Decorating the tree

Although we got the tree on Friday, we waited until Stevie was home again on Sunday to decorate it.  Diana, Carlos, Charles, Stevie and I had gone out earlier in the day for a little Christmas shopping, but when we came home we got to work.  The kids are great helpers getting the decorations out and putting the ornaments on the tree.  Now Cannon is so tall, we don't have ornaments on the bottom half only!

Emmy trying to be a Christmas tree.

He never changes - that photo was from Kindergarten.

The finished product:

Tree-time

We were very fortunate to have Diana, Carlos and Charles come join us for Thanksgiving this year.  They flew in on Thanksgiving day since Stevie was on call that day anyways.  We had decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday instead and then get our tree on Sunday since he would be on call on Saturday too.

Stevie came home from work on Friday morning to tell us that the weather forcast for Sunday was bad - a nasty wintry mix - so he suggested that we get our tree on Friday instead.  That threw a small clog in my wheel since I had Thanksgiving dinner to prepare, but we rallied and all got dressed, breakfast and out the door by 10:00.  Stevie had picked a tree farm about an hour away that sounded like a lot of fun.

The farm was huge and had quite the set up going with hot chocolate, cider, fire pits and even its own Christmas store.

Warming up with cider before we head out.

After some cocoa, we headed out to the fields to find the perfect tree.

This one?  No...

This one!!! (The one behind us, not in front.)  (Yes, even Mick helped us decide.)

Look!  That's me in a picture!!!

After selecting the perfect one, the men took over to get their yearly lumberjack fix.

Timber!

The kind folks at the tree farm helped us tie the thing on our roof since we don't have a roof rack and we had an hour's drive!  It stayed on, though, and we got back in time for me to cook the turkey and fixings and to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Nature pics from Washington

Sometimes the beauty of the world just makes me grab my camera and shoot a bunch of pics.  Hope you enjoy them.

We had a week of serious fog in October

Fall colors - caught this one before a horrific wind storm came through and blew all the leaves away

Sunrise

And then one night there was a ribbon of fog in the valley below our house that I tracked in a progression of pictures.

Halloween

I know I'm super late posting this about Halloween (yes, it's almost Christmas!) so I'll just do a quick run through with photos...

Two days before, Stevie carved the pumpkins with the kids.  I consider that's his job since he's the surgeon and he does a pretty good job at it!

On Halloween day, the little ones get to go to school in costume.  Emmy wanted to be a wolf.  I made the body of the costume out of a rabbit fur coat that was mine as a child.  I had hauled it back from Hilton Head with me!  London wanted to be a hawk.  We made his feather vest and mask, but got help from Amazon for the wings.

In the afternoon, at school, the kids each had a party and then the whole school does a parade around all the classrooms.  It's quite loud and boisterous and fun!

That night we decided to join our friends in Bremerton, the Bailey's, for trick-or-treating.  They were having an open house/party so the kids got to not only go trick-or-treating, but also play with friends and run off all that sugar.  It was lots of fun!

About Cannon's costume, the Witch King from "Lord of the Rings" - he made the whole thing himself!  He started working on it in June and made all the pieces individually out of cardboard, spray paint, foam, etc.  It was pretty amazing!  He had a blast on Halloween night as he stationed himself at the end of the Bailey's driveway.  As people came up to him to see if he was real, he moved and screamed at them.  Lots and lots of people (big and small) were pretty scared!

Emmy and her friend Ben

Our Soccer Star

London is naturally gifted at playing soccer and he couldn't wait for this fall so that he could play again.  Last year we missed the sign up because we had just moved to Washington, so this year I made sure I didn't miss the deadline!  We signed him up for the Harbor League which offers the "fun" type of soccer versus the "serious" type offered by the other program in town.  Nevertheless, he got assigned to a great team with some amazing players.  His team was called "Lightning" by the league, but the players renamed themselves the "Sounders Junior" (for you non-soccer people, the Sounders are the professional team in Seattle.)

We had a great time watching the games which were usually blow-outs in favor of the Sounders Junior.  Only the first game did they get their tails whooped by a mainly Hispanic team whose members were all destined to be national soccer stars.

Here are some photos from a VERY windy game in late October.  It was so windy that day that one of the goals blew over!


After taking these photos, I realized that London plays with his tongue sticking out!

What's that dog doing there???

Chasing down the ball - the boy's got SPEED

Does this tell you how cold and windy the game was?  Even Stevie is bundled up.

With his coach and other players

 

Debate

Cannon had his first debate tournament this weekend and so we had to fix him up with some "professional" clothes to look the part.  Doesn't he look smart and grown up?  Yes, those are his dad's shoes he's wearing!!!