Autumn Fun

Our last few weeks have been packed full. My youngest sister Erin, her husband Bridger and their cute little guy Forest moved to the Portland area. We've been able to spend a couple days with them and look forward to holidays, hikes, bbq's, zoo trips, coast camping trips etc. It is exciting to have family nearby again!
In between helping them move in, wood cuts, huckleberry picking and awaiting harvest to resume, I decided to start decorating for fall.
My fall decorating ended before I changed out our cherry blossom twigs. I have looked all over town trying to find a fun fall idea for the giant vases. We may glued orange and yellow tissue paper on twigs if I can't find anything better.

One of the hard thing about living with my mother in law is working around and with all of her many nick knacks. A few things I decided were too springy and was able to put them away. I think the Asian vases are too huge to try to move. I'm not too sure which season the Buddha statue would look best in. He too is quite heavy and I haven't been able to figure out a place I can move him without hurting any one's feelings.

Bringing Bling to Lunch

Last year Abby and Michelle picked out the same backpacks. At the time it was no big deal, Michelle kept her backpack mostly in her room and Abby's was kept downstairs with her school stuff in it. Fast forward to this school year. The backpacks were still in good shape, so we decided not to buy new ones. The 2nd day of school I put Abby's lunch in Michelle's backpack. Abby was called to the office to switch lunches with Michelle. Michelle didn't realize they were the exact same lunch. I had planned to buy new lunchboxes, since ours were smelling pretty funky. While debating whether to buy spider-man or insulated boxes, I had the thought to iron on the kids names. I zipped back to the craft section and found some fun iron-on styles. It took a bit longer than the instructions to get the letters to stick, the flap is quite thick and took a while for the heat of the iron to get through it. After putting the kids names on the lunch boxes I then put an A and M on the two girls backpacks. Now each morning I just have to match the right name to the right initial-way easier than guessing. Today was day 2 of my brilliant plan, in my still sleepy state I was able to quickly get the right lunch to the right backpack. Plus the letters are still attached and the kids thought they were very cool.

1st day of School

The big three.
Michelle-Kindergartner and her super fun teacher Miss V.
Peter-2nd grader
Abby-4th grader
Cristine-preschooler

School started for us on Tuesday. Everyone was so excited, me included. Michelle and I hung out together before class started, while Abby and Peter were off to greeting their friends. We read a couple books in the library as we watched all the kids running around. She then told me that Abby said she could not say "hi" to her when they saw each other around the school. Is being in 4th grade like being in middle school? I told Michelle it was her job to wave, shout and hug her big sister whenever she could. The house was so quiet when I got home, then it was almost tomb like after Cristine left for preschool.

Everyone likes their teachers and enjoyed the first couple days. Abby's been busy with homework. Today they took money for hot lunch since we were already running a bit late. Here's to a great school year!

Our Garden, Weeds and All

Take a look at all those weeds! So far we've had a pretty good harvest.

Fighting Fire Blight or the Blight of Our Summer Vacation

When school starts and the kids start comparing their summer vacations, our kids will probably rank pretty low in the coolness factor. At least twice a week, sometimes about daily we have been out helping Rick cut Fire Blight. Our job is to help Rick spot the dying branches, hand him the pruning sheers, spray denatured alcohol on the sheers after he's made his cut. Help him manhandle the ladder and pick up the branches he has cut. Cutting out all the fire blight is important, if left untreated it can kill the tree. Insects are attracted to the sticky sap and spread the bacteria to other trees. So far we have cut down about 25 trees. We have also cut the tops out of many trees. Rick said that this is the worst he has seen it in many years. One of our neighbors estimated that she has lost over 50% of her crop. We were out last night and will probably be out cutting another day this week. These photos are from last Thursday, one of the hottest days of our summer. It was also Rick's birthday. I tried to get some good photos, but the sun was too high, and I needed to get to work. It is very important to look up into the trees to spot the fire blight.
Cristine likes to work in style.
After cutting the diseased branches we load it onto a trailer. When it is full, we unload it onto our burn pile. When we have a big enough pile we get to have a hot dog roast.
Can you spot the fire blight in this photo?
Rick scaling the ladder. Happy Birthday!

Hiking the Gorge

Last Saturday, Rick was asked to help dismantle girls camp. We decided we did not want to stay home, so we headed up the Gorge. Our first stop was the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. We fed the baby salmon and stood in amazement while watching the huge sturgeon swim by. We then drove to the other side of the freeway and hiked Wahclella Falls. This was a great hike for the kids, it was only a mile long, with some steep parts and a very cool bridge spanning a deep ravine. The waterfalls along the way and at the end of the hike were beautiful. Had the weather been a bit warmer, I think we may have stopped to splash around.
Taken on the cool bridge, Cristine was a little afraid, since there were small gaps between the boards on the bridge. But we all made it across safely.

Wahclella Falls
After our fun hike we drove through Cascade Locks, trying to decide if we wanted an ice cream from the cute little diner. When we saw all the cars and the huge line of people, we decided drive back to town and visit the local D@iry Queen. This photo was taken at DQ, showing Peter's recently lost tooth. The other top tooth is quite loose and will probably be out by the start of school.

Book Recommendations

I found this website this morning, I think I vaguely heard about it from someone.

Have you tried it? Opinions?

http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/search

Did you register? Did it give you good ideas for your next book?

I think I'll try registering this evening, I'll update later.

What should I read next has been my theme lately.

Heather