Ouch...it hurts...

What? A post? I'm speechless.



It's been so long I'm rusty. My fingers feel like pin-pricks click clicking away on Blogger. Who knew it would hurt so bad.
Just kidding.
A travelogue is unavoidable, so here's a little rundown of the past couple of months. Has it really been that long? I'm not promising any memorable reading or even complete sentences. But then, do I ever?


August and September:
Camping with some fellow residents and families. Drove through the very nice town of Troy, Montana home of the Trojans and other famous people, like Heather?


Hiked an amazing cedar wood forest. Many cedars are hollow in the middle so you can climb inside. The cavities are called "Fairy Dens." How magical.



Enjoyed great food and company. Oh, ate raw corn on the cob and it was very, very good. The next time you come across corn picked within a few hour, try it raw. You’ll be glad you did.



Seattle: pretty much a 24 hour trip. For dinner on Friday night we stopped at this little Vietnamese-American diner. Natalie heard us say “eel burger” (followed by a mutual question mark) and very matter of fact said, "I want an eel burger." No hemming or hawing, just plain and simple.
And she got one.
And she ate one.
The owner got such a kick out of it. He watched her from the counter and then came out to our table and in very broken English asked her how she liked it and was smiling like mad. I tried a bite and gracefully filled my napkin within moments of it touching my tongue (carefully making sure the nice owner guy was not watching). In the morning we hung out at the pier. Saw an almost alarming number of OSU fans, including many boat decked out. Get it! Decked...out...

In the afternoon, Jared went to the OSU v. UW game with some guys from med school and the kids and I had a great time at the zoo.

What could she possibly be saying?


Oited?




This is us on the Seattle Temple ground. I was not expecting to feel so emotional going back for the first time since we were married. The grounds have changed some and it was just beautiful. Our little family where it all started. (Don't flower pots and 3 year olds make nice photographers?) I just love this photo of Isaac. Covered in who-knows-what, a sticker on his forehead, toddling along all happy-like.


We also visited George, Washington. Stopped for gas and when I stepped out of the car I practically fell over from the aroma. I don't usually describe towns having "aromas" but this one did! I’ve never smelt anything better. It was warm, minty, fresh, slightly dusty and all I can think to describe it was harvest---especially fitting because a huge trailer full of onion rambled past us as we were stretching and taking it all in. I just walked around in a daze taking deep, fulfilling breaths.
So, if I’m ever asked what my favorite smell is, I’ll say George, Washington. How’s that for conversation?A huge round of applause goes out to the first person to correctly say where this photo was taken. Here's a hint: not too far is a restaurant named Martha.

October:

Chewy died. Very sad few days for a certain small girl. She still talks about her and tells everyone "My pet is Chewy. She died." Lots of interesting conversation about death. There's a guinea pig heaven, right? Next to the goldfish heaven, I think. As we were digging the hole in the backyard Natalie says, "Hey! Maybe a prince guinea pig will come and dig her up and kiss her and she can come back to life." You can only hope. It's taken some time to get over missing her squeeking and whistling when the fridge opened and shut, or not being able to feed her treats (celery tops and broccoli bits). We miss having her sitting in one place munching happily on grass while the kids played around her in the backyard and Isaac going nuts with joy and terror when she'd run around. Natalie says she most misses hiding lettuce for her to find. Thanks Tara and Kenny for giving us a great pet for the past few years. And thanks to all our family and friends who were genuinely sad for us when you heard she died.


Let's see, what else? Met NJP's daughter Cali and she's just wonderful! I call dibs is she ever wants another place to stay.

Harvest Moon Ball---our stake adult dance. You know it's a rock'n party when a record player is playing a majority of the songs. We had a great, great time.

Mom's visit. She was here in the midst of "Jack the Pumpkin" visiting as well. I wanted to do something fun for the kids so each morning there was a surprise (ie. halloween flashlights, 79 cents each, or scavenger hunt clues to find ingredients for pumpkin cake, etc) with a note from Jack counting down the days until Halloween. I did 10 days which was waaaaay too many days. Next year he's only going to visit maybe 3 or 4. She was so confused how a pumpkin could get up on the table. Both kids loved it!

Trunk or Treat (Jared dubbed "Practice trick or treating") This is our monster car. There was smoke from a fog machine coming out its mouth and the candy was pushed out on a long tongue (red fabric covered board). It effectively scared enough kids to satisfy us.


Halloween--- a friend of mine came over with her kids because her husband was working late. Jared was nice enough to wrangle all the kids up and down the street as we munched veggies (hooray us!!!), chatted, and passed out candy.

Okay, I'm tired of writing. I've got to build up my stamina from not working out my fingers for so long.