Wildlife Refuge

The night before Jude left, we took her to see our local Wildlife Refuge. This place is awesome - you drive through really slow, and check out all the local birds and wildlife. It's a loop that is several miles long, through woods and around marshes and creeks. We go several times a year, and it's always different, and you always see something new.

This time we saw Silver Herons, a Bald Eagle, Sand Pipers, several Osprey, and a truck stop for the Canadian Geese flying South for the Winter. They are amazing birds these Geese... somehow they all know where to stop and rest, and you'll come across fields with hundreds of geese just chillin. They don't all travel together, but they all seem to know where to congregate. Odd ducks. Geese? Whatever.

Silver Heron

and another

Sand Pipers

a field of Geese


and although I didn't get pictures of the Bald Eagle or Ospreys, I did get one of the incredible moon that was close enough to touch


It was a fun ride through there, as always!

Our Lakes

So this was on the last day with Jude here... we went for a drive all over the place to show her our pretty area. We went to our town lake for a small walk while Makenna was in preschool.

Jason played for like 2 seconds... did this


and this


and did THIS to his brand spanking new pants that I had just tore the tags off of that morning *sigh*


so pretty there... I need to go back up in a week or two, to see what the leaves have done




After we went to get Makenna, we went to have lunch with Jerome, then to the big town lake (Vancouver Lake). It was gorgeous!! Totally empty, with the geese flying over us, a beautiful day... perfection!






a perfect day for hill rolling, I must say (and yes her khakis got mud and grass marks too... 2 pairs of khakis thrashed. I think I got the stains out today though)






awww... he loves his Mommy. Only 2 and writing so well ;)


they played in the sand for hours while we were waiting for J to get off of work! It was just a mellow afternoon. I laid back in the grass and almost fell asleep. It was nice to have MIL there to keep an eye on them


this one cracks me up... totally looks like I'm torturing him! He kept pulling me back on him and was laughing, but this picture looks like he's crying. I SWEAR I wasn't hurting him


and apparently, I'm the eyeless wonder. Creepy!


moi


the geese from my view on the ground


and Mt Hood got some snow so it looked pretty too

Jasons 2nd Birthday Party!

It was so fun! I know Jason sure had a blast, and I hope everyone else did as well.

We had it at the park and thank goodness it didn't rain. It was a smidge cold for some people, but we had a nice fire in the shelter, and pocket warmers. I was running around so I didn't even notice the cold ;)



the front table was where our construction workers picked up their tool belts, customized their hard hats and got tough man truck tattoos


the food






the truck quarry


all the kids liked it


the Birthday Boy


bounce house fun, of course

cone sippy cups - what will they come up with next??


cake!






another satisfied customer...


and this little tired boy was worn out as we were packing up... he almost fell asleep on Daddy!

Train Ride and Pumpkin Patch

Grandma Jude came up as well, so we had both Grandma's here for Jason's Birthday weekend extravaganza!! Wheee!

On Saturday we went on a local train ride through the countryside near our home with a stop at a local waterfall. It was so fun!
Kenna stole Mommy's glasses - isn't she cute?


awww




the waterfall where our rest stop was


a family shot!!!


We rode back on the caboose







On the way home from the train ride, we went to the local Pumpkin Patch. The kids were soooo tired, but they perked right up when we got there!

We rode one of these guys to the patch






He almost jumped off the hay ride to get to those pumpkins!!






Kenna found hers!




Jason found his too


but then he decided to have a pumpkin stare off (the pumpkin won)




all done with our pumpkins, we headed back to the farm for some games






on the way back to the farm, the hay ride takes you down Pumpkin Lane - filled with all kinds of pumpkin people














Makenna loved throwing the corn husks through the hoops


Jason liked the trucks









and the ladies by the tea room and gift shop had to say goodbye