November Happenings

 We actually squeezed a lot of stuff (all good stuff) into November this year!

1.  Ginny drove down for a sleepover and night out to see Nate Bargatze!  

(I had bought tickets for Mike and I to go, then he was supposed to go to Toronto for a hockey card convention, so I invited Ginny.  Then Mike hurt his knee and couldn't go to Toronto, but still couldn't go to the show because he couldn't walk, so it all worked out haha)

2.  Mike and I had a date night at a Brian Adams concert!

(Mike actually bought these tickets as a surprise to me, then he hurt his knee, but pushed through it.  I forgot how much I love Brian Adams.  He has so many great songs!!  I did NOT like the opener though--Pat Benatar:/  It is hard/pure torture to sit through an hour of music you hate haha.)

3.  The very next day, we drove up to Canada for my 30th High School Reunion--if you can believe it?!!

(Ginny really wanted to go just to the school tour during the day and she convinced me to go with her--or I would have been fine not going at all!  We got there for the tour and my old flame from Elementary School was our tour guide-awkward.  Anyways, we saw a few old friends from High School--but no one that was TOO awkward thank goodness, walked around the old school that had been renovated and hardly looked at all like it did when we went there.  But it was fun to reminisce and I'm glad I went)

The gym was the only room that still looked the same.  Ginny made me pose with Ryan haha.

4.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with Tyson flying home from Provo and Jordan coming up from Seattle.

5.  We saw Wicked (part 2)

6.  We decorated for Christmas!

A fun filled November for sure!

Halloween 2025

This was the first year since having kids that I didn't go trick or treating...and I'm not complaining:)

Summer went trick or treating with Genevieve and her cousins.  It was pouring rain, so I was happy just to drop her off;)  As usual, she got way too much candy!

She also brought Genevieve to the trunk or treat at church, where it was also pouring rain!

I carved the pumpkins by myself again this year, but was inspired by my middle schooler:)

We harvested a lot of pumpkins this year.  Next year, I'm going to see if I can grow any big ones!

I went for a walk around Green Lake on Halloween with Jordan.  I had to snap a picture of the gorgeousness that is fall in the PNW.

And we did our annual trip to Bob's Corn Pumpkin Patch.  Summer is still growing...

Would've, Should've, Could've

Vulnerable post alert!

 

Last night I drove past our local sports fields.  The air was cool but still comfortable, and the daylight was just starting to turn to night--you know that magical time when everything feels kind of like a dream?  I looked over to the fields where the kids were practicing, instead of the usual football or soccer practice that is common in fall here in WA, I saw a large group of cheerleaders.  They were dressed in pink with fluffy white pompoms, and my heart sank just a little.  

I always wanted to be a cheerleader (and a dancer).  I am sure nobody knows this, because I don't think I've ever told anyone.  I was too scared.  I was too shy to put myself out there, too nervous to let anyone know my silly dreams, and too afraid of failure to even try.  Ugh.  I hate this.

I am now 48 years old.  I have zero desire to be a cheerleader (or a dancer), but my heart breaks for little Anita who was too scared to do what she wanted to do and too shy to be her authentic self.  But honestly, I do sometimes still catch myself letting fear dictate my path forward.  At least most of the time, I tell it to buzz off and do what I want...but it still lives in me.

As I get older, more and more things that I want to do are getting harder or impossible.  As I get closer to my next big birthday (50...gulp) I just want to do it all...as much as I can squeeze into this life! (I am not too adventurous, so some of that includes swinging in the hammock on a beach somewhere or getting a facial haha;))

I like to add to this:  "do it with a broken knee" because that was my mantra all summer.

Summer Round Up

I have a hard time being organized.  I mean, I know it makes me more productive and feel better, yet I still resist it...ESPECIALLY in the summer!!! And Summer (my child) is the worse enabler because she just wants to laze around and do nothing all summer (as many kids her age like to do).  So the past couple years, I have made a "Summer Bucket List".  It helps me plan a few fun things, and makes sure we don't miss out on some things that we really want to do.

This year we completed most of the things on our lists!  

I got the idea from my sister Lisa's blog to rank all the things we did.  Mike, Summer and I all gave rankings out of 10.  Maybe this will help determine what gets on our list again next year:)  Summer definitely brought down the average haha. 

North Carolina, Canada, Sleepovers, and Crepes made the top of the list:)

And here we are doing some of the fun things from our list (that I haven't already blogged about)...

Canada

The Fair

Birchwood Dairy

And now that summer's over...we start MIDDLE SCHOOL (well, I guess just Summer does)!!!!  Now we are forced into an organized schedule, which includes a 6am wake up call--ugh.

The Jetty

 It's been far too long Jetty Island!

Love the ferry, the wind, the water, the sun, the blue skies, and the kite flying!

It is the epitome of "summer"

A F-oil-ed Trip

Our trip to Mouth Saint Helens was a bit of a bust.  

Our Plan:

1.  Short hike and viewpoint 

2. Check into cabin

3. Ape Caves hike (Mom stays at the cabin while Dad, Tyson and Summer do the caves-aprox. 2 hrs)

4.  Dinner at campsite (walking tacos)

5. Bed

Next day...

1.  Breakfast (made at camp--eggs and sausage)

2. 1 hour hike (lava canyon) 

3.  Shorter lava caves

4. Head home

Mike had originally planned a third day to go to the other side of the mountain where there is a visitors center and better views of the volcano, but since Tyson was only home for 6 day and my knee was still bad, he shortened the trip.

Well, this is how our trip went:

1.  Short hike and viewpoint

2.  Discover our car was rapidly dripping oil (we hit a big bump in the road that poked a hole right through our oil pan, so it was dripping A LOT)

3. Drive to the nearest gas station and see what we could do to fix this hole--duct tape didn't work (this is a tiny town, we were lucky we were so close to the only gas station)

4.  The guy at the gas station was super helpful.  He called the only mechanic in town (who was also luckily just 2 mins away) and he dropped everything to help us out.  He plugged up the hole with a screw and thought that would last us for the next few days (and our trip home).

5.  Mike and the kids still managed to make it to their 3:30pm cave hike.

6.  Instead of 2 hours, the hike took them FOUR hours.  When they got back to the car, there was a group of people writing a note and calling a tow truck because the car was leaking so much oil.

7.  I was back at camp, worried sick.  They finally made it back at 7:45pm--without calling the tow truck.

8.  We decided to call it quits and head home in the morning.

9.  We made it home, stopping every hour to check and add oil.

10.  $800 later, the oil pan is fixed.

Another adventure under our belts, I guess.  We are grateful it wasn't worse, but this means we may have to head back to Mount Saint Helens!

Summer and Tyson have such a cute relationship:)

Our one view of Mount Saint Helens the entire trip haha

Our cute cabin--with AC and electricity!

I had a lot of alone time to unpack and set up.  

Thank goodness the cabin also had wifi:)

Sleeping buddies

We were there too:) The best night sleep "camping" ever!

WA Bucket List Item--Check

 I can't believe it took 12 years for us to get to Mt. Rainer--especially since it's only 2.5 hrs away!  It wasn't ideal to go with a hurt knee, but we did it anyways (that seems to be my mantra this summer).  It was breathtaking.  We did 4 kid-friendly (seriously super short and super easy) hikes and each one was unique and beautiful.  The beauty made up for our horrible night sleep (all of us except dad) and the super pricey restaurant we ate at in the park.  Pictures just don't do it justice, but they'll try.

I made her pose like this:)

Just trees, but so pretty

The wildflowers were unreal

The rainbow though...

Found this trail just outside our campground

An air mattress with a generator is the way to go!

Our cute campsite

Maybe we'll get back there in another 12 years haha.