Early Fall Activities! Another month, oh my. So below is an assortment of pictures from our activities the last few weeks. I tried to limit myself to the most informative and visually appealing pictures of all those that I took, smile.

 Avery's first "fun run!" Although it ended up being more like a "glum run" because Avery twisted her foot and had to walk half of the way. But she kept going and I'm proud of her being willing to try new things. p.s. she has a little crush on the boy standing next to her. He's in her kindergarten class and she thinks he is "scary" because he is "so handsome." Although, when I asked her about him the other day she said "Mom! I only liked him the FIRST day of school." If any of you repeat this to her I will officially be on Avery's bad list and never get any more information about boys, so shhhh.

 The weekend of Sep 30th (I think it was, hard to remember now), we all went on a little day trip up north to a "Dutch town" called Lynden. It was a great trip for the kids because the town had a skating rink and a really fun historical museum (pictures below).

 As you can see, Elliot is going through that awkward phase of not knowing exactly how to smile on demand. Remember having to practice in front of the mirror for picture day?!

 Here's the museum and I have SO many more great pictures but selected this one so you could get a sense of the amazing main street replica they built, complete with multiple stories. They also had a ton of old timey wagons in the basement like stagecoaches and fire wagons, fancy limo-type wagons and milk wagons. I thought it was pretty cool and the girls had fun too. Elliot was a big fan of the replica jail. Did you know that lollipops are technically illegal in Washington? So is "bedding a virgin" but enough of that.

 Here's a windmill, just so you know we were really in a real Dutch town! he he

 The first Thursday of the month is free at the Seattle Art Museum, so I packed up the girls a couple weeks ago and we met Mike downtown for some culture and pizza. I believe Mike is checking baseball scores while keeping Elliot from jumping on the artwork. You can lead a horse to water . . .(I'm talking about Elliot, Mike, not you!).

 The next day we drove out to the Cascade Mtns (Cle Elum for those in the know) to hang out with some of our friends at a church-run ranch. It was so fun for the kids, with tons of activities. We stayed in cabins with wood-burning stoves and it was reasonably comfortable.

 Avery was a natural rock climber.

 It was a little chilly, so we kept Norah boo in her snowsuit for most of the morning. Smiley as always.

 Horses even!! Elliot asked questions NONSTOP during this ride. "Where is the horses tummy?" "What does the horse eat?" "Does the horse have a mom?" "Where is the horse's mom?" "How many horses are there?" "Does the horse have friends?"

 Canoeing even! Some of our friends are there in the background. There were four families who went up. One of our friends moved to central WA, so this was a fun way for us all to get together in the middle.

 Just a couple cute pictures of the girls.

 Gosh I love these girls :)

 Pumpkin patch time! I love this season and a large part of it is because I love pumpkin patches so much. There just something so wholesome about a pumpkin patch; the farm, being with family, buying apple cider. Not even the funny faces could break the spell, smile.

 I figure this picture is so cute that Sandy will have no choice but to put it up on one of her picture boards. We'll see if I'm right about that.

 The obligatory wheelbarrow picture. With the sun setting, surrounded by nature and family, you see what i mean?!

And this just capped it off for me. A super neat Halloween-looking spider on a real pumpkin! So fun.

Till next month! . . .