I love that Ryker can read now and that 4-H still rocks! He read all the motivational signs in the livestock showing area.
Headed home with my newest addition to our nature Christmas tree....a little wheat from my Grandparent's farm. Granted it's not their farm anymore and technically it is stolen crop from Ron, but we don't need to go into ALL the details. It makes my Christmas tree feel a little more like home and it looked fabulous! (I'm sure you can't wait until I get my December pictures posted now. haha)
We arrived home to this little beauty stuck in a spider sticky trap.....hmmmmm.
I decided to try to keep the spider population from multiplying since it takes me a week after returning from our two months in Montana every summer just to clear the cobwebs. I didn't catch one spider, but I did catch a bat. We had seen one in the house the night before leaving for Alaska, but opened all the doors and though it had flown out. We were home for 4 days between our Alaska and Montana trips and never saw it so I was sure it was gone. Guess not.
Kya's going to kill me for this someday, but when we travel, both kids are so tired that I made them where pullups to bed. I didn't want them peeing someone else's bed or worse yet our camping gear so we'd have to sleep in a pee stench tent for days. She loved these big, roomy adult diapers I picked up along the way because I couldn't find any kids ones big enough for her.
The first day we were back home we had to roll over to Clayton's to meet Chopper.
Oh, what a cutie!
Skagit County Fair animal races. Ryker got picked to cheer for the blue animal which ended up being a sheep and lost.
Congratulating the winner
Kya got picked on a different race to cheer for the yellow animal.
Her animal won, but I can't remember what it was. Maybe the goat or the pig.
Ryker's thank you note to his best buddy Jacob. I'm not sure why there was a squid but I'm sure I'll be out of the loop for the rest of my life.
Of course we had to hit the Drive In as soon as we got back!
On the way there, the Navy was doing some training so we stopped to watch the sun set and the jets fly patterns.
A week after getting home.....another bat.....hmmmmm. The logical me figured this one died because there was no water source, but the crazy me wonders if it was sick??
I figured I could pay someone to test it and we'd be done. That wasn't exactly how it went down though after I called the health department, who referred me to my doctor and fish and wildlife bat specialists, and sent me info regarding a rabid bat recently found in eastern Washington for the first time in years, and a lady in Wyoming who recently died from bat transferred rabies (first case in about 30-50 years!). Let's just say they made everything a little bat shit crazy around here for a while. I know more about bats than I ever wanted to know.
Me: "Put that shirt in the too small box."
Ryker: "No it still fits."
You be the judge.
We had two more nests of bunnies this year when we got back near the nest from last year.
The first thing Kya and Alexis had to decide when they saw each other after a couple months was who was taller!
We had to upsize Ryker's water bottle for soccer because he drinks so much.
This was the first time the kids had seen raccoons up close so we stalked them for a while. It was a Mom and 4 babies so they were pretty fun to watch.
They had too much fun with these things. She wore them until they ran out after we got back.
Racecar at the Back to School Fair
Balloons from the neighbors party the night before. She went over with scissors to cut them off the fence and of course the first ones floated into the sky. They neighbors saw her and came out to help her with the next bunch of balloons, but I'd like to think she learned her lesson and would have been smart enough to grab the strings before snipping the second time around.
Our PacMan sidewalk chalk game. The rules seemed to change every day, but they had a good time with it until it rained a couple weeks later.
"If you don't know where you're going, then it doesn't matter which way you take." This was in the maze at the Berry Barn and it is so true of our summers. We will set out on an adventure somewhere and the kids will see a sign or something out the window and we'll just pull over to explore. Sometimes we never even make it to our destination that day and we have to start over the next. They are some lucky little shits are far as I'm concerned. We don't buy them a lot of "stuff" (besides sports equipment....we came to the realization this year that we'll buy them almost anything they need for sports without batting an eye) but I will take them on nonstop adventures as long as they behave.
Treasures from Grandma Vi's. We came back to some amazing yields on our tomato plants that we had planted in Vi's garden before we left.
Asa, Ryker, Pace at Geoff and Mary's
Pace wouldn't let me take his picture because he was on a purple bike, but this cheeseball thinks it's funny. He's already requesting pink socks because the older kids at his school wear them. I pray that he never cares what people think....if you need a bike and there is only purple available, ride it with a smile!
Lunch break!
Doctor's appointment
Back at our CSA. Wow, how things have grown!
Ryker hiding in the raspberries from us. He couldn't stop picking and eating though so we saw the bushes move and found him easily.
Our neighbors were having a garage sale so these two little money hounds added cookies and drinks to their flower stand. Eventually, they were directly in the neighbors yard because they weren't getting enough cars stopping. Once that happened, they sold a ton of cookies (probably mostly just to our neighbors, but they were loving it.)
There was a huge windstorm that blew through in August. I'm glad we were back from Montana because we were without power for 5 days and it was so hot that our freezers full of thousands of dollars of fish and beef were defrosting. Seth had purchased 2 generators a few months before and was going to get them all set up for the winter when our power often goes out......
Don't worry, it took me about a day of running around getting the proper cords, fuel, and oil, bugging our electrician neighbor and another for a little help, and some internet searches, but I got it figured out. I'm actually glad it happened because I won't forget how each one works now and how to transfer our house to generator power after plugging it in. We ended up being the envy of our neighborhood with our lights and tv running! One powered our whole house and I was able to plug our freezers into the other one.
This is our neighbors house. It happened the day of the garage sale so many of our neighbors were outside and saw these do down. Pretty crazy!
This was the first night before I realized we were going to be out for a while and got the generators going. Most of Western Washington was without power and since we live in an unpopulated area, we are always last to be restored.
Our walk around the neighborhood to access the damage. Mostly just to ooooo and ahhhhh over all the trees that blew over.
This was in Ryker's schoolwork. I guess that hunting trip was pretty memorable for him. I didn't realize they used pistols to shoot pheasants though;) It's funny to me because they are all labeled and he is in the back of the group with no gun. Of course he didn't have a gun and I'm sure they told him to stay behind everyone.....totally accurate! Ryker, Alex, Seth, Aidan, Clayton, and Geoff.
First day of school for Ryker. Kya starts next week.
Back to the grind!
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