Grandpa's 85th Birthday!

We spent the weekend in Everett celebrating Grandpa's 85th birthday. I still can't believe he is 85- he is still so active (works 3 days a week and golfs the other 2!) that he hardly seems his age. It was such a nice little event- just our family...so it wasn't little but it was so great to have everyone together. It seems like those times have dwindled some with everyone being married, having kids and what not. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and visiting, we got a few surprise trick or treaters, ate grandpa's favorite dinner (scalloped potatoes and little pigs!) and then finished off the night playing a rousing game of black jack. What a hoot! Today the whole family went to church with Grandpa and after the service all the grandkids served cake to the congregation. It was an all around nice couple of days.

Taylor telling Grandpa Woof-Woof about the card she made for him.

So cute! Cinderella, The Bunny and Tinkerbell!

From left to right. Jill, Brent, Katie, me, Grandpa, Darci and Emilie

Maddie, Mommy and Taylor

After the church service all the grand kids and their spouses and children went out for breakfast which was also tons of fun. I convinced Dave to go to the outlet malls afterwards just to check some things out (Christmas gifts, etc.). It was beautiful out and although we had two tired girls they were running all around and having a great time. I have to say that I regretted our time their once we had gotten into the car seeming as we were headed out past the casino and a woman didn't stop at the stop sign and then realized it and stopped right in front of Dave in the intersection- which then caused this absolutely crazy driver behind us to go ahead and speed up and slam directly into the side of our car and then had the nerve to drive off at an even higher speed. Thankfully, no one was hurt (it was on Taylor and Dave's side of the car) but Taylor was quite concerned about the whole thing and really got freaked out when we had to call the police and even more worried when they came to help us. Our car on one side now needs some severe fixing but I am just glad that no one was hurt.


We have a super busy week coming up...I have conferences on Thursday and Friday. Thursday I have 21 of them and will be working until 8:30 (ugh!) but on Friday I only have to work until 10:30 so I am excited that the girls and I can hang out on Halloween together! We are also of course waiting for a phone call from Katie about going into Labor. She was with us all weekend and looked amazing! So, who knows when the Little Man will be joining us. Wishing everyone a great week!

The Pumpkin Patch

Hi Everyone! We have had such a fun weekend! My mom arrived in Olympia bright and early on Friday morning and came with me to my school to do my DRA testing for me. What a help that was! It took her all day to read with all of them and she admitted it kind of made her miss the whole thing. I reminded her of the 25 progress reports I would be doing soon as well as the conferences :) Darci and Emilie arrived on Saturday morning for a day filled with pumpkins. We headed out early to the pumpkin patch in hopes that it wouldn't be crowded....we quickly forgot about that as the parking lot was PACKED when we arrived. This was the first year that the girls truly had a great time at the pumpkin patch. They wanted to do anything and everything and we ended up spending a lot of time at the patch! The girls went on a minitaure "train" ride, climbed haystacks, went to the petting zoo and rode the hayride out to the pumpkins. After we arrived back home Taylor was very excited to carve the pumpkins. She actually lasted a whole 20 minutes before giving up and doing something else. Maddie picked up one slimy pumpkin seed and was DONE,my mom was playing with Emilie and Dave was watching the Coug game so that left my sister and I to scoop and carve 7 pumpkins. We were laughing pretty hysterically by the time we were done! We ended our evening by heading up to Dave's moms house to meet Jerry's family for the first time. He has an amazing family and we really enjoyed our first get together with them. We are off to another busy week and are hoping we might get a call from Katie one of these days saying that she is going into Labor! We shall see though....Wishing everyone a great week!

The girls on the train!

Nana, Emilie, Taylor and Maddie on the hay ride!

Emilie slept through most of her first pumpkin patch trip!

Dave waiting for all of us to get off the hay ride!

Tay and her pumpkin!

Maddie girl is so proud of her pumpkin!

Can you believe how tall the girls are getting?

For lunch we had "Mummy" hotdogs! The kids loved them!!

Taylor and I scooping out her pumpkin!

All of us with Jerry's family!

The Myers family had surgery :) Look at Maddie-terrified of all of us!!

Cougs....

Well, another sad defeat today....Dave has been handling the Cougar losses very well this year. He is frustrated as all get out but is trying to stay some what upbeat. We have been enjoying having friends over to watch the Coug games and for all who know me it has been extra nice for me because I have other people to talk to other than Dave during the game :) I don't mean this in a bad way but anyone who has ever been with Dave during a football game knows how intense he can get :) We had friends over for the game today and it was so much fun to watch all of the kids (6 girls!) play and interact with one another. We got to enjoy some dancing and singing, dress up and cookie decorating. I love that my girls have such sweet and kind friends to be with. It will be so much fun to see them all in high school together! Lord help us all....

Great friends....Taylor (4), Molly (5), Chloe (7), Kaylin (3), Maddie (2) and Macie (1- not pictured).

Jessie and Lady

Every year one of Dave's former students who played basketball for him calls him up and invites the girls to her grandparents farm to ride her horse. Today the girls and Dave (I stayed home and enjoyed some quiet time!) headed to the farm for their annual visit. The girls were full of excitement when they arrived back home. Taylor rode Lady all by herself (way to go Tay!) after she got comfortable riding with Jessie. Maddie really had fun too but had to have Dave ride on the horse with her to start with. She ended up riding with Jessie by the end of their time together. The pictures will show just how delighted Taylor was with riding Lady (I was proud of Dave because he took a ton of pictures!) and just how nervous Maddie was about the whole thing. What a fun experience for the girls! Much thanks to Jessie for her kind invitation.

I LOVE this picture...

I think Dave is having more fun in this picture than Maddie is!

2 sweet girls! (Please disregard Taylor's shirt being up! Ugh!)

She is so proud of being on a horse all by herself!

Maddie and Jessie riding Lady!

(For some reason, this picture of Taylor was uploaded twice and for some reason it won't let me delete it....)

Swimming

For everyone who thought summer was over, think again! Apparently you can swim year round at the Myers house! All you need for a swimming pool are your mom's cushions from the new couch, all the pillows off ALL the beds in the house and some very large blankets to cover them up with! Then, stand on the hope chest, close your eyes and jump in! Swimming in the fall doesn't get any better!