Time to get caught up

So, what have we been up to since our last post...quite a lot actually!

Wednesday the 13th Nicholas and I headed to Spokane to see some cousins that were in town. It has been years since I had seen either which means that none of our children had met yet. The three kids were all born within 3 months of each other, so it was fun to get them all together.

On Friday the 15th, Dayna called and asked if we wanted to go to the fair with them. So, I lathered Nicholas with some sunscreen and packed some water and we headed out to brave the 100 degree temperatures. Nicholas enjoyed seeing all of the animals. He cared more about playing with an open sheep pen door than petting an actual sheep, but I guess that is even more proof he is a boy...more interested in the mechanics of things. He enjoyed the Pacific Science Center exhibit (mostly because he could run around) and even took a nap in the stroller.

Saturday afternoon Nicholas and I headed out to the farm for a little bit since Dayna and Family and Rachel and Jason were all out there. After a few hours of playing around the farm we headed over to Hochstatter's for pinochle night. I didn't have any great hands or anything, but we still had a fun evening.

Sunday morning was Thea's baptism...which meant a full crowd at church. I ended up "cutting the cake" afterwards and was kept busy with over 85 people in attendance. After church it was back out to the farm for a family/church picnic with food for all. With temperatures over 100 that day, it was fairly leisurely as nobody wanted to do much of anything. Nicholas enjoyed exploring the yard (as usual) a hammock ride with his cousin Maddie.

Ben's cousin's wife Steph called Wednesday hoping I might be able to watch their two kids Thursday. So, Maddie (9) and Boe (6) came over for the day and helped entertain Nicholas. Boe had fun playing with Nicholas' tractors and Maddie had fun playing with Nicholas. We made brownies (with zucchini of course), walked to the school to play, played Super Nintendo, played "The Game of Life" and took a trip to Safeway. It was a fun day with two kids who are a little older than my little guy!

I've also been busy the last week looking for good travel deals. Ben wanted to take the South America tour that Lou and Debbie went on last year. However, I told him 3.5 weeks was a little long to be gone from our 1 year old (we can save that tour for another year). So, deciding that we should go somewhere without him this winter, we have booked a trip to Hawaii. My parents and brother and sister-in-law are all going to watch the Cougs play football in Hawaii, so we decided to tag along. We will leave the day after Thanksgiving and get to spend 7 nights in Hawaii on Oahu. We are looking forward to the break from "reality" and a little time in "paradise."

My garden is still going strong. I think the zucchini might finally be slowing down a little, as is the squash. My cucumbers are just coming on, so we are gearing up to eat lots of those. We have 3 pumpkins that we can see right now. I say that because there are so many leave in the back corner that I can't get to that I don't know what is back there. I am secretly hoping there is one more good-sized pumpkin back there. One of the pumpkins I accidentally broke the vine on, the second one grew very deformed and the third is a little scratched on the top side. We will see what they all look like when we pick them and turn them over. Hopefully at least one will be carve-able.

I think that about brings you up-to-date with what is happening around here. Hopefully things won't be so busy and I can get on here a little more often. I have posted a bunch of new photos in our August album at Kodak Gallery, so feel free to go over and see all our new pictures. There were too many to put in this post!