Fall Fun!

Our October ended with a pumpkin carving chowder night, Halloween fun and a wonderful visit with our Beaverton pals the Lovelands! On Halloween night the dads took kids trick or treating while the mom's snuck chocolate and answered the door at our house.
Saturday we visited San Fran in the pouring rain--still a fun time! We also made the traditional Jelly Belly factory stop. A nice ending to a great month.

Silly "Twirly" Swings

A day doesn't go by without two little boys begging Mom to swing them in the backyard. On this day the Dudes decided that helmets were necessary to the experience--though Mom was a bit worried that the weight of their noggins would have a precarious bobble head effect.

Bounce! Bounce!

Ben loves to play with Anna.

Dudes on the Farm

Jake and Seth spend hours pretending to be farmers. This is a pretty typical scene at our house. They are in their combines, but they're feeding the cows. Make sure you turn your volume up to catch what they are saying.

Cousins, Grandparents, and Airplanes!

Though we are still experiencing beautiful summerish weather, when we look at the calendar we have to admit to ourselves that summer truly is over. We finished out our summer with fun visits from Bragonje cousins and Bleazard Grandparents. Scott's sister Ann, her hubby John and their three cute kids stopped for a couple of days of fun while they were in town for a wedding. Though short lived we enjoyed their visit immensly. We tried to cram in as much fun as we could--a visit to the Jelly Belly factory, the Travis Air Museum, a BBQ, and lots of gabbing.

We also enjoyed a great Labor Day weekend with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Tractor (Bleazard). This area holds a lot of history for Scott's parents. In fact, they met here when Lynn was stationed at Travis as a young man. The AF hosted an awesome airshow on base that weekend. We took the kids Anna got bored after the first stunt plane, Seth insisted on walking the length of the entire airfield to see every single aircraft (no Apache helicopters to his great disappointment), Jake loved everything up until an F-18 did an unexpected flyby and freaked him out (they are incredibly loud), somehow Ben fell asleep in Ange's lap during the same F-18 demonstration. Overall it was a pretty cool AF day.
The next day we went to Six Flags. Hey with a one-to-one kid-to-adult ratio why not. We never thought we’d have so much fun riding kiddy rides and paying way too much for ice cream cones, but the kids loved it. They enjoyed the Thomas rides best mostly because Seth finally got his helicopter ride on Harold the Helicopter. He even got to be the pilot. We also saw dolphins, sharks, and a killer whale show. The rest of that weekend was just as busy and fun with another visit to the Jelly Belly factory and a trip to the Oakland Temple visitor’s center for an incredible statue exhibit depicting the life of Christ.

We have finally settled into our new home--Ange has even managed to cover the mustard yellow paint that was in the kitchen with a more relaxing color. Scott likes work and is getting used to "the AF way of doing things." Ange has a long list of projects that keeps her busy and happy. Anna is in school, Seth and Jake are crazy into tractors right now and Ben is smiling and growing.
LIFE IS GOOD!

Fun in the Sun

We certainly miss a lot of things about Beaverton, but the weather isn't one of them! The kids have spent hours outdoors in their pool, consuming large quantities of popsicles and complaining about Mom's constant slathering of sunscreen. We love sunny weather!

Ben