Christmas is coming!

Santa Claus has been sighted,

the candy canes are being consumed,

Christmas lights are being hung,

and the parade has been attended.

Now we just need to get a Christmas tree! Hopefully this weekend we will all be home at the same time.

Happy Belated Birthday Jordan!

It's not that we missed Jordan's birthday we celebrated it on the 19th just like we were supposed to. However, her mother is a little slow with blog posts lately.
So Happy Birthday Jordan! We hope your year will be a great one!!

13 candles still fit just right on the cake. Of course it was her traditional "mom's homemade ice cream cake"

Basketball season in upon us

Tori has started out the season for us and getting our backs and rears in shape for the bleachers.
For her first time to ever play the game she did great! She learned quick and used her I'm mad at my sister tactics to get the ball from the opposing team.

For the last 3 games she played with a broken toe, but wasn't about to sit it out on the bench.

Jordan will be starting soon so I guess in the mean time to keep our backs in shape we will attend the games Chad is referring.

The many colors of Autumn

I love the fall and the changing of leaves. I think it's one of the greatest changes the Lord put on the earth! It's been wonderful living amongst the trees and watching the transformation of the leaves take place. I only wish I would have had more time to get out and take more scenery pictures of it all. Next year!

This fall brought more then just the changing of the leaves.

It also included middle school volleyball games with Jordan,

Fall also means applesauce and pumpkins!

Halloween is also part of the colors of fall!

Clam Digging 101

We were invited to learn the art of clam digging last weekend. It's pretty simple actually and can be a lot of fun as well as a good chance to get outside and enjoy your kids!

To dig clams it goes something like this...

Wait until the tide is at it's lowest and then,

Push clam gun into the sand when you see a bubble in the sand,
Pull up gun and inspect for shells.
Then repeat,

Push gun in....

Pull gun out and check...

Repeat! Get the idea? Pretty simple isn't it?

Our limit for the night was 15 clams each, which translated to 75 clams. We came home with about 55- we had to stop due to lack of daylight and the rains coming down.

Jumping Salmon

Watch closely and you will see the fish attempt to jump up stream. It's near the end!

Grandpa and Grandma come to visit

To start off the visit, we met them in Portland to attend the LDS temple with this special family! It was a great experience to be there with Tiffany and Eric while their family was sealed together for time and all eternity.

Between job hunting for David and Richelle, we did some playing and sight seeing. We started with the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day so we took the opportunity!

One afternoon we ventured out to the hot springs to go soak our tired bones. It was nice to have a pool for everyone's heat liking.

We stopped to see if there were any fish in the traps at the fish hatchery. The salmon are starting to run, watch for a seperate post on the fish

We took them to all the Twilight hot spots.

Even checked to see how we measured up the rain-o-meter in Forks!

Spent a rainy afternoon hiking to Cape Flattery (the most North-Western point in the continental US)

We all got soaked, but it was still amazing out there on the point!

Grandpa was a gracious pack mule for Kordale.

It was a fun week, filled with activity. So when they announced they were going to stay another week, we just enjoyed and relaxed! We look forward to them coming back for Christmas :)

Sea Bass Fishing

We got invited to go out and do some fishing on the ocean. Of course we didn't turn down the chance. Kids got out of school a few minutes early and off we went, thinking it would be a no hassle sort of thing.

Take note that you see Tori's face in this picture, because that was about the only time we saw her also for the trip.

Chad got the first catch of the evening. Our friend who invited us was very jealous of his catch!

Jordan had a good time reeling them in also

I of course took a turn with the fun and excitement!

Morgan probably had the record for most fish caught, she just kept them coming all night.

However, this is the way the girls spent most of the trip. Tori emerged once to hang her head over the boat and do some chumming for us (YUCK!)

Kordale however, he didn't wait to be held over the side of the boat! No, he released it all over mom!!! Not just once but twice...this picture was after the second time when he felt 100% better!

Despite the puking people in our family (let me just say that Morgan, Jordan and Mom have the iron stomaches) we had a great time and caught more then we can ever eat ourselves!

After Capt. Dave cleaned it all and sold what he needed to in order to pay for the trip this is what we got. It was probably about 30 lbs. worth of fish! We look forward to going again, but this time I will arm those weaklings in the bunch with some dramamine :)

Our next Band Hero!!!

No band offered in school this year, we figured we would teach the kids ourselves (or let the Wii guide them) Kordale is our first student!

We even provided a tutor for him to watch and learn from.

I think he's going to be a quick learner!

Beach Days of Summer

It's not really that the beach is HOT here, but you still gotta keep a boy hydrated while he's watching the waves come rolling in.

Jordan came home from here summer travels and was dying to hit the beach. So for my birthday we took here.

She quickly realized the water here is FREEZING!!! However, she still enjoyed about an hours worth of playing in the waves.

We spent another day at Rialto Beach which is littered with huge pieces of driftwood. Makes for a great playground for imaginative minds!
It also makes some pretty amazing photo opportunities (click on this picture to make it bigger, enhances the picture so much more)

We found the perfect family size chair, sitting for 6! To bad Chad couldn't pick that up on his shoulder and take it home :)

How's this for trick photography? Footprints in the sand or are they sculptures of our feet? You decide.