Happy Hall-OW-ween!

We went to the annual Halloween party put on by the karate school last night. Joel and I were helping clean up post party so the boys went out to play on the swings. Short while later, the boys reappeared, Noah lecturing Oliver and Oliver crying. Turns out that Oliver either fell out of the swing or tried to jump out of the swing (both done many times before) and landed hard on his arm/shoulder/face. It wasn't swollen or bruised just sore so we iced it off and on last night. Oliver woke up crying saying that his arm still hurt, after some probing and poking I narrowed it down to a small but VERY sore spot on his arm just above his wrist. I talked with Joel and we decided to go ahead and bring him into the same day clinic. Xrays show that he does indeed have a small fracture, in one of his bones, just above the wrist. It is just splinted for the weekend with the possibility of a cast later. Tylenol, if necessary, to help with the pain, ice, elevated arm and rest are in order today.

Tallow

Some may not find tallow a.k.a. rendered fat very exciting but I do! Check out this blog contest and enter to win a bucket of fat! Just think of the tasty things I or you could fry up and I could finally try to make my soap with tallow! We've talked about rendering our own fat from our grass fed beef but I just don't see it happening anytime soon. Anyway, go check it out and enter to win and hey, even if you don't want a bucket of tallow, I know someone who does. ;)

Illahee Walk-A-Thon

The annual Illahee Walk-A-Thon is back! The money raised will directly benefit the school - paying for field trips, art discovery, playground equipment, passport club and many many more. Pledges can be collected until 11/4/09. If you would like to sponsor Noah during this fundraiser please email me or leave me a comment. You can sponsor per lap or make a flat donation.

On a side note, I would just like to say that I LOVE Noah's school. They have some incredible programs and great sense of community. The PTA works very hard at making sure these programs are not cut due to budget constraints.

Brandon Turns 4!!

Happy Birthday Brandon!

We love you very much and wish we could have been there for your party.

Noah heard you liked dinosaurs so he drew you this card...

These will be late because Auntie Tiff wasn't feeling well this week but they will be mailed on Monday...gives you something to look forward to.

Lakeview Farms Pumpkin Patch

Joel took today off, well technically he took Monday and Tuesday off too but that was to care for me and Oliver. We don't know if it was officially the H1N1 but it was not fun. Luckily there were no stomach ailments just high fevers, body aches and pains, chills and now a lingering cold. We never got sick enough to warrant a trip to the doctor but we were definitely out of it for a few days. Back on the mend and ready for some quality family time we met up with Uncle Ben and headed out to Lakeview Farms Pumpkin Patch. Amy Vining, the gal that will be doing portraits of the boys on Sunday, posted some pictures to her photography blog of a family session she did out at this farm. I checked it out and decided to try a new place this year. Turns out that it's a really fun place. It's not as large as some that we've visited in the past but lots of fun. You pay $4 and that buys you a ticket to ride the train or the boat out to the pumpkin patch then you ride the opposite back in, train out, boat in or boat out, train in. The boys loved both rides but I think the boat ride won out just a little bit because of the lake monsters and sharks that rise up from the water as the boat(s) go by. The pumpkins had a rough, rough year though so we only came home with a couple of ghost (white) pumpkins. After the ride out to the pumpkin patch we decided to try our hand at the corn maze...


My how my boys have grown this year!

It was not busy at all today. We got to ride the train out to the field with just one other family then we had the boat all to ourselves on the way back in. The boys were a bit chilly but they enjoyed the ride on the train and asked when we were putting one in our yard.

Joel and Ben trying to stay warm on the ride out.

Again, it was hard to find nice pumpkins in the field but I did some nice photo opportunities.

Noah can make me laugh! A little jig on the bales of hay while Oliver looks on. Good thing Noah is flexible because he would have blown out a knee with this move.

The shark spraying water at the boys on the boat ride back in.

My family makes me smile.

Into the maze we go!

Oliver running to catch up.

There were 5 stations in the maze that you could find and stamp your ticket with. If you found all five then you would get a prize at the end. We found 2 then Ben had to head to the rink for a meeting. Oliver was getting tired of looking at corn at this point so the 3 of us exited. Joel and Noah stayed in for a while longer but only found 1 more.

Another shot of one of the boats heading out to the field.

Joel and Noah on the platform in the middle of the maze.

Arrrgh, a skeleton! Oh wait, just a scrawny boy, I swear I feed him.

A farmstead in the distance.

Lego Rover

Here is a video of Noah explaining his newest Lego creation...let me just say that this kid can come up with some pretty cool stuff. This is a small, not very complicated creation because I gave the boys about 3 minutes to put something together before I would come in and judge their creations.

Then the boys decided to make themselves some Lego bling.
I found this quite amusing.

Need Inspiration

In case you need some inspiration to grab your camera and head out into this fall weather, you should really check out Beth's blog. She's done three posts now of pictures she took using her macro lens. Even though all are gorgeous, this one is my favorite...go, look, be inspired. I was.

Harvest Party

We had our harvest party dinner with the garden families Saturday night. It was a lot of fun to get together with everyone. The kids could swim before dinner if they wanted, we had a HUGE potluck dinner, huge as in way too much food kind of huge, and then they kids got to go harvest all the pumpkins. We had about 20 adults and 15 kids there that night.

I agreed to let Noah, Trevor and Oliver swim but I was not about to go in. The pool felt awesome at 85 degrees but the day was chilly and I was freezing, no way I was getting in the water. Even though they won't admit it was cold, their blue lips told the truth!

Oliver jumping off the diving board.

Noah's turn to go.

Trevor had some stylin' moves in the air!

Not sure how I got this picture, I believe they sat for all of 3 1/2 seconds to eat before they were up and running again.

The kids in our pumpkin patch.

"This one's mine."

Claiming his pumpkin.

Poor Trevor, at this time, was still feeling a bit woozy from the multiple G's he was pulling on the tire swing!

Trevor and Lloyd

My sis was down here dropping some horses off, she detoured off of I-205 just long enough to drop Trevor and Lloyd off at our house. The boys had a great time this weekend. They were exhausted by Sunday afternoon...

Quick trip to the train park to burn off some energy.
I yelled at them like they were in trouble and took a picture really fast.
They didn't find it at amusing as I did.

Lloyd, Oliver and I hung back here while Trevor and Noah ran up as close as I would let them. I'm sure they were scheming a way onto that train.

Oh, there you are Lo-lo.

The boys go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah!

If you can't swim like a salmon then you run!

Bunny Butt

Zoo

My sister and her boy, Trevor hadn't been to the zoo in quite a while. Shana brought some horses back to Oregon this weekend and dropped Trevor off on her way through. I suggested a trip to the zoo before they headed back home and they agreed! I called my friend, Amy, who is a zookeeper at the Oregon Zoo and she agreed to meet up with us and let us see a couple of the animals up close and personal. My brother, Ben also joined us today, it was a really nice day and fun to get us all together.

Here we all are, crammed around the little window, saying hi to Akeem. He was a bit unsure having all 8 of us standing there staring at him but he still managed to grab a few treats. It was fun to climb up the stairs and see him at eye level.

Tiff, Ollie, Noah, Trevor, Ben and Amy...I could have stayed there for quite a while just staring at that TALL creature.

We then got to go see Judi the Agouti, Amy fed her a few grapes while the boys got to pet her. Judi is getting up there in age and can't see very well, the smell of the grapes kept her close.

We let the boys feed the Lorikeets again today.

Somehow, I manged to get this shot of the three of them, all looking at me and all not making goofy faces. It was a chilly, sunny, fun day at the zoo today.

Driving the 'S' Unit

The River 'S' Unit is a 4.2 mile auto tour route in the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. The idea being that you use your vehicle as your personal observation blind. Of course we told the boys that they could unbuckle and move about the back seat so our vehicle also became our personal wrestling cage. We went late afternoon in early October, there was plenty of wildlife to see but I can imagine that during other times of the year, there is more wildlife than your eyes could take in. You may have to click on the picture to getter a bigger/better view of what we were seeing...until I get my zoom lens anyway.

Slime covered Nutria - shockingly, the boys loved this. This was a slough of sorts or maybe a large irrigation/overflow ditch that ran next to the road. Parts of it were very still and the algae took advantage!

I handed Joel the camera because this scene was on his side of the car and said, "take a picture." He did and this is what he got, it's one of my favorites from the day.

Look! It's a goofball!

There is one point along the auto route that you can actually get out of your vehicle and walk into an actual blind. This little guy greeted us when we got there.

'Heron' the wildlife refuge you see quite a few of these beauties.

Hawk's eye view.

Where's the Western Painted Turtle?

Seriously, my heart skips a beat, this is gorgeous, and lucky for me I can tune out the rambunctious boys in the back seat long enough to enjoy it and snap a picture too.

I'm going to have to take binoculars and a bird identification book with me next time.

It's hard to get these hunters on camera, just when you think you've got the shot, they dive and swoop out of the shot.