Fall!

I love Fall. It's my favorite time of the year: the last vibrant burst of color before the slow dirge of winter. There are these amazing trees by our ward chapel that glow when they change color. Like a flare then dying embers, it is so beautiful and my camera just doesn't do them justice, but we tried.

They are growing up too fast!

Mother Daughter's Campout

Each year the Silverdale Stake hosts a Mother-Daughter camp out. It is a lot of fun, but I hadn't attended since Lizzy was a baby. This year I called up my sister to see if she wanted to go. She agreed and off we went! The held it at a church-owned property called Zion's Camp. It is a beautiful spot in Belfair. They added a climbing tower this year in addition to the various activities they provide: archery, volleyball, basketball, soccer, tetherball, softball, ping pong, horse-shoes, an 18- hole challenge disk golf course and a game room. A 17-acre warm water lake with rope-swings, two beaches, floating docks, boats, paddleboards, rowboats, canoes, fishing, swimming and a huge playground area plus miles of hiking trails accessible to all. It's a ton of fun.

School!

Emily is going to a new preschool this year.

 Henry really likes playing while we drop her off and pick her up. He's so ready to go next year!

  The kids all have different schedules this year so it's been interesting figuring it all out. The boys go first on the bus then about 20 mins later I take Emily and Lizzy to school 3 days a week. Lizzy takes the bus the other 2 days. Then Lizzy started early morning orchestra and intramurals so twice a week she's at school from 7am to 5pm! It's rough.

 Waiting for the bus on the first day of school.

They are enjoying school for the most part. It's fun to watch them grow up.

Cider Pressing

Each year we harvest boxes and buckets of apples to bring to our neighbor's house for a cider pressing. We go down to the Fruit-loop to get additional varieties to mellow and balance the flavor. This year's concoction was a mix of our apples, MacIntosh and Kume apples. It is very tasty!

Ready for storing!

Playing with the Martins

We got to have the Martins come down to visit and then we met them in Olympia to go to the Children's museum there and the capital.

 Harvesting Plums!

 Devon ran into the trampoline and knocked his loose tooth out while the adults were at the temple.

 We went to the zoo!

 We saw the bird show!

 Making chipmunk faces

 We celebrated Henry's birthday.

On to Olympia!

I was trying to recreate this picture:

 The governor will be taking questions now.

 Our Motley Crew!