Trick-or-Treat

Rolli and Vivian went Trick-or-Treating for the first time.

We only went to one house.

Vivian couldn't have been more excited about the candy!

Can't you just hear her little jabber and squeals?!

Then cover your ears when she SCREAMS for more.

Rolli drooled about half of his chocolate down the front of his bee costume.

After our Trick-or-Treating marathon we crashed a friend's block party!

Rolli and Daddy going down the slide in Stacia's front yard!

Kitty Vivian wanted a turn too!

Stacia's neighbors went all out.

There was the slide (of course), games, cakes (lots of cake), a cardboard tunnel, 

candy (and even more candy), decorations, a raffle and toys too!

Rolli and Vivian going through the cardboard tunnel.

The kids rocked this "ring on the bottle" game.

Silly Kitty.  Silly Spider!

Tickle, tickle spider.

After Vivian climbed in the pool in order to retrieve a ducky she picked out a pink spider.

I guess we forgot to tell her that cats don't like water.

Stacia showing Rolli his future.

Yes, this is Marshall's son.

(in case you are wondering... the mustache is from another party goers costume.  It looked better on Rolli)

Lots of laughs with our little Bumble Bee and Kitty-Kitty!

Thanks for the invite Stacia!

Rocky Reach Dam

When I was just a little girl...

 my family would stop at Rocky Reach Dam on our way to Grandma's house.

That was back when the bunnies were still there.

And my Dad would give us a very thorough and educational tour of the facility. 

You would have thought he was a paid guide.

With fond memories in mind I wanted to take my own children for a visit.

Rocky Reach Dam's Visitor Center closes for the season October 31st.

I've been talking about taking the kids there all summer.

Today was our last chance until next year.

Grandpa Roger, Vivian and Rolli hoping to see some fish swim through the fish ladder.

We only saw a couple of baby fish.

Nothing to keep our attention for longer than 2 minutes.

We took the Dam/Halloween tour.

Rocky Reach sure went all out with the Halloween decorations.

The kids loved all of the holiday paraphernalia!   

Rolli and Vivian's favorite part of the museum.

A cougar!

Rolli does a mean cougar scream.

Miles and Kade thought the big turbines and working equipment was pretty cool.

Rolli, Miles and Vivian.

"What is that?"

Grandpa Roger and Marshall showing Rolli, Vivian, Kade and Miles what electricity is.

Daddy, Rolli, Grandpa, and Vivian at the overlook.

Grandpa Roger and Vivian.

Walking across the Dam.

Vivian, Rolli, Kade and Miles.

We had the whole Dam to ourselves!

The kids got to run around and climb on everything!

The best Dam tour ever!

We'll miss Ethan

Our favorite roommate Ethan moved out today.

He is moving back to his house in Portland.

We'll miss him.

The summer went by so fast and we hardly saw Ethan at all.

But when we did see him...

Vivian and Rolli followed him around, waved to him out the window

and chatted to him in another language.

Thanks for being our roommate Ethan!!

Vivian is loud

Vivian is yelling, singing, just being LOUD!

and Rolli is covering his ears.

lollypops

Rolli and Vivian went to the bank with me today.

Good kids get to pick out lollypops!

Guess who was good?!

These two are happy about their treats :)

And I'm happy with these silly kiddos.

"Cheese!"

learning to hike

This summer I started taking the kids and Bella to Castlerock for hiking lessons.

Rolli and Vivian would do some exploring, a little bit of hiking and lots of rolling.

One of our little morning trips I took a short video clip with my dinosaur phone.

Up until now I wasn't able to post it to the web.

Here it is...

the original learning to hike video

Funny!

But I didn't realize how awful the quality was till now.

The kids and me took Bella for a Castlerock visit again this morning.

The hill is still a challenge for my mini hiking duo.

And this time I had my new phone!

the Battle of Castlerock Hill

I must not be a good instructor...

Another Attempt

Rolli must have tried to ascend the wee hill at least 20 times.

Vivian wasn't nearly that persistent. 

I'm confident that someday we'll all be able to summit Castlerock together.

oops!

I've been trying to figure out how to use my new phone... I think I posted two of the same video yesterday. Here is the other video that I meant to post.
Twins play in dirt

garden help

Rollin and Vivian helped us bring in the rest of the squash from the garden.  Those two are such good little helpers!  It makes me smile to watch them imitate their Daddy working.
Check out the two links to see Rolli and Vivian at work.
Twins harvest  Twins play in dirt

birthday balloon!

Thanks for the birthday balloon fun party!

Vivian and Daddy celebrating Miles' birthday!

Pumpkin Patch!

The air was just right for a trip to the Great Malaga Pumpkin Patch!

On the search for that perfect pumpkin.

(this is my favorite picture)

Vivian thinks she'll take this one!

Rolli looking around.

A white pumpkin.

Miles and Grammie.

Miles found his pumpkin!

Daddy showing the kids how to wonder through the corn.

Where's Vivian?

Sweetie-Pie-Phunkin

Another white pumpkin.

Rolli's signature look.

And of course he found a piece of corn-on-the-cob.

Vivian, Miles, and Rolli with their pumpkins.

At least Miles is smiling nicely.

The three cousins.

Vivian didn't crack one smile for me.

Vivian and Daddy.

Rolli and Daddy.

Such a nice evening!  

I hadn't done anything fun with the kids in a while.

It was good to get some fresh air and wonder around.

This school business is sure taking up a lot of my time and making me very tired.

pears for our pair

Fresh organic Bartlett pears!

Grandma Jean brought us two boxes of pears!

Yum, YUM, and YUM!

Rolli and Vivian will eat an entire pear themselves, stems and seeds included.

Vivian starts at the base.

Rolli goes for the stem.

Yes, I see you are eating the pear.

Copy-cat.

I've canned 14 quarts of sliced pears and 10 pints of pear butter.

The pear butter is really good this year.

Fresh organic pears, valencia oranges, candied ginger, and local honey. 

Then I let it simmer nearly all day.

Way better than the last time I made it.

Perfect on pear bread.

Thanks for the pears Grandma Jean!