October

The leaves on the trees this time of year are gorgeous! We wrapped up track, and we are now onto gymnastics for Paige. Baylor is going to take a break from swim lessons and start back up in January. McCall loves doing preschool. Life is good and I can't believe that we are now into holiday season. The days are long but the weeks and years go by WAY too fast.

Baylor's fish finally died. Lucy has hung on for a long time, and I thought she was going to die over the summer since she was swimming sideways but whatever it was, she recovered and just a few days before she died, we were talking about how long she has lasted. Nate and Baylor gave her a proper burial.

The girls all got to hold a sweet, tiny little baby. Nate's cousin adopted a baby and he is the cutest and the girls were in heaven and now we all want another baby.

Earlier in the month, Celina got free passes through the library to go to the Seattle aquarium, and she invited us to join her. It happened to be the week of parent teacher conference week for Baylor, so she had a short day every day. I would have loved to stay at the aquarium longer, but we enjoyed every minute of it. I drove up to Seattle by myself with McCall and even parked on the street. This girl that was raised in a small town is making strides. :) I went to pay, and it happened to be a holiday, so I even got to park for free. McCall loved all the fish, and we even got to see the new part of the aquarium which was incredible.

Paige had a track meet every week in October and did excellent. She enjoyed it all and even tried out javelin. She continued to do hurdles and long jump. She improved so much over the season.

The moutain was out at this track meet, and it was stunning!

We showed up to cheer her on and she had classmates and teammates all sign her arm. It was fun to look at, and it is fun to see your daughter love school and the things about school and have great friends and see that she is a great friend.

We had a young women activity at my house that was kind of last minute in planning, so we had a fun cooking night and made homemade pretzels and smore cookies.

Paige had what she thought was her last track meet. They take the top 16 from each event and in long jump she was number 18. On the following Monday, she found out that some people had dropped out and so she was going to districts! She had practice on Tuesday and then the meet was on Wednesday. It was such a good experience for her. She did awesome and she loved cheering on her teammates and being there for the whole thing. She ended up placing 7th out of the 16 that jumped, which was incredible!

Also on Wednesday, we had a combined activity with another ward where the youth helped with some decorations for the trunk or treat hallway that I have been working on. The youth decorated gravestones, cut out bats, and carved 20 pumpkins. It was fun to shop and have a cartload full of pumpkins. Paige didn't start jumping at her meet until 5:30 so I got home from the track meet at 6:35 and had just enough time to gather everything up to make it the activity on time. So, I didn't eat dinner until 9:00 that night but the whole day was a success even if it was very busy.

The girls have been waiting for this day! There was enough leaves and Nate had time to blow the leaves into a big pile for them to jump into. They loved it and had so much fun, and Eliza was even here to join in on the fun.

I'm sad that I was zoomed into the pile too much with the camera and I missed the jump, but Nate is always looking for ways to make me laugh. 

These two sure had fun and would jump into a big pile of leaves everyday if they could.

We are looking forward to all the fun at the end of this month. We had a successful trunk or treat, and I love how the hallway turned out and then upcoming we have trick or treating, my parents flying out, and Baylor's baptism!

 

Letter F

Letter F was a FUN one!

Monday, we created a paper bag frog. She painted the bag all on her own and then I drew the different pieces to tape on, and she cut them out. She drew the eyes on and loved the tongue that we added.

Then I created a matching with uppercase F and lowercase F with frogs and lily pads. The matching ones were the same color, so she had fun matching the colors and seeing what a big F and little f looked like.

Tuesday was our fish day. First, she painted a fish's scales using celery.

Then she went fishing. I printed lots of things that start with the letter F onto little fish. Then I put paper clips on them, and she went fishing with a magnet on a string.

Wednesday she cut pieces of foil and glued them on the uppercase F.

Then she played in foam (shaving cream). She was not a fan of this and did not like her fingers being messy. I tried to help her draw shaped in the foam, but she had a disgusted face the entire time which was entertaining for me. She did play with some Paw Patrol characters in it for a bit since the characters could get foam all over them as long as it wasn't her fingers.

Thursday, we made a fancy feather fan. First I cut a paper plate it half and when I showed it to her, she said it was a rainbow. So, when I asked her to color it, she used all the crayons to create a rainbow.

Then she decorated it with gem stickers and last we taped some feathers on it. Last, we taped a popsicle stick for the handle so she could use it as a fan.

Friday, she did finger painting to make a flower. I made my own with her so she could see it was okay to paint with her fingers. Again, not a fan of stuff on her fingers and the picture on the bottom is how she really felt about it. :)

Then last she had to free some Frozen characters that were frozen in ice. Dad was a home to help and kept hot water for her to use. She poured water on it, painted on it with hot water, and tried to pick at it with a screwdriver. She eventually got them all out. I was impressed that she stuck with it and then she was happy to play with the character in the water for a bit.

Bainbridge Island

We made our annual trip to Bainbridge Island to go to a pumpkin walk. We painted pumpkins earlier in the week to take with us. We did not get so lucky with the weather for this outing, but we made the most of it. 

Our first stop was in Poulsbo to take a little walk at the fish park. I just saw some pictures online and thought it would be a nice little place for a walk. They had some cool fish sculptures and all the trails were named after different types of salmon.

There was a nice boardwalk, and we found a little stream that kept the girls entertained for a bit. It is amazing how some rocks and sticks added with water can keep kids happy.

This girl and her faces, and the crown has become a favorite accessory.

Then we made it onto the island and had lunch in the car before going through the pumpkin walk.

First, we got some pictures of our pumpkins before they got left on the trail for others to enjoy.

There were so many fun pumpkins to look at!

Then it was time to wander around the nursery and get some fun photos.

Then we found a new place on Bainbridge Island to explore. We went to the Grand Forest and the experience lived up to its name. The walk was stunning! There were so many little things to enjoy: logs to walk on, bridges to walk over, rings to count on old trees, rocks to stack, and trails to explore.

One of the reasons I picked this trail was for this large boulder that people stack rocks on. I saw it online and I knew the girls would love it. The rock stacking fit the girl's personality; Baylor went as quick as possible and made a couple of smaller stacks, McCall wandered around and wanted to help anyone and do some of it herself, and Paige was methodical and took time to find the perfect rocks to make an elaborate rock stack.

The girls were cold and done by this point, so we got some dinner at McDonald's and waited in line for our ferry ride back to the mainland. The view of Seattle is always stunning. It was SO windy, and the rain would pelt you in the face if you were out on the front of the ferry. We enjoyed the view for a bit before we were frozen, and it was a quiet ride home.

We dealt with bad weather, hungry kids, tired kids, and moody kids but we still made this time together as a family a priority. I was telling my mom about it today how there were some beautiful moments amid it all and she said our families are like roses, beautiful but also have thorns. Life is that way and days like today show that there is such beauty amid the hard moments. I love as a family that we can grow, learn about relationships, and learn how to deal with the hard and rainy parts of life and that we can find joy in it all.