Halloween

 We had a fun Halloween around these parts.

 Mitchell reprised his pirate role while Shan killed it as a Rockford Peach.

This was his best pirate outfit yet!

 

After visiting the grandparents and a couple teacher stops, we went to EHS and enjoyed their indoor trick-or-treating. Lovely to be warm!

 The neighbors met at our place for the yearly trek, which is always fun.

Their biggest haul ever. Whew! Thank heavens for toothpaste!

Soccer Season

Shannon played soccer again this fall and really enjoyed herself.

 Her team was U9, which meant they had goalies and 7 players on the field at a time (much more than last fall!). 

 We also traveled to Quincy, Moses Lake and Othello during the season.

 It was a good bunch of girls - lots of personality and a range of abilities. Shannon improved mightily during the season and even enjoyed the challenge of being keeper a few times.

I helped coach with Shannon Dahl and we were a pretty good duo. It was a fun season - and we even won a few games!

Fall Fun

Half days of school mean full days of fun...

Neighborhood Fall Party

The weather was chilly and threatened rain, but the party must go on!

 We cleaned out pumpkins,

 carved faces, 

 prepared the cider press,

 made cider,

and played some football. We also enjoyed a hot dinner and lots of visiting. Such a fun neighborhood to be part of!

Spirit Week

Homecoming week is noted at the other schools as well and there are regularly spirit days. This year both Parkway and Grant had Character Day... 

 I went as Mary Poppins - pish posh!

 Mitch was a classic as Tom Sawyer

and Shan was Fern with Wilbur from Charlotte's Web.

Spirit Day rounded out the week. Go Tigers!

Pio Pack in Pacific City

My Linfield girls got together for a nice weekend at the Oregon Coast. Friday was a no-student day so I took it as a personal day and made the trek. 

Nina and I stopped at campus to see the colors and get some updated gear. 

Then we arrived at the beach house first - and immediately found the sunshine.

 

We planted ourselves on the deck and greeted the other arrivals.

From the deck, we saw a whale spout - 6 times! I was SO excited as it was my first non-orca sighting. Oh, happy day!

Of course we enjoyed our usual clothing exchange that evening.

The view from our house is lovely - and the sunset was a fine end to the day.

 

Saturday brought more sunshine and we trekked up the dune.

   The whole crew made it to the summit, before racing back down and enjoying lunch.

Picked up a little something for BJ and carried it home up the dunes...

  We did puzzles, played games, got pedicures, dined, did some Ms PacMan, and enjoyed the guitar. It's always fun relaxing and spending time together.

Sunrise was impressive.

20 years of friendship - Hail, Hail the Pioneer Pack!

No School Friday

No school for students on a Friday means lots of time with grandparents. Add to that a couple parents who are leaving town, and you get LOTS of grandparent time!

 The kids and GGA made the Beesley trek in the sunshine.

 They threw rocks and tried to flag down a passing helicopter.

 They also found some bumbershoots to keep them shaded...

 Then it was off to the pumpkin patch for some fall color and gourds.

Due to the frost earlier, Pumpkin Jack was giving away much of his product. They brought us 8 pumpkins, some gourds, nuts, and colorful corn. Then they made another trip to load up on pumpkins for others. Such fall fun!

School Pics

 Mitchell is in his final year of grade school as a 4th grader. He is in Mrs. Noel's room and is doing ASB and LEGO robotics.

 Shannon is enjoying 2nd grade with Mrs. Byam and Mrs. McNeill.

5th grade again for me...

And B-Dawg is rocking EHS for year 4.