about it! She liked the hidden picture activities the best as a kid but I have enjoyed the articles that are in the magazine.

Last edition there was an article about baking banana bread so Mom worked with me to make a loaf of almond banana bread. This time Dad worked with me on the task of making a crown. We went through the directions together and sat at the table going step by step. Dad made one for mom (it says super mommy) and I made my very own.

Ta da!

Until next time . . .

Bike Camping

 Hi everyone,

We did a modified bike camping trip to finish off our summer activities. The reason it was modified is because we ended up having the dog because we seemed to have forgotten to make arrangements for her until the last minutes. Oops!

Our original plan was to have all four of us bike out to the state park carrying our gear, set up and sleep there that night, and then pack up and bike back in the next day. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise that we didn't end up doing that. Mom pulled little girl in the trailer about 21 miles before we met her coming the opposite direction. We had already driven out to the campsite and dropped our gear before making our way to meet her. We all biked the 7 miles back together and set up camp. Mom was definitely beat after pulling the trailer through some pretty thick gravel on the trail. She was glad that she didn't have to bike back and got to drive us kids home in the truck. She did see some beautiful views though!

After eating dinner at the local pizza joint and having a small campfire we all hit the hay. The next morning us kids ate our breakfast while Mom and Dad broke camp. Dad hightailed it back home on the bike so he could get his ride in while Mom drove us home and got us ready for church. It turned out to be a pretty fun trip!

Until next time . . .

Gardening Guru's

Hi everyone,

Summer is winding to a close and so is our garden. Our pumpkins are going like gangbusters, taking over the squash which I never thought could happen (you know how out of control squash and zucchini are), but just about everything else is dwindling down to the last items for harvesting.

We did get a few raspberry starts from a friend so we are waiting to see if they are going to like our soil as much as our other fruits and veggies and dig right in to make themselves at home.

Doesn't our dog recuperate nicely? In case you missed it, our dog had surgery on her tail. Yes, I know her tail has always been short like that, and no that wasn't it. Do you see the bare patch and the sutures? She had a tumor removed off her tail. It kept breaking open and bleeding so Mom and Dad thought it should get taken off. Her surgery went well and now she is just taking it easy waiting to get the stitches out.

And in case you forgot, last week was our first week of school and everything went well. I love preschool! My favorite part is still recess but there are a lot of other fun things about it too. I'm excited for my first full week (you know last week was a short week with the holiday and all)!

And just so you don't think that all my time is spent learning, check out what I built the other day. A road made with cars! Who would have thought something like that was possible?

 

Until next time . . .

First Day of School

Hi everyone,

Today was my first day of preschool! Yep, you heard that right. For those of you who don't know, I am going to preschool this year for 3 hours in the morning 4 days a week at the Catholic school. Why you ask am I going to preschool instead of doing preschool at home like last year? Let's see if this picture can help you out:

In case you don't recognize that door, it is Mom's old classroom. Or maybe I should say her new classroom. Or maybe I should say her old classroom that is her new classroom because she is going back to teaching in the exact same room, teaching with the exact same teacher, and teaching the exact same grade.

(Sorry this is a little blurry. Mom didn't have the flash on.)

I had a special first day breakfast of waffles, strawberries, and homemade whipped cream. Both Mom and Dad got to drop me off for my first day. I had so much fun! When Mom asked what my favorite part of the day was I told her it was recess. Those giant tires were a blast! After preschool we went to one of my favorite restaurants to have lunch. It was a great day all around!

(This one is a little blurry too.)

Tomorrow is Mom's first day of school. I hope she has as much fun on her first day as I did on mine!

Until next time . . .