Annika's Pictures

 The weekend we went to Saben and Annika's soccer games, Annika drew several pictures on my notepad during Saben's game.  I thought she did a good job on them!  (Stella is her kitten.)

Sunday - Letterboxing

 Sunday afternoon, we tried something new.  We had heard about an activity called "letterboxing" from a friend that does it with her 3 sons.  Basically it involves getting some clues from a website, then going out to find a box with a stamp in it.  You're supposed to bring a stamp ink pad with you, your own stamp and a book to put your stamped images in.  There's also a booklet in the box where you can put an image of your stamp.  Since we just wanted to try it, we just made a booklet quickly at home, grabbed the clues and took off.  This is us returning from finding our first box.

 We went to 6 different locations around Arlington and found 4 out of 6 of the boxes that we had clues for. 

 We actually didn't realize when we went out that we were supposed to bring our own stamp ink pad, but luckily, there was enough ink still on the stamps we found so the kids could get a fairly good stamp in their book.  Since we didn't have stamps of our own, we couldn't leave one in the book in the box.

 This is where Annika found one of the boxes.

 Saben found this one in a crack in the concrete wall.

This is the stamp that was in the box he found.  This activity was fun and seemed easier than Geo-caching, plus you don't need a GPS, just some clues that are pretty easy to follow!  Apparently this has been around for a long time, but we'd never heard of it before our friend mentioned it a couple of months ago.

Saturday Afternoon at the Pumpkin Farm

 After lunch on Saturday, we headed down to Snohomish where we met up with Todd, Betsy, & Seth at a pumpkin farm.  The first thing we saw when we entered was an old truck with a bubble blowing machine on it.

 The second thing we saw was the "jumping pillow"  A lot of kids could jump on it at once, but it didn't feel crowded, like a "Bouncy House" does.  We all thought it was better than a "bouncy house" because it was smooth instead of having ridges that would make you fall more.

 The kids really enjoyed the "jumping pillow"...

 ...especially when Todd ventured on to give it a try.

 "Dog pile" on Todd!  We finally convinced the kids to move on, although we did have to go back one more time before we left.

 The next thing they tried was hammering or pulling nails out of pieces of wood.  I was surprised at how much they enjoyed that activity.

 This area was called "Tire Mountain" and Annika was the Queen of the mountain.

 Saben tried to hide inside the big tire with a mud-ball that I wouldn't let him throw.

We also took a hay ride in a wagon with a stop to watch...

 ... a pumpkin cannon being shot.  They told the kids that it was pretty loud and that they should cover their ears, but it really wasn't very loud.

 I wanted to get a picture of the kids in this, but Saben got mad because Annika got to the hole in the middle first, so he wouldn't co-operate after that.

 This area was called "The Duck Races"  It was something I'd never seen before and was another fun activity for the kids and ... Ken.

 The race is on!

 Another race is starting through the corn maze.

Hiding in the corn.

 Annika got her face painted, while the boys continued to play on the "jumping pillow".

 A kitty for Annika.

 A shot with a wheelbarrow of fall gourds.

 Finally out to the pumpkin patch.

I really liked the pattern on the white & orange pumpkin.

Saturday Morning

 Saturday morning, Ken got out a remote controlled plane that I got him several years ago for a Christmas present.

 This was the planes "maiden voyage", it had been sitting untouched in a storage room, off the family room.  He quickly discovered that it needed more than the cement pad next to the house as a runway.  We moved to the driveway, which gave enough room for it to take off.

 The first landing was in one of the cherry trees.

 I caught just part of it in flight, but it was flying!

 Then another landing in the cherry tree.

After retrieving it this time, Ken decided he needed a bigger area to fly it in, so we went down to a baseball field in our development and tried flying it there.  He got a few flights in before it took a nose dive into the grass and broke part of it's wing.  That was the end of flying for that day and when it's fixed, Ken wants to try an even bigger field, so he can maneuver it better.

Bike Ride and Fish

Friday afternoon, we picked up Saben and Annika after school and brought them to our house for the weekend.  We brought their bikes with us, so after we got to our house, we headed out for a bike ride on the Centennial Trail.  I took the picture above while riding my bike behind them.  I was surprised at how well it turned out!

We rode 1 1/2 miles to this bridge where we thought we'd see salmon spawning in the river.

I stayed on the bridge while the others hiked down to the river.

This is the view from the bridge.  It was pretty there, but there weren't any salmon in the river, although they did see one dead one on the bank.

This is a view of the trail just past the bridge.

Another view of the river looking the other way.

After we got back to the car, we drove down the river a mile or so and found a spot where a lot of salmon were spawning, along with more dead ones.  I call this picture "Dead Fish and Dead Leaves; It's Fall and It's Smelly".

You can see some of the fish were still alive and swimming in the river.  I was surprised to see so many here and none at the other spot!

Pictures taken by the river.

Breast Cancer Awareness

 This is the display of bras in Wenatchee for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Painting a Dragon Fly

 This is what the dragon fly I painted looked like before being fired and before I added eyes...

 ...and this is what it looks like after being fired!  Quite a change!