Greenbluff

On Wednesday, the kids and I joined my neighbor, Lisa, and her daughter, Marissa for an outing to Greenbluff. The month of October is Harvest Festival. At 9:30 am we drove the 20 minutes to Greenbluff and met up with our MOPS group at Knapp Farms. The weather was beautiful. Blue sky and sunshine, but a bit chilly. The kids were bundled up as they experienced the "Punkin Chunkin" (an air cannon that launches pumpkins really really high into the air only to let them go kerplop into the adjacent field), the straw maze, the farm animals, and of course the pumpkin patch.

Little Pumpkin (Natalie) sits inside the tractor wheel

Henry driving the old tractor

We left our group a little early and headed to another farm. We went to High Country Orchards and had a delightful lunch as the kids played on the playgrounds and ran through the fields. Then we headed to Harvest House for some ice cream and apple cider (and a few pics with the pumpkins).

Sitting on the straw bales outside of High Country

These pumpkins are mine!

What I thought was going to be a quick outing to the farms ended up being an all-day field trip. The kids and I were exhausted when we got home around 3 pm. Just in time for all of us to take our afternoon naps. Yippee!

Marissa, Henry and Natalie going for a wagon ride

Weekend in Seattle

This last weekend we all flew to Seattle so that I could partake in my high school reunion festivities. What a great time weekend for all of us. The weather was just beautiful in Seattle especially this time of year.

Henry welcoming us to Remlinger (it's hard to see him, I know)

On Saturday Daryl, the kids and I went with my sis and her family to Remlinger Farms, at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Remlinger is like a miniature version of Knotts Berry Farm. It's perfect for the harvest festival. They have pony rides, a corn maze. Pick your own pumpkin, a train ride, and of course mini carnival rides including a roller coaster, ferris wheel and spinning pumpkins. It's perfect for small children. They also have a huge country store and restuarant serving their specialty, home made pies! Yum! We spent the morning doing the various activities, which the kids all thoroughly enjoyed.

Hanging with the pumpkins

In the afternoon, Daryl, the kids and I went to my girlfriend, Jen's house for a little prefunctioning before the high school reunion. There were 4 of us that were pretty close in high school, and we were all able to get toghether. It was fun catching up. And all of the kids played really well together. Then, all of us girls headed out to our reunion. We thought it would be more fun to do a "girl's night out" since our hubby's didn't even go to our high school. The reunion was at the Emerald Downs. It was really fun. We were in a large room with big tv screens for watching the horse races (and other sports), there was a no host bar, and of course a light dinner buffet. It all came together very nicely. It was really good to see some old faces from high school. Everyone who attended looked great and seemed to be having a wonderful time. I made a comment that 10 years is too long to get together, and somehow I ended up in charge of coordinating a 25 year reunion. Hmmmm... I guess I have my work cut out for me. I will make it really simple...in 5 years, the reunion will be a pool party at my house in Spokane (I don't think many people will come). I will have to work on this one.

Thanks to my friend Jen (standing center) for putting these pics together. Top pic is from high school. Bottom pic is 20 years later.

DeMarle at home

Since I've become a PartyLite candle consultant, I have actually been going to a lot of home parties including Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, CAbi, and Cookie Lee. My favorite so far is DeMarle. It is cook and bakeware made from silicone with spun glass inside. You have probably heard of Silpat baking sheets? They are amazing. Cookies and breads bake so evenly and come right off, no need to grease the pans. I really like the Fleximolds. I made some brownies earlier this week and they were so moist and chewy....yum! I just used a box brownie mix and omitted the oil completely. I filled my ungreased muffin tray (it's a small size in between a regular cupcake/muffin tin and the mini size....just perfect for little kids) and the brownie muffins just popped right out. It's the coolest thing ever. If you have a chance to observe a party (or "Rendezvous" as they are called by DeMarle), please do. It is amazing stuff and super easy cooking and cleaning.

Wordless Wednesday: Say Cheeeeese

Just because...

I came home from scrapbooking with my girlfriend and was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a sweet card on the kitchen table. Daryl and and kids went shopping for flowers when I was gone. How sweet they all are. I love my family!

Broadway Series

We have renewed our subscriber tickets to the Best of Broadway series musicals again this year. This marks our 9th year of doing so. Daryl and I have enjoyed dressing up once every couple of months and heading downtown to the Opera House (or I guess it is now called the Performing Arts Center) and watching a show. The first year we had tickets, the shows were big, including Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera. We usually have 4-5 shows a season. Well, last night we started again and watched Phantom of the Opera. It has come full circle but this time our seats were much better! We really enjoyed the show even though we have seen it 3 or 4 times. It's wonderful. I think everyone should have a chance to see it or any Broadway type musical/show. It's very entertaining, and we thoroughly enjoy it!

Scrapbook Time

I have been scrapbooking photo albums for about 10 years now and always find myself more behind than current. My friend, Susie, and I will get together once in a while and devote an entire day to work on our albums. I just came back from her house and was pleasantly surprised at how much I actually got accomplished. I am almost done with my 2007 album and it is only the middle of October 2008. I still have quite a bit of work ahead of me (like the entire 2008 year) but it gives me something to look forward too.

Nana and Papa's visit

My parents came over to visit at the end of September. We haven't seen them since June when we went to Seattle, so it has been a couple of months. Of course they haven't seen Natalie walking and were amazed at her stature and speed (little miss independent, I tell you). Henry and Natalie enjoyed their visit with Nana and Papa. Although it was a short weekend, the weather was great and we all enjoyed playing outside and just hanging out. We will be heading back to Seattle in the middle of October to see my folks before they head down to Arizona for the winter. And then we probably won't see them until February when we visit them in sunny, warm AZ. It is a long time in between visits, but at least the kids do know who their grandparents are and they really love being with their Nana and Papa.

Henry plays baseball with Papa (even though Papa is out of the picture...oops)

Nana and Natalie

Grandparents and grandkids

The Fair

Back in September, we went to the Spokane Interstate Fair. Daryl got off work early one Tuesday and we enjoyed the afternoon browsing all the fair stuff. Of course our fair is not overly big so we were able to see just about everything before the kids expired. Henry enjoyed the train ride and the historical train museum. Natalie liked looking at all the animals. Of course we ate fair food (I'm a sucker for funnel cakes) and Henry was finally big enough to go on a the kiddie land rides. It was actually an enjoyable time for all of us.

Henry and Mommy on the train ride

Henry riding the dune buggy

Our Family Vacation

We enjoyed our week long family vacation at Priest Lake, ID this year. Every year since we have been married, Daryl and I have enjoyed a 1 week vacation somewhere, and we have usually taken it in September. It is less busy as most of the kids are back to school, but the weather is still pleasant. We usually camp in a National Park, but sometimes we have done other things like Disneyland and the Alaska Cruise (although the cruise was actually a celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary, we did take it in Sept. during our slotted vacation time).

This year was no different in regards to a vacation, but we now have 2 kids to contend with. As Natalie and Henry enjoy camping, we thought a 1 week camping excursion would be too long for them. So, we rented a quaint cabin at Hill's Resort on Priest Lake.

Henry walking along the beach

Natalie enjoying a sit on the sand

It was wonderful. Our cabin was rustic but did have 2 bedrooms and a full bath. The weather was gorgeous for the middle of Sept. Priest Lake is a little cooler than Spokane, so the air was crisp but the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky. The scenery was just gorgeous. We did not do a lot of different activities since the kids are still too little and scheduling around nap time is always a chore, but we did enjoy playing on the beach, hiking in the woods, swimming in the lake (believe it or not), mushroom hunting, bike riding, and enjoying the yummy huckleberry desserts at Hill's Resort restaurant.

Going for a bike ride

Taking a dip in the chilly lake water (I didn't bring suits because I knew it would be too cold for swimming. Of course that didn't stop my kids....or my husband for that matter. Daryl did swim in his shorts though, in case you were wondering)


It was a wonderful and very relaxing vacation. I hope we do it again....soon!