Our Thanksgiving

We spent most of our day with Justin's parents and his grandparents at their house in SE Portland. We got to their house around 8am Thursday morning and got started cooking right away. Justin BBQ'd our 23lb turkey on our Weber and it came out SO good! I don't think I ever want to eat turkey any other way. I made potatoes, our traditional ginger scented butternut squash soup, stuffed mushrooms, an apple pie and a buttermilk pie. Everything we ate was delicious. We stopped by on the way home to see my parents and my dad's side of the family, played a little poker and then came home and crashed by 9pm! All in all it was wonderful day spent with family remembering how blessed we truly are. Here are some pictures of how we passed the time while waiting for our feast.

Horseback Riding

We took the girls to the barn on Wednesday and let them get a little horseback riding in. Katrina likes to ride all by herself without any help, she listens really well to instruction and is doing really good. Emma likes to ride on her own but she is still in her own little world and can't really get the horse to do anything she wants. We had a great time, despite the bitter cold!

Why I love fall in the Northwest!

We have really been enjoying some great crisp fall weather here in the Northwest. Although it's been a little gray and cloudy, it has been dry. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, we do have 3 kids. Poor Katrina has been missing out on all the fun since she is now in school all day. As I told her though, the rain is returning later this week so after that, no one will be having any fun!

The Zoo

This is the new baby elephant. He was so cute and lively.

This was a photo I took of an alligator that I thought turned out pretty cool. He was sitting under water and his reflection was above him.

We went to the zoo about a week ago with a friend of Katrina's from school and her family. It was a gorgeous day and all the animals were out enjoying the cool crisp fall air and plenty of sunshine.

New Color

So Amber totally inspired me to paint. I painted the kitchen, dining and living room, hallway, and downstairs bathroom. Next week I will paint the office. It took about a week and we love it. It was very fall inspired. A deep yellow (nacho chip) in the kitchen and down one living room wall. Warm red on two living room walls. Grape leaf green down hallway. Blue and brown in bath.
Thanks Amber!

Trick or Treat

All the girls ended up being animals this year for Halloween. Katrina wanted to be a Cheetah, Emma a mouse, and Addy Mini Mouse.
They had fun trick-or-treating around the nieghborhood. Addy was in a hurry to make up to every door and was so excited about saying "tetateat".
After getting buckets filled with Candy we headed over to some friends from church here in Washington and enjoyed some good soup, dessert, a kids story about Martin Luther, a warm bonfire, and pony rides in the dark and fog. It ended up not raining that evening and was actually 'warm' for Oct. 31st in the NW, it was great.

Fall Colors

Up until late last week we have had AMAZING fall weather. It has been sunny, warm and all the leaves are turning beautiful shades of yellows, oranges, and reds. We took the girls out to the park the other evening to capture some of the beautiful fall colors and here are some photos from our trip.