Hudson Valley

We went to the Hudson Valley in New York for our annual fall extravaganza. Mom, Dad and Zahra met up with us and had a great time. We went to Philipsburg Manor (a revolutionary war home), Sunnyside (Washington Irving's house), Kykuit (The Rockerfeller mansion), The Culinary Institute of America, and we capped off our weekend with the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. The Blaze gets better and better every year, and never ceases to amaze me. I loved the pirates this year, Carter loved the dinosaurs hatching out of gourds. Aidan wanted to be carried, and we had to keep Dad from falling every other step. (Dark, uneven spaces are never good for a natural born klutz.)

Fall is for Apple Picking

We took the boys apple picking 2 weeks ago, and came home with 60 pounds of apples. Aidan had recently made applesauce in school and "taught" Jason how to make it. (He told him to put in 3 apples, a big cup of sugar and cook it for 8 or 2 hours.) We then spent the next day canning all the applesauce that 60 pounds of apples make.
The boys had a great time picking and it always feels like fall when you settle down to some homemade apple treats.

Sharing a Moment

Keaton is starting to get very demanding about getting his fair share. If anyone is eating something, he screams a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream until he gets some too. The older boys have finally realized that if they give in quickly, the screams stop. Here are Aidan and Keaton have a sharing moment.

Finally the wedding!!

I know I am way behind on keeping you involved in our lives, so I will now post about another highlight of our summer. . . . Clay and Aria's wedding.
It was truly beautiful, and we are so happy that Clay found such a darling girl to marry him. The kids were so excited to be at the wedding and the reception was a hit with the paddle boats.
What a great end to a great summer!

Ramptonville Oregon Coast

We spent an idyllic week with all the Rampton clan on the Oregon coast. We rented a huge house on the beach and were able to spend the entire week with the ones we love the most. We had a great time crabbing, (we actually caught and ate some) kite flying, eating, judging the annual ugly picture contest (www.uglypicturecontest.blogspot.com), eating, hiking, doing puzzles (Jason), hottubbing (Carter and Aidan), eating, ultimate frisbee, going to a cheese factory, and eating all the while. Here are some of our finest moments. Thanks for a great week gang!

How does your garden grow?

I have found that it is impossible to get 3 children to look at the camera at the same time and have them smile! If I were very adept at photoshop I could make it work, but that is one thing I can't manage to fit into my day.

The boys are loving the warmer weather, and they love to be out while I work in the garden. However, Aidan has decided he is deathly afraid of bees. He make me douse him in "bug spray" before he will go outside. (Plain old water in an old bug repellent bottle works wonders.) Even then, he scream a bloodcurdling scream anytime he sees anything that might be a bee. Sometimes it turns out to be a fly, a flower petal, water, or my favorite ... invisible bees. We're trying to rid him of the paranoia, but hey, some people are still afraid of crickets at the ripe old age of 56!

Carter and his favorite tree.

Carter loves to climb the crabapple tree in our front yard. He been scrambling into the tree since the summer he was 2 years old.
Although it doesn't give him any pause at all anymore, you still find him sitting and hanging out it his favorite tree.