Pumpkin Painting

'Tis the season to carve pumpkins. Except I didn't want to carve pumpkins. I wanted to paint them. No knives and no inner pumpkin gloop to scoop. (Thanks be to my sister for this idea.)

Watching the kids explain their paintings was the highlight of my week. I love that they are becoming more autonomous and creative. It is so fun to watch what they come up with.

Here is Sienna describing her pumpkin face:



Here's Noah describing his pumpkin face:



My favorite part is when he says, "That one is the creak of it." I have no idea what that means!

Here's my pumpkin. I only share this because I love the kid commentary that goes along with it, especially when they name their pumpkins. Plus Sienna bursts into song at the end. That's always a treat.

Lately

And now for a hodge podge post. 

Adam's sister was one of our fabulous nannies that watched the kids while we were in Peru. We had a day to spend with her and her adorable little 10 month old Levi before we left. She'd never been to Pike Place, so we took her there, obviously.

 We got a babysitter and ate large burgers at Uneeda burger.

Fast forward, we're back from Peru and I went on a run one morning and came home to my little fan club waving at me out on the balcony. "HI MOM!" 

 We went back to Pike Place on a recent Saturday to putz around. I had my eye on Piroshky, Piroshky, a widely acclaimed Russian bun eatery. We got a couple meat and cheese buns to share. I liked them. Adam positively died over them. We need to go back for the salmon pate one apparently. The apple cinnamon roll was okay.

 More dessert was needed, so we got ice cream. Mint on mint on Noah.

 Last weekend Adam introduced our home to his family's General Conference tradition of cinnamon rolls.

 So yummy!

 After dinner one night last week, we did this. Adam was getting home late, so what else were we supposed to do?

 Fridays some friends and I do a very informal nature school. Last week's was at the UW Arboretum's Japanese Gardens. Sienna had school off this day, so she came with us. The colors were turning so it was extra beautiful. The kids did pretty well at obeying the "please be calm and quiet" rules. Until they didn't, and we left to do a hike along the outskirts of the gardens. We collected some leaves and brought them home. I showed them how to put the leaf under paper and press a crayon over the top. Sienna thought it was pretty neat but couldn't really do it on her own.

Who needs Pinterest when you've got a brain as naturally creative as mine?

 Sienna, Brielle, Noah, Leif.

We visited The Farm at Swan's Trail yesterday for the obligatory yearly pumpkin patch experience. We came to this place last year and it was all sorts of fun.

 Here's the money shot.

 Adam and his mini-me.

 Here's a disjointed family shot. It looks like Adam and I were hoping to have a couples only photo with some hay bails and our kids happened to show up right behind us with smiles on.

 This barn was a real hit. It made me miss my grandpa's farm where I'd spend hours jumping all over hay bales and throwing myself into piles of hay. These kids got 20 minutes of that. Is that enough to sustain a proper childhood?

 Adam and I really branched out for date night last night. We always talk about "getting in on the Seattle music scene" but never know where to start. Adam went for it and bought very cheap tickets to some bands we'd never even heard of. We got there right on time, we are punctual people after all. The show didn't start until an hour later, rockers are not punctual people after all. The bands we saw were as follows: If Penguins Could Fly, Ghost Parade (pictured below), Kiven, and the band everyone was most excited about, Rags and Ribbons. Memorable band names found on advertisements on the grimy wall beside me that I read while I was waiting for take down of set up of each band were as follows:  Guttermouth (playing today, darn it, we're going to miss them), Witchburn, Skinlab, and Pup.

Other things I did while waiting for each band to set up and take down were as follows: read my lesson I was to teach today in my Valiant 9 class and at 10 pm eat a BBQ pulled pork sandwich with potato salad. Adam caught up on his scripture reading.

Obviously this was not our venue of true belonging, but it was a start! I think we'll find our niche soon enough in the Seattle music scene. Right after my ears stop ringing.

Family Pictures

 My friend, Rachel, took these photos of our family. I love them! She captured some really great ones of the kids.

 I asked her to take them at the Olympic Sculpture Gardens, one of my favorite outdoor places in Seattle.

 The sunlight situation was not ideal but she did a great job. This last one shows you just how sunny (and hot!) it was, but I love that weird bench and of course the Space Needle.

Noah Goes To Preschool

 Noah is such a little sweetheart. He wakes up in the morning with a whole face that smiles. He radiates joy.

 He was sooooooooo excited to start school.

 I snapped these just outside the door to his preschool. It's in the basement of an old Methodist church. Teacher Bonnie and Teacher Joan run it, and they are adorable ladies. They love Noah and he loves them.

 He came home one day telling me something "Teacher Bone" said. They are one and the same I guess.

 I took these pictures a couple days before school started. Because we were just so excited to start school!

And this is Noah in a couple years. Adam's mom sent this to me recently, it's him on his first day of kindergarten. Adam and Noah, one and the same. Adoah. Noadam. Isn't he a cutie?

Noah Bites It

This is a video to remember. Noah is one tough dude.

Peru Trip: The Hike, Day 4

On our final day of the hike, we woke up at 4 am so the porters could gather everything up and reach the only train that could take them home. We were only a couple miles away from Machu Picchu at this point, so we hiked to the Sun Gate and waited for it to open at dawn. Nearly all of the paths we walked on during our four days of hiking had steep cliffs off one side, so hiking in the dark was not allowed.

 This doesn't look like much, but it's Machu Picchu covered in fog.

 Gradually lifting, almost there....

 Tah-dah! There she is. Machu Picchu means "Old Mountain" by the way.

 Francis, Robert, Daniel and Frank. Good traveling mates indeed.

 Alejandro shared his flute skills with us several times. In fact one really cool moment that I don't have pictures of is when he made a tribute to Pachamama (the mother earth) and played a lovely tune. He is part of the Andean Religion, which is a belief system recognizing the energy that comes from nature. The sun, the earth, the moon, the water, the mountains, etc.. When the energy of these elements is unbalanced, they perform rituals to get back in alignment. He buried coca leaves in the ground so Pachamama would bless us. It was a beautiful moment, we were near a serene pond and it was lightly raining. Ahhhh, Pachamama, rain down your goodness upon us. And she did. Oh, she did.

 Odie, Alejandro and Joel, our three fearless leaders!

 The Brits with their selfie stick. Every time they brought this out I died laughing. They were a hoot!

 Oh those Brits.

 WE DID IT! Jackie, Cheryl, Sonny, Chris, Francis, Robert, Frank, Daniel, Ashwin and Kulraj. Such a wonderful group of people to share our stinky selves with.

 After taking a million pictures of our bad selves, we actually walked down to the ruins and explored them.  You know, to take advantage of the whole reason we came to Peru in the first place.

 Alejandro regaled us with more of his signature "history time."

 We all took a side hike to an Inca bridge, which happened to be nothing more than a couple logs placed over a gap. NOT their finest accomplishment, but because of all their other accomplishments, they get a pass on that one. In fact it probably wasn't even them because it was made of wood and they did not deal in wood, just stone.

 A plaque honoring Hiram Bingham, the American archaeologist who uncovered Machu Picchu in 1911.

 That's a wrap! We came, we saw, we conquered.

 And I'm ready for a shower. Greasy, stinky, sweaty, scruffy, that's us.

 We took a bus to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of the Old Mountain, and we had lunch with our group.

I had baked trout, cheesy potatoes, salad and a giant vat-goblet of passion fruit juice.

 
Adam had some kind of meat on cheesy mashed potatoes with vegis. Don't forget the giant vat-goblet of passion fruit juice.

This town was fun, I wish we'd had more time there.

Adios Hot Water/Aguas Calientes. We hopped the PeruRail train and headed back to Cusco for an aguas calientes shower!!!