Weekend Scenes

Who me?  Climb up here?  Never!

Yogurt Bread

Leaf wrestling/snuggling

Finally cutting that summer hair - with a little help from Mr. Rogers

M picked these for me from our yard.

Doing the Pumpkin Patch Thing

It isn't really fall if you don't take your kid(s) to a pumpkin patch, right?  Last year, we went to a little farm nearby.  This year, I sweet-talked my husband into taking us over to Greenbluff.  Then, during the week, M and I tagged along on a home-school field trip through I-DEA (Idaho Distance Education Academy) with some of our older, home-schooling friends. 

Greenbluff is a cooperative of farms north of Spokane, WA.  It's a pretty popular place in the fall - you can pick pumpkins and apples, (probably other stuff too!), picnic, check out the farm animals, etc..  There are several different farms, and they've all got something going on.

We started at Knapp's Farm.  We told M we were going to a farm, and he seemed very excited and like he was looking forward to seeing farm animals.

Well, bless his heart, the "punkin' chunkin"* gun was a little bit too scary for him.  Even though it wasn't very loud!  I think it was just the anticipation of the unknown. Poor little guy.

So, we spent most of our time there looking at the tractors (which he loved), having our picnic and pushing around a little toy car.  They had tons and tons of pumpkins, but M did not want to pick one, so we didn't.  We drove around the area and checked out the other farms, but by the middle of the day, it just seemed like a zoo for parking and too crowded for us.

 The area is  very pretty, with lots of gentleman farm-style homes and rolling hills up against the mountains.  Since M fell asleep in the car, we drove up to Mt. Spokane to check out their ski area.  There were lots of cyclists biking the road down from Mt. Spokane, and the foliage was beautiful, even though it was kind of foggy and rainy out by this time.  It looks like a nice place to hike, with some good views of maybe Spirit Lake or Twin Lakes?

In all, it was not a bad day for a little adventure in Washington.

Carver Farm is closer to CdA.  It doesn't have a scary cannon, and I don't think it has any farm animals either.  This time, M had a great time running around in the field, picking up the little pumpkins and walking through the corn maze.  Maybe he liked it more because his friends were there?   He got to bring home a mini pumpkin, 2 gourds, and 2 tiny pumpkins.  Apparently, on the weekend, they have free tractor rides too.  I KNOW M would love that!

So, we can cross the pumpkin patch off our list for the year! 

How sweet is this picture?  Love him!

*I just cannot bring myself to actually pronounce "pumpkin" like "punkin."  I guess I am a grammar snob after all.  But this is what people call it, so there you go.
 

Nature Walk/Back to English Point

We hiked a new-to-us trail at English Point this weekend.

 Three miles was a long way for our little runner.

 But I think you can tell he loved it!

Have a wonderful week, friends.

Thanksgiving is Right Around the Corner!

Hi there!

It's been a busy, but great week.  We got our fingerprints taken again today to update our adoption home study. We have sent out revised adoption portfolios to our attorney in Washington and to the local agency.  So, we continue to wait, and pray!

In the meantime, we'll be hosting a "southern style" Thanksgiving.  We are having two families come over and both of my girlfriends are transplanted Southerners like me, so it should be fun and full of butter!  There will be 7 kids age 6 and under so we are hoping for chaos.

I'm making the turkey, gravy, potatoes, mac & cheese and an apple pie.  My hardworking husband loves apple pie, so you know I aim to please.  Is mac & cheese a standard Thanksgiving dish?  We never had it when I was growing up, but I made a Pioneer Woman recipe last year and really liked it, so I am planning to make it again, even though my friend's young daughter declared that it was merely "interesting."  I've asked my friends what they want to bring.  If no one volunteers to make green bean casserole or corn casserole, I might make those too.  I loved making these dishes with my mom and sisters growing up, so they are "must-haves" for me!

We frequently hosted Thanksgiving when I was growing up, so I have fond memories of cooking all day with my mom and sisters, and then eating outside at one big table with the extended family.  That's one of the benefits of Thanksgiving in Florida - you can eat outside with a gorgeous view of the river! 

We go around the table with the usual "what are you thankful for" but also other questions like "what do you want to be when you grow up" (best answer was from my nephew who was 4 and said he wanted to drive ships like his Dad), advice for the cousin graduating from college or advice for the cousin getting married (my Uncle advised D that year that "we all come with her!") 

We also went to NYC and watched the parade for several years.  That was a ton of fun too - I got up early with my mom and her two sisters to stake out our spot on the parade route, we played football in Central Park and shopped, of course!  We've also had our share of sadness at Thanksgiving - my Uncle died on Thanksgiving Day 2003, actually en route to the family gathering that year.  It was tragic and we all continue to miss him, but I am so thankful for the great memories of him that I have.  I'll definitely be thinking of all of our family spread across America this Thanksgiving, and thankful for our many blessings.

How will you be celebrating your Thanksgiving?  I hope you have a great weekend!

Happy Halloween!

How was your Halloween?

Our little snow leopard, with me trying to run out of the photo!

The last few years, I just haven't been big on Halloween.  It was fun to dress up in college and law school, but before this year, we always lived in condos or a busy street that no one really trick-or-treated on.  Plus I don't like all the skull and crossbones/ gory types of decorations that seems to be all over the place now!

We grew up in a very rural area so we never had very many trick or treaters come to our house, but I always loved putting up the silly little cartoonish decorations - we didn't do the scary stuff.  W did always have cute costumes and there is this great old home video that my parents have with my sisters jumping up and down dressed as a unicorn and a bumblebee and all of us acting like crazies.  Makes me laugh just to think about it!

But this year, we actually had more than 2 groups come by our house!  Pretty funny that we had to move to a small town in Idaho to have the traditional trick or treating experience!

Posing with our hedgehog friend that my mom sent!  M likes to pet him.

We took M over to our neighbor's house so he could say "boo" and they could see him in his cute little costume.  On our walks around the neighborhood, I taught him that if he sees a ghost, he has to yell "boo" so he has been getting a lot of practice.  Then we went back home and he loved watching people come to the door and waving bye to them.  It was fun.  I was kind of surprised that there were some big kids who came by the house - my friend says she just flat out tells them that "this should be your last year trick or treating."  Hah!  Harsh, huh?  

It was also fun to watch Dan keep telling the kids, hey take more, take one of each.  We were really committed to getting all of the candy out of the house!  He said his parents used to keep track of how many trick or treaters they had.  One year when I was growing up, we had a big Halloween party and my uncle turned one room into a haunted house and really went all out.  So I guess I do like Halloween after all!

I loved this explanation about Halloween on this website:  http://catholicicing.com/explaining-halloween-to-catholic-kids-how-it-goes-with-all-saints-day-or-all-hallows-eve/

I'm going to bookmark this to use when M is older!

I would love to hear about other fun Halloween traditions, please share!  

Trail of Terror 5k Race Report

Saturday I did the Trail of Terror 5k with M in the stroller -- our first stroller race!

There was a 1/2 marathon option too.  Considering he was yelling "All done" when we still had a quarter mile left to go in the 5k, I think we made the right choice by not running the longer distance. =)

This was a fun race.  The weather was perfect - cool and crisp and the race is out on country roads that back up to the mountains so it can't be beat.  People dress up in costumes, so M wore his Leopard costume.  He was a fan favorite of course, and it kept him warm too!

Staying warm in the car before the race

We finished under 30 minutes (barely) which I was glad to see, but my mile #2 was pretty slow.  There was another lady pushing a jogging stroller too and she and I kept passing each other on the long uphill during the second mile.  I'm sure we were quite a sight, and she had a dog with her too!  I was impressed.  I was dragging on the uphill and even walked for a minute or two so I tried to let it loose on the downhill.  Happy with my 8:35 mile #3!

Pre-race snuggles!

 We got a fun key chain and a growler at the finish line, along with a bunch of Halloween candy.  You can tell I don't drink beer much because I didn't even know what a growler was.  1/2 marathon finishers also got a medal.

Post-race, trying to catch my breath!

A fun race with a nice and chill post race party.  M and I shared some pizza, watched the awards and listened to the music at the after party.  He also enjoyed running around after the race, hopefully he'll want to do his own 5k some day!  I  really liked this race - we'll be back next year!

Gorgeous North Idaho!

Hayden Lake Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K

Last weekend I ran the first annual Hayden Lake 10k with my runner girlfriends!  What fun!

This was the first year for the Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k.  The full marathon goes all the way around the lake!  I'd like to do it one day, but for this year we settled for the 10k distance.

It was a ton of fun - a gorgeous course that climbs up gently in the first half, has a steep downhill around the halfway point and then rolls gently along the lake shore back to the start line.  The 10k started at 9 (the longer distances at 7 am) so it was still a little chilly at the start, but we warmed up pretty quickly as we climbed the hills.  We started out slowly, chatting along the way and admiring the views.  There wasn't much traffic along the roads and there were plenty of volunteers holding traffic at a few spots.  I know some folks had written in to the local paper to complain about the race, but at least for the 10k, we didn't see much car traffic, so I don't think we impeded the folks driving along the road all that much.

About halfway through the race, we turned down a sharp downhill and at this point I lost my friends because I just let the hill take me down.  This probably wasn't the most responsible way to run, but all I could say was "whee!" and be glad that I didn't trip and fall and roll right into the lake!  Then it was flat to gently rolling back to the starting line down at Honeysuckle Beach.  I finished in a hour, so I was pleased considering that I hadn't done any specific training and didn't study the course beforehand.  I set out to have a fun experience, and that is what it was.

The 10k was super scenic, so I know the other distances were too.  The half marathon runs through some very pretty neighborhoods on the northwestern side of the lake, and we all agreed that we wanted to train for that distance next year.

The finisher shirts were awesome, and the half and full marathon finishers got some cool medals.  They had plenty of food at the finish, including three different kinds of delicious soup and free Qdoba!  (Yeah, I kind of stuffed myself after the race!)  And yes, we waited an hour after we finished for our free food, haha!  But we got to watch the half marathoners and full marathoners finishing and that was super inspiring!

Modeling my finisher t-shirt!  Half marathoners and full marathoners got long sleeve shirts.

I also have to mention that this race is a bargain - we paid $25 as the late registration for the 10k.  I think the longer distances were good prices too.  I only heard one half marathon finisher mention that the first aid station was at mile 6 and she wished it had been earlier.

This was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning!  I hope to make this an annual event!

Prairie Home Farms

Last week I took M to Prairie Home Farms with some friends.  This was our first trip to a pumpkin patch and animal farm.

He had a lot of fun wandering among the corn stalks and the pumpkins.  He is kind of a wanderer/explorer, so he probably would have been happy to do this all day!

Reenacting a scene from "Ollie's Halloween" - one of our favorite fall books!

We also saw some goats, pigs, geese, chickens, horses, bunnies and a turkey.  The pigs were huge and he was a little bit afraid of them and VERY scared of the horses, poor thing!  He didn't want anything to do with the horses and burst into tears when they stuck their noses over the fence.  But he had a blast looking at the geese and was squawking back at them, it was pretty cute to see.  He also liked chasing the farm cat around, but his all time favorite activity was pulling the little red wagons.  He is a little people mover, for sure! 

The owner charges $2 admission, $3 for a bag of animal feed and .30/lb for pumpkins.  We didn't get any animal food because I wasn't sure he would want to feed the critters, this ended up being a good decision.  I also didn't buy any pumpkins because I am a cheapo and will only pay .09/lb at the Super 1 sale.  =)  It was a fun, beautiful morning - great to be outside!

More Fall Colors

I can't get enough of the beautiful leaves this year!  Here are a few more shots from our walks:

In our neighborhood.  Anyone want to buy that house and live down the street from us?

My guys on our after dinner walk.  Doesn't M look cozy?

Enough with the stroller!  I want to walk!

I hope you are enjoying a beautiful season too!

Weekend Adventures/Fall in the Inland Northwest!

Weekends are the best!

The view near where Lake CdA feeds into the Spokane River

 We had a such a great relaxing weekend.  M and I went for a short and easy stroller run on Saturday morning.  It was gorgeous out, and we got side-tracked checking out the neighborhood garage sales, but it was really nice to get him out into the fresh air.

Nice paved trails in our area

Later we went over to Spokane Valley so we could go to Hobby Lobby.  I am looking for some things to finish decorating M's room, but they didn't have what I needed so that was kind of a bummer.  We did pick up Five Guys for dinner, which made up for my failed attempt at retail therapy. =)

On Sunday we went for an awesome family bike ride along the river.  The leaves are starting to change - it seems that we get more yellow/gold than red but it is just lovely.  We didn't make it all the way into downtown, but we stopped for lunch at the Fort Ground Grill.  The food was fine but nothing special, but it had a nice casual atmosphere that is appealing to us.  Plus, M and I enjoyed watching football on the TV (since we never get to do that at home, ha!).

M fell asleep in the trailer on the way home, poor little guy couldn't make it all the way home before naptime took over.  We went to the Sunday night service at our church.  We have never been to it before, but they play contemporary-style music which reminded me of my Agape (pre-Catholic) days back in college!  Poor M was falling apart by this time though because it was too close to bedtime and he had such a short nap, so we probably won't be attending this service all that often - the 10:30 usually works much better in this stage of life!

Prince Charming.  At Church he is getting very good at loudly proclaiming "AMEN!" whenever he feels like it!

Riding through the North Idaho College campus

How was your weekend?  Does my weekend sound incredibly boring?  Who cares, I loved it!