California Shopping

We stayed at Rosy's family hotel in Scotts Valley for free!!!
Charlie's Angels...Rosy, you are the best poser....the good kind!

My two moms.









THis is the result of Day 1 of shopping at the outlets.
The result of Day 2 at the mall.
Mom and Ruth sporting their new outfits.
Work it...work it....Rosy!
Kristie modeling her new outfit.
I sooooo don't know how to work it!!

We have a family tradition started 2 years ago. My mom, mother-in-law, Rosy, and I (and this year Kris went, too), fly to San Jose and spend a couple of days for some retail therapy! We hit the outlets in Gilroy and then a really awesome mall that we want in Tri-Cities!!!! We also visited with Ken's brother Paul in Santa Cruz. We packed light going and came home quite full!!!! Thanks girls for so much fun!

Birthday Fly Fishing Trip

For Ken's 40th birthday, he asked me NOT to throw him a party. He said he wanted to go do something with just me. So.......I thought and thought and thought. What is something we haven't done that we could do with it cold outside? I came up with fly fishing. Neither of us had ever tried it before and we didn't have to go too far to do it. So, I got online and booked a guided trip out of Cle Elum on the Yakima River.

We loved it!!! We dressed in layers as it was a little rainy and chilly....about 45 degrees to be exact. We started out learning the proper technique and giving it a try. We quickly caught on and caught 10 fish over a 4 hour period. Not bad for first timers!!!

After dark, we went to Suncadia resort in Cle Elum for the night. Nice place but a little spendy.

HALLO-TEEN

Instead of the usual trick-or-treating this year, Madison and Christian had some friends over for a costume party. We had 20 kids over and the fun began! These kids were all about games and they were great! We started out playing the paperbag game where you have to bend over and pick up the bag with your mouth standing only on one foot and not using your hands. Then you cut the bag down about an inch at a time. So fun! We played Spoons, Glow in the dark Tag, Sardines, and Ninja Destruction.

Instead of trick-or-treating, we played throw-a-treat. Us chaperones threw candy from upstairs over the balcony and the kids had to catch them in a bag. This was over and was so much fun that we continued with individual m&m's to see how many they could catch in their mouths one at a time.

This was a great way for Mom to meet the new friends Madison and Christian have made this year at school. We just may have a new Halloween tradition........

New Family Member

Meet our new family member....his name his Jack. He scares Madison in the morning when she gets up for school. I don't understand why.

One of My Favorite THings

There are two things I really look forward to twice a year....going away for the weekend on a women's retreat. This weekend I spent with 7 incredible women in Spokane and we had so much fun. What are we doing you ask? LAUGHING.....TALKING.....SWAPPING STORIES.....WATCHING MOVIES......LISTENING TO MUSIC.......AND SCRAPBOOKING. Yes, scrapbooking. We stay up late and then sleep in one large room that has 10 twin beds. It's one big slumber party!!! We left Tri-Cities Friday morning at 6:30am to get their by 9am and scrapped until 2am. I got up at 6am to start again and went to bed again at 2am. Slept awesome and got up at 8am. Now it is Monday morning......I want to go back to bed!!!! I did 65 pages!

That's Corny

This summer we have been watching the crop circle behind our house grow corn. We got word last week that we had permission from the farmer to pick some corn. We went out a got some and the next day it was harvested.....literally in one day! Today, we walked out to the field and picked out the "leftovers" and brought a bunch home. The kids had asked to have german pancakes for dinner so we had german pancakes....and fresh corn. What a mixture! But it was yummy! On the way home, we ran through the irrigation splinkler and Caden biffed it in the mud. He wasn't happy about it until I told him he earned his own special picture and memory from this.

Our New Puppy

To view pictures of our new puppy, scroll down below our first day of school pictures. I had been trying to post these for a week and blogger wouldn't do it. It finally worked but posted there since I had started that one before the school pictures.

It's Official

MADISON IS A HIGH SCHOOLER!!!!!


CHRISTIAN IS A MIDDLE SCHOOLER!!!!

CADEN IS A THIRD GRADER!!!!!
MACY IS A 2ND GRADER!!!!
MOM IS FEELING OLD!