Apple Hill

Yesterday we took a little day trip to Apple Hill in Camino, California.....about an hour and half drive (which feels like a 10 hour drive with a screaming toddler). We left Carson City around Owen's nap time thinking he would sleep the whole way, but he had other ideas. He fell asleep right as we pulled into Apple Hill. Oh well. We let him sleep for a while and when he woke up he was his normal happy self.

Apple Hill is an area with over 50 apple farms and the fall season is big there. Everything you can possibly make with apples, you can find on apple hill......of course we ate apple pie and even brought one to eat at home. The first 2 pictures were taken at the very beginning of our trip, while Owen was still happy.

With our friends Mikki, Kameron, Gladys, Ethan and Steve.

Owen & Kameron

Ethan & Owen

I'm not sure which nose is dirtier????

The Boys

At Denver Dan's Apple Farm

Carson Valley Harvest Festival

Yesterday we took Owen to the Carson Valley Harvest Festival in Gardnerville. The weather was gorgeous and we all had so much fun! Owen's favorite thing to do there was hang out in the petting zoo. But he also got to watch a pig race, ride a train pulled by a tractor, run through a corn maze, and play in the pumpkin patch. Here's Owen at the petting zoo feeding the goats.

Petting the pony

Owen loved the soft bunny



Here we are going through the corn maze. This was actually kind of scary because Owen kept running away from us and I worried that we would loose him in the maze.

Owen giving the pumpkin a hug

Owen saw older kids doing this and he wanted to try all by himself (even though he could barely lift the hammer)

Braveheart Look-Alike

Owen + cupcake with blue icing = a character from Braveheart!


Owen, Jessie and Kameron at Ethan's birthday party! Owen actually loved his party hat.....he had to wear it the entire time.

Introducing Cecily Anna Douglas

Tracy, one of my best friends and college roomies, had a baby girl last week! Many of you that follow our blog know Tracy (or feel like you know her) and will be happy to learn that she and baby Cecily are doing wonderfully. Seriously, after my conversations with Tracy on the phone, it is clear that she was absolutely meant to be a mother. Her strength is astounding. Her husband Matt serves our country in the Army and is currently deployed in Iraq. Thanks to wonderful technology, he was able to be there for the birth of his daughter via webcam! Tracy is also able to keep in touch with him daily through phone calls, emails and Skype.

Cecily Anna Douglas
October 7, 2008
6:26 am
7 pounds, 10 ounces


I am planning a trip to Texas in November to meet this beautiful baby girl. I can hardly wait!

Our Pumpkin!

So, all this freezing weather has not been good for our garden. Despite the fact that we covered all the plants up for the storm, everything died this past weekend......bummer because there were a ton of tomatoes on the vine. But look what made it through the cold temperatures.......a very large pumpkin!

Last year after Halloween we put our pumpkin in the compost pile and it must have seeded into the ground. This summer the plant took over our garden. It took us a long time to figure out what kind of plant it was because this huge plant only produced 2 pumpkins. Stay tuned because we're going to carve this pumpkin in a few weeks!





This is the other pumpkin. It actually grew around a fence.

Owen's Many Expressions

Owen turned 22 months old yesterday! The older he gets, the more animated he becomes. He also likes to copy our facial expressions.

Snow? REALLY????

It's October 10th.
It's 33 degrees outside.
And it's snowing.
Ugggghhhhhhh.

What happened to Fall??

I'm not afraid of a gorilla.....

I have fond memories of my dad chasing me around the house in a gorilla mask when I was a young girl. I have no idea what ever happened to his mask, but recently, while looking at Halloween costumes at Target, we came across a gorilla mask and I couldn't pass it up! At first Owen wasn't so sure of the mask, but now he begs us to put it on and chase him through the house! He'll even give the gorilla a kiss!


Sandy looks a little concerned here, doesn't she?

Oktoberfest

Yesterday we went to Oktoberfest in Camp Richardson, CA. They had a band and pumpkin patch for Owen, and lots of beer for Micah......this kept both of my boys happy.

Micah and Chris are having a contest to see who can hold their beer out in front of them the longest. And Owen was copying them with his water bottle....pretty cute!

Owen and his new best friend, Chris

Motorcycles and Yard Work

Owen is crazy about motorcycles. He gets so excited everytime he sees one on the road. So this weekend there was a huge motorcycle event called Street Vibrations in Northern Nevada......motorcycles took over! We took Owen to the local Harley Davidson dealership to see all the festivities and he loved it.

This boy needs a bath!

Owen loves helping his daddy with yard work.



Micah and Owen have matching Vans. Thanks to Uncle Mark for Owen's stylish shoes!

Our Garden

Every day when Micah gets home from work, he and Owen go straight to our garden to pick veggies. Owen loves to eat the tomatoes directly from the plant!

Here he is showing off a nice zucchini.

It sure did get quiet in here......

When it gets quiet in our house, we know Owen is up to something. A few days ago I went searching for him after it became awfully quiet and this is what I found. He just pushes the chairs around so he can reach whatever he wants......in this case, plain hot dog buns appealed to him. YUM!

Owen is now 21 months old and has finally started speaking some words. He seems to be picking up new words on a daily basis now. So far he's saying: mama, dada, dog (of course), thank you, water, Ryder (his best buddy), car, no, stop, ball, hi, bye, lion, tiger, and MINE! He says "thank you" now after we hand him anything. It's so cute to have a toddler with manners....now, if we can just keep that up through his teenage years!

Attack!!!!!

Berkeley, San Francisco & Six Flags

It has been a very busy week for us.....Last week I spent the week in Berkeley, CA at a training for my new job! That's right, I have a new position at the Nevada State Health Division as the Breastfeeding Coordinator! This is a brand new position and I am thrilled to start my new job. I'll be doing both old and new jobs for a while until they find a replacement for my old job, but it is an exciting time for me.....a good change.

Anyway, Micah and Owen met me in Berkeley late Wednesday night (I missed my boys) and they played on Thursday and Friday while I was in my training. Then we stayed in the Bay area for the weekend. We spent Saturday in San Francisco.....visited Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and just walked around and enjoyed the outdoors. On Sunday we took Owen to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - his first visit to an amusement park. He saw dolphins, killer whales, elephants, sharks, rode a few rides, rode Thomas the Train, and even pet a snake! Micah and I also took turns riding a few big roller coasters, which we hadn't done in years! We were all exhausted by the end of the day!