Since We Last Talked

Well, I was just flipping through pictures from the last week or so and realized how much I have to catch up on! Let's begin without further ado.  

Last Saturday, after the pumpkin patch outing on Friday, we went on a nice hike at a nearby beach and on my goodness, it was just beautiful. 

There is a pristine quality out here that I think is unique to the west. And I may be missing sea oats and palmettos, but views like these will do in the meantime.  

On this particular afternoon the surf was really high, and every fifth wave or so crashed clear over the tops of these rocky cliffs. 

Yesterday we went back to roughly the same spot, but this time stayed on the beach and poked at some assorted invertebrates. 

And in between these two weekends marked by such spectacularly beautiful outings, I present our week in review, snapshot style. 

This baby girl really loves her white bunny, and clutches him tightly while going about her business. Like climbing, mostly naked, into a basket of stuffed animals. 

C and I took pictures of each other at W's first swimming lessons last week.  He's doing so well!  There were a couple of tears the first day but they were quickly overcome and I am so thrilled to see his confidence and excitement grow with each lesson. Plus he's just such a good boy - attentive listener, and diligently does his best for his teacher. It is proving to be an excellent venture. 

Found this selfie on the iPad:

Along with a bunch of blurry shots of Star Wars characters, like this: 

Incidentally, that's Ahsoka Tano hanging out with the gourds up there, who A would like to dress up as for Halloween. We are still working on the headdress part...

Cat lounging on a still-warm stove? Hmmm.

Miss Mischief here learned how to climb the stairs recently, and loves to get on this stool in the kitchen any chance she gets. She also started walking this weekend! At 10 months and 1 week, way earlier than my other two. She's amazing! 

I kinda want boots like this for myself, but don't quite have the fashion guts like this girl has. Maybe someday. 

Who needs toys? All three kids have gotten a ridiculous amount of mileage out of this empty oatmeal container. Seriously. 

I have been sewing! Can't show the actual project because it's a Christmas present, but when I hit a lull I whipped up (finally) a new ironing board cover. Happy.  

This afternoon I popped in the first DVD of my fancy Beachbody PIYO challenge set and as you can see the kids made excellent use of my yoga mat. My really good friend talked me into this. The jury is still out. Also note, new sheers on front window. Excellent addition, much less fishbowl feeling. 

And lastly, to conclude this photographic digestion of the last ten days I bring you two munchkins in a box. Nothing quite like a good box. 

That brings us up to date. Enjoy your week, folks! 

Pumpkin Patch

Oh, my, goodness. The kids had their first field trip with school to the (more or less) local pumpkin patch, and I was pretty blown away. I may look back at this as the day I fell in love with this state. River valley farmland with steep green hills rising into the mist - wow. 

C had a jolly time hanging out with me in the Snugli and was the picture of contentment with all the activity to watch. 

I have never seen such an assortment of pumpkin and gourd varieties in one place.  

The big kids took a ride on the hay wagon... 

...while I got myself a nice pumpkin spice latte from the espresso bar. (Note the sign - haha!) I have to say, the PNW is not to be beat for the availability of amazing coffee - even at the pumpkin farm which was about the only bit of civilization for 15 miles around. 

I stood around like a dork taking pictures of this line of pumpkins with my iPhone while the kiddos had a blast with their classmates on the giant pile of hay bales. 

It was an absolutely terrific morning that the kids are still talking about. 

The next day we took an equally breathtaking trip to the ocean, but I'll save that for another post! 

In Print

Despite the move (or maybe because of it) I actually managed to read two whole books this summer.  Well, almost, as the second one took me clear through September.. does that count? Anyway, the first book was North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, which was extremely delightful in every way. The second was a book written by a professor at my alma mater. I took his class in advanced expository writing, and it was by far the most memorable and useful class I took at college. Each week we had to turn in short essays based on very general prompts. During class the professor would flip through the class's writings until something caught his eye, for better or worse. A few words of mine got attention here and there, including one excerpt which he liked so much he said he was planned to use it I one of his books.  And he did! 

This book has been on my shelf for ages, and it was at least ten years ago that I wrote this bit, quoted on the page below, in the last big paragraph, starting with "A girl recalled..." 

Of course I'm not mentioned by name or anything so you'll have to take my word for it. Someday I hope I might have a whole book of my very own published.  

And incidentally, I completely agree with my twenty-one year old self.