Pumpkin Patch Time

After our walk in the woods Dakota and I went to the Pumpkin Patch. Halloween was only a week away and we didn't have a single pumpkin yet! We called mommy and she met us there at the pumpkin patch. Marina was, of course, at Megan's house for the weekend. So no pumpkins for her!

We went on the hay ride. We're a little older now and the excitement has shifted from the sheer fun of riding around in a trailer full of hay pulled by a tractor to the fun of hoping that the tractor will run over some pumpkins.

One daddy pumpkin, one mommy pumpkin and one teeny little baby pumpkin. Well, actually the "baby" pumpkin was daddy's... I suppose it's a sign of being "old" that I have gone from looking for the "perfect big pumpkin" to looking for one that looks "good enough and pretty cheap." Oh, man, I really am getting old.

Dakota is getting pretty good at pushing the wheelbarrow, even with the pumpkins rolling back and forth in it. He wouldn't offer me a ride in it though.

Time to weigh and pay.

We're back to having just one kid in our annual "Pumpkin Patch Picture". Seems like such a short time ago that that "one kid" was tiny little Marina when she was little!

Dakota did still enjoy "driving" the tractor. He would've been a lot happier if he could've gotten it started though... there was a whole field of pumpkins just waiting to be smushed-up by a tractor!

Dakota did such a great job of carving his pumpkin! He took his time and carefully carved out a big crescent moon and a whole sky (er...pumpkin) full of twinkling stars all the way around. It turned out great!

Later in the week, one night after school, we stopped by the pumpkin patch for Marina to pick out a pumpkin. She carved the crazy cannibal pumpkin below. Dakota got another tiny little pumpkin and carved a funny face into it.

Don't they look awesome lit up?

It seems that I entirely forgot to take pictures of the adults' pumpkins. So now, 2 weeks later, I went out to take pictures of them for the blog. Mine still looks pretty good...

But Carol's has suffered the undeniable, unavoidable fate of the Jack-o-Lantern...
(It was a cool spider surrounded by its web. Rats... sorry we didn't get a picture before it went all smooshy!)

A Walk In the Woods

Dakota and I went for a walk in the woods. The girls were out shopping & then Marina spent the night Saturday at Megan Ward's out in Key Peninsula. So Dakota and I had the day to ourselves. We had a picnic lunch and then went for a nice walk in the woods up at Federation Forest. It was a beautiful crisp but sunny autumn day. We didn't see much wildlife but enjoyed the giant trees and fall colors.

Some of the old growth Douglas Firs are very large!

This was a pretty cool tree. Apparently it blew over in the wind. When it fell it got caught, wedged between two other trees. This caused the root ball to come completely free of the ground where it remains suspended in the air.

Another gigantic Douglas Fir tree. Dakota was most interested in the "nurse logs" and "nurse stumps" that were hosting Western Hemlock saplings of various sizes.

Eventually the trail took us to the White River and followed its shoreline.

We took a side trail down to the river and threw rocks and sticks in for a while.

When our hike was finished we drove on up to Crystal Mountain. At the tops of the hills we could see where it had recently snowed but there was no snow down at the ski area where we were. Driving back down the mountain we noticed, looking out over one of the vast valleys, a single yellow tree nestled among a forest of deep green. It was really stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, taking the picture into the sun and with a soft fog coming into the valley the picture is not very clear.

Dakota had a good day in the mountains.

And so did daddy!

Sunset

The sunsets this fall have been gorgeous. To me a sunset is a tiny little gift from God. It reminds us of how he can create something beautiful out of absolutely nothing. The colors are so intense and so beautiful that you want to cling to them- to make them last and last- but they are so fleeting. Here and gone. To me a picture of our time in this life on earth. Fleeting. Sometimes I just want to cling to things- for them never to end- but so quickly they are gone. When the kids were babies it was like that; I would hold them and just want the moment to go on forever. But now they are growing and changing so quickly. And as I look back over the first half of my life it all flashes by so fast. Which is why I don't want to spend my life clinging to the things of this world- the things as temporary and as fleeting as a sunset- but want to be looking toward the promise of an eternal day. And thank God every day for the little things, like the sunsets, that inspire me and encourage me to think beyond the temporary.