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.

Dale & Mary Young

Today we drove to Portland to witness the marriage of my cousin Dale Young to his beautiful new bride Mary. The wedding was very lovely, the bride was gorgeous, the ballroom was nice, the decorations were tasteful and the food was delicious. My Marriage Outlook Prediction based on the always reliable Wedding-Cake-Deliciousness-Factor: a 10 out of 10. I had the chocolate and it was not polluted with nasty raspberry (such a common mistake). The frosting was delicious and not overly sweet. Cake very moist, dense and chocolatey. Overall extremely satisfying. So their marriage is destined for success with many happy years together in perfect wedded bliss.

It was really fun to see some of my cousins and Aunt Linda that I haven't seen for 20 years or more too. All in all a wonderful day. It was one of those times when I felt blessed and grateful to have been invited and allowed to be part of the event.

I will say one thing about Dale and Mary. They are perhaps the most thoughtful and kind couple I've ever known. I wish we all lived closer together because I just love the time I spend around them. Dale couldn't be luckier to have married Mary... I think she is positively terrific. They are so cute together- so obviously in love. And it is a mature love. A caring, gentle, understanding love for each other. A wonderful and inspiring thing to see.

I wish you absolutely all the best, Mr. and Mrs. Young!

Monster Truck Showdown

So the signs that I am getting OLD are starting to show. I forgot that I had told Marina she could go spend the night at Sydney's house tonight and so I decided to get tickets to the Puyallup Fair to go see the Monster Truck Showdown. Kind of an expensive outing but Dakota's always wanted to see the monster trucks so it seemed like a great idea. At the time. So then Marina reminds me that she will be at Sydney's. So last minute Raeden comes along instead. Lesson number one: if you're ever tempted to hit "pay now" and finalize an order for two children's tickets and one adult ticket to go see a Monster Truck Show ask yourself this question... do I really want to take two small people to a Monster Truck Show without another big person to talk to? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's try and keep this in the order of the pictures.

OK. We got there in time to wander around and tire out our feet a little bit. And we saw the cows. Cows are cool. Cows with big horns are even cooler. Cool enough to get your picture taken in front if them. With sunglasses on.So then that takes us up to the Monster Truck Show. The kids were excited and anxious so they got us over to the grandstand well in advance of the show starting. We got to go down into the "pits" and see the trucks up close. And take pictures next to them. That tire would make one huge tire swing!
This one was the kids' favorite because it was painted camo. American Thunder or something like that.
And then we found some good seats.
So how come you can't get two kids to both smile & look at the camera at the same time? It's either one...
or the other.
But it's easier to get them to smile once you get them some soda pop and cotton candy!
Mmmmmmmm! I love you, cotton candy!

So all was going well. And then the show started. Somehow all of our talking about how loud it was going to be and how exciting it was going to be didn't quite make the impression that the actual deafening roar made as the monster trucks revved their engines!

Here they all are, lined up to be introduced.

One of the really loud ones was El Matador. It wasn't any of our favorite or anything but it happened to have the picture that turned out the least blurry so there it is.

First thing up was the wheelie contest. Here goes Dream Catcher, I think the loudest of the bunch.And the American Something-or-another. OK, the wheelies and unbelievable loudness was much more memorable and impressive than the names of the trucks.

So by this time I was getting, "Is it almost over?" "How much longer is it, Uncle Sean?" "Let's go do something else."

The El Matador did end up being one of the coolest trucks. Very loud and aggressive. We wondered if he was going over backwards on this one.

After the wheelie contest we watched the local guys with their weird looking rigs do tough car races. That was kind of a laugh. The dude from Buckley in his modified used-to-be-a-Jeep lost part of his drive shaft on his second run. There were 3 local guys and one guy that came up from Louisiana... he wiped the local guys out doing the run in about half their time. Then came the Monster Truck Races where two of the big rigs at a time would crash & smash over the row of cars and race to get across the fastest. By that time I was hearing, "I gotta go bathroom!" So off we went to the bathroom and to see the rest of the fair. Lesson number two: one hour of plugging their ears and feeling their seats shiver from the reverberations of sound is plenty for an 8 & 4 year old.

But they like bunnies a lot.

And baby goats.

And they are very impressed with milking cows. "You mean that's where the milk comes from that we DRINK!?" Which then leads to, "can we have ice cream?" We decided we'd stop and get ice cream cones on the way home. I'll let you in on a little secret: I was hoping they'd both fall asleep before we left the parking lot and we could just let the cotton candy/soda pop sugar rush be enough.

They liked the huge pumpkins too.

But I do believe that the highlight of the whole night was the stuffed flowers with wire stems that they won playing the duck-pond game. OK- I got one thing right: if kids are dying to play a game at the fair make sure to choose one where they are guaranteed to win.

They were also impressed with the colored fountain by the exit. Do these two look like a couple of kids that are going to be asleep immediately in the car or like two little kids that are so hyped up they're on a second (or third) wind and will be asking, "when are we going to get ice cream?" "Where are we going to stop for that ice cream?" "I can't wait for ice cream!" until I stop, 2 blocks away, at the closest possible McDonalds and fill the promise?

So bye-bye Puyallup Fair. Bye-bye Monster Truck Showdown. See you in another ten years.

The kids did have a great time. And they talked animatedly about how cool the trucks were. I could personally have enjoyed it a bit longer but one hour was good for them and after all it was for them that we went so it was good. Final lesson: you can get into the fair a lot cheaper if you don't include Monster Truck Showdown tickets... and you can watch monster trucks on YouTube. But I bet if you do that you'll spend the whole evening hearing, "I wish we had tickets to the Monster Truck show!" "Daddy, how come we can't go see the monster trucks?!" "It would be so awesome if we could have seen the monster trucks!"

Ocean Shores 08\21-23\09 (222 photos), by Sean Young

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Ocean Shores Weekend

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend away at Ocean Shores along with Grandpa Marv, Grandma Verna, Aaron & Dani and the girls. We stayed together in a nice condo and were lucky to have really nice weather the whole weekend. We left bright and early for the ocean Friday morning, arriving at Ocean Shores before anyone else had even left home. We spent the morning doing some geocaching around the area. Above Marina and Dakota found a small cache behind this "Soft Sand" sign.

Marina signs the log.

Wading through the high grass we found the next cache in a large ammo box under a log out on the dunes. This one was a puzzle-cache so we had to figure out some math to find the final waypoint and the cache. We laughed and laughed- our day off to a great start.

Next we headed for the biggest cache we've ever seen: "Mondo Cache". When we finally found the area where the cache was hidden we found signs noting recent cougar sightings in the area. Despite Dakota's serious reservations we set off for a bit of a hike to the big cache. One of the landmarks in the hints for the cache was a bench where the trail turns. Marina decided to be the center of attention in the picture I took of Carol & Dakota on the bench.

Here we found the cache. It was in a large 10-gallon Rubbermaid tub and was full of really cool cache prizes. Best cache we've found in a long time.

A big cache calls for big prizes... here Marina tries on a pair of Mondo sunglasses found in the Mondo Cache.

Heading back to the car. Dakota stayed good and close to mom! Searching for the next cache location we noticed a large number of deer in the area. Here we saw two young bucks lying in someone's yard. We searched and searched for this one. It shouldn't have been so hard to find but somehow we overlooked it several times, tangling ourselves up in one spiderweb after another. Dakota finally made the find.

Behind him you can see the small lagoon that the cache was named after.

Marina at the marina.

Geocaching does help us find and see a lot of things we wouldn't otherwise ever see. Here is something called the "lone tree", located by the Ocean Shores Marina, which used to be used as a landmark from the ocean.

We have always known the jetty was here but didn't realize we could walk out onto it until we found that there is a cache out there. It was cool walking out on the jetty!

Found under a large rock, this was another fun cache.

Another of Marina's favorite caches of the day, this one was called "Marina Mountain". The small film canister cache was hidden up inside this pipe sticking out of a hill next to the marina. A funny little bent wire attached to the cache allowed it to be stuck up into the pipe and still be accessible.

Marina is putting the cache back in place while mom and Dakota and the Geo-Monkey look on patiently.

Next we spent some time at the Ocean Shores Discovery Center. It was surprisingly large with a lot of interesting things to see and touch. Here is a sign outside the center describing the history of the area.

After leaving the Discovery Center we got a call from Grandpa Marv letting us know they had all finally arrived. We met them at Home Port for lunch and then headed to the beach to play.

Grandpa helped Dakota and Raeden build a sandcastle.

It was barely windy enough to fly kites but we didn't waste any time getting the kites out and giving it a try. Marina had good success with Grandpa's kite which only requires a slight breeze to fly.

Reece loved playing in the sand and picking up shells, sticking them into her watering can.

Splashing in the soft sand.

Dakota and Raeden are proud of their fine castle-building work.

They also admired the castle built by some people next to us. Here they pose trying to look like this was their own impressive work.

Dakota hanging out in the condo.

In the evening we went over to the beach to watch the sunset.

Aaron and Marina playing King-of-the-Log.

Letting down our hair at the condo in the evening.

Good morning, Reece! Enjoy that delicious banana for breakfast.

Dakota and Raeden playing with Playmobile 4-wheelers on the blow-up bed back at the condo.

Aaron and Dani made a delicious dinner: shish-ke-bobs, tasty potatoes and watermelon. Yum!

Group picture on the beach... it was already our last day at the beach!

Quick... Reece is about to start crying like crazy!

Raeden flying her kite one last time.

We sat up on the rocks and saw a giant grey whale right off shore along with several sea lions. It was so exciting!

Marina was entirely thrilled to get to see a whale.

I didn't manage to get a very great picture of the whale but here you can see his dorsal fin in the lower right portion of the picture.

A shoe-full of sand.

After lunch Grandma & Grandpa and Aaron & Dani headed home. We wanted to try and miss traffic by leaving late so spent a little more time on the beach and found one more geocache in the dunes.

Posing in the dunes.

We did a little more shopping in town at Sharkey's and then headed for home. It was a really fun weekend. We were so lucky to have such perfect warm weather.