Cliff and Hilary's visit

 It was so great having Cliff and Hilary here for a week. As I said in my Halloween post, which was the night they arrived, I sucked at taking pictures while they were here. We did lots of fun stuff like Halloween, going out to Silver City and Cash breweries, hitting some local parks, hanging out for a day with her family that is in Bellingham, etc. 

While I'm sad I missed pictures of a lot of that stuff, there was one day where I totally rocked at getting pictures. Wilson was in school, I put Archie and Ivy in daycare and Leo weirdly had the day off, so the four of us hit the road and had a great day in Port Townsend and Fort Worden. Leo LOVED being the only kid in tow. 

We hiked up the bluffs of Port Townsend to check out the historic Victorian district.

Here we are at the Rothschild House.

Fort Worden never disappoints!

Very cold and windy at the beach at Fort Worden.... still an awesome time though.

Cliff also made it to one of Leo's soccer games! He says Leo has the spirit, but needs more direction/coaching to get better. I totally agree - the kids on Leo's team who were standouts were both the coaches sons....

Anyway, despite the lack of pictures, Cliff's visit rocked. There were lots of late nights playing games and drinking fun drinks. Cliff and Hilary were super helpful and generous with the kids and I so appreciated it. Love them!

Salmon Run

Have you ever met kids who love nature more than ours? Well, their love for nature drew us to the fact that the salmon swim upstream every late October/early November to lay their eggs in the same stream they were born in. We heard about the Salmon Runs through our hiking group then we watched an awesome Wild Kratts on the topic. A short five minute drive to Chico Creek and we were living it! It was pretty much the coolest thing we've seen in nature since we've moved here.

In the pics below, you can see the salmon struggling to swim upstream. We stayed for about 30 minutes and cheered the salmon on when they made it through tough stretches of the creek. Of course there were a few dead salmon along the way, but the kids were pretty mature about it. Can't wait to show it to you next year!

Halloween!

Is Halloween just about the best holiday? The kids and I are pretty sure it is!

My day started out volunteering in Leo's classroom for his party for Dias de los Muertos. Here is Leo posing with his Oreo spider. So cute! He loved having me in his classroom :)

Costume time!

So cute how the kids buddied up for their costumes. We really did give each kid a best friend!

I like the serious poses of George and Alex.

Had to get individuals of these two...

We went to a costume party at their school the night before trick or treating.

The main event! 

The Yamodis family had a Halloween party before trick or treating, so we made an appearance there. At one point, Leo was playing their piano and another parent asked me if he was Mozart, LOL!

Cliff and Hilary showed up and we decorated cookies together..

They turned out pretty cute!

I didn't get a pic of Cliff taking them around. The big guys had so much fun staying out late with Cliff. Also not pictured is all of us pigging out on the candy later that night!

Super fun Halloween! 

Can't wait until next year when you get to join us for the first time in three (!) years.

Harvest Festival

 We got invited to a harvest festival by the Yamodis family. It was a really fun time. It was on a religious retreat area, so the first thing all the kids got were small bibles from the gideons. They loved them!

There was lots to do. 

Hayrides...

Corn/hay maze...

S'mores...

I didn't know there would be s'mores, so Leo doubled up on the chocolate which he seemed fine with.

Face painting...

And a rodeo!

Both Leo and Archie got to ride horses, it was so cool!

Our last event was archery...

We had such a fun day and there was a lot we didn't cover. Pumpkin sling shot, canoe rides and more... The kids want to come again next year with you!

Halloween fun

 Of course we had to get some art in during the buildup to Halloween.

I love these little houses and the kids had so much fun making them.

I'm upset at myself because I didn't get a pic of Leo's, which was by far the coolest. It had lights and him and I worked so hard on it. His house had a Dias de los Muertes theme and he took it to school for his big party.

As I told you, we didn't carve pumpkins this year because I just couldn't face off with four kids yielding knives.... next year when you're here we'll go big!

There were some moans and groans, but they really did have fun painting.

Am I biased or is this boy beautiful??

And sweet... oh ya, there are their finished pumpkins, lol...

Decorating cookies!

Hilary was so fun to bring a costume and it was so funny when I pulled out Ivy's matcher :)

Bring on the holiday, we're ready!

Haunted Theatre

 A local mom blog that I follow mentioned Tacoma's Haunted Theatre ballet and said it was fun for all ages, so I decided to take the kids. I invited Peggy and Shannon and we met at Chik Fil A for some dinner before the show. 

The lighting is weird in this picture, but it was a really cool old building in downtown Tacoma. 

Before the ballet, there was a haunted hallway that had a some cool effects like a vampire, headless guy and a ballerina "doll" that was real. Guess who hated everything in the haunted hall except the ballerina? Yep, Ivy, and the boys were the opposite... funny.

The ballet was really fun and about an hour, which was perfect for the kids. It kept their attention the whole time. Below is a picture of the pirates. There were also bats, skeletons, zombies, monsters doing the monster mash and a lot more. It was cute.

The kids all loved their new costumes. I asked Wilson and Leo if they wanted to go to the Nutcracker ballet with me and they cheered, so I think they're ballet fans...sorry! 

Portland

Since we couldn't make it down for Dexter's birthday weekend because of company, we drove down the next weekend to get in some cousin time.

Our first stop was a pumpkin patch.

Wilson and Leo chose to go to Grant's soccer game with Nikki, so the rest of us kept hanging out at the patch. Can you identify all the monsters below?

There was a cool bounce room.

Hayride.

Corn maze.

Plenty of pumpkins.

 

Slide, and a million other little things to do. Dylan sprung for the unlimited activity wristbands, so this is probably Archie's 10th time down the slide... not kidding!

Ivy and Eleanor managed to turn farm equipment into a baby stroller...ha!

It was a fun afternoon.

The next day we went disc golfing which was fun for everyone except Archie. He had a rough time there and then fell asleep on the way to the restaurant. Poor guy.

The kids found a snake and were really proud of it.

Closer look at said snake.

After lunch we got Baskin Robins. The kids were thrilled, the worker nicely honored all our of gf requests.

Our last stop of the trip was a fun park. 

Ivy was cute on the swings.

Mandatory all kid picture to end the visit. They all had a fun weekend together.