Autumntime

There's one thing I don't like all that much about Oregon. I mean, it's a beautiful place and the people are friendly and I love being by the coast and I don't mind the rain. But there's one time when the rain kind of gets me down. Autumn. When I'm raking and raking and raking the leaves all over the yard (we have a LOT of trees), my kids ask if they can jump into the leaf piles and I have to say no. Maybe I'm too protective, but I don't want them covered in wet rotting leaf slime and slugs. And when we walk along the sidewalks to get William from school every day, the way is covered with leaves. But there's no crunch underfoot. It's more like a slosh-slosh. And you have to be careful that you don't slip. So, yeah, I miss dry crisp fall weather that leads to crunchy leaves on the ground that you can pile and jump into. One neat thing, though, about the wet leaves on the sidewalk is that they leave leaf-profiles where they were allowed to sit for a long time and moulder. It kind of looks cool after they have been removed to have their profiles on the ground.

Halloween

We spent the afternoon trick-or-treating at the Tanasbourne strip mall with a group from the ward. The kids got some good candy. William got tired quickly but the promise of more candy was too much for Anna to pass up, so we dragged William to the bitter end.


Kip took them out to the neighborhood that night and didn't force them to go as far as Anna would have liked.



Becca slept through the trick-or-treating after the busy day at the museum and strip mall, so I had her pose for some photos later on. I thought she was too cute to pass up on the photo op.

Children's Museum

The kids were all out of school on Halloween day, so Jo and I decided to take them to the Children's Museum. It was really crowded when we got there, although things thinned out considerably by the time we headed home. The museum has a Bob the Builder exhibit right now that the kids really enjoyed, especially the digging pit with toy dump trucks, backhoes and front loaders. They stayed in that for almost an hour.


Killpacks and Istooks posing with Bob and Pilchard. (Alyssa, William, Anna, Jared, Spencer)


Scoop and the gang.


Becca and Rachel. Becca kept trying to pull on Rachel's stroller.

Intel Halloween Party

Intel threw their traditional Halloween party on the 28th. As usual, we dragged ourselves to it, along with roughly two thousand other people. It was dark and crowded, but we came out OK and no one was lost in the mix. The kids enjoyed the carnival games and prizes. Anna really enjoyed the candy table. She was the reason the guy with the mic had to ask kids to not take so much candy. The favorite prize of the night was the blow-up snake swords. They were a ton of fun!


Becca gives a smile.


Super William and his swords of power!


Anna Warrior Princess.

Class Party

I got to host William's class party on the 28th. We had a lot of fun. We made necklaces with reflectors for trick-or-treating. We decorated cookies and did a beanbag toss (thanks Butch and Jo!). We stamped Halloween cards. Things got a little crazy, but I think the kids had fun!

Pumpkin Patch

Jo and I took the younger kids to the pumpkin patch on the 23rd. We went out to Lakeview Farms in North Plains. They had a boat you could ride out to the pumpkin field and a train to ride back with your pumpkin. The kids really enjoyed it and the weather was perfect. It was nice and warm and sunny and dry.


Anna and Jared as scare-kids.


Anna, Jared and Rachel show us how tall they are.


Anna tried to stop Becca from eating the straw.



All of us on the train.