Remlinger Farm Harvest Extravaganza!

YES! It's that time of year again to bring out the pumpkins and pumpkin pies and pumpkin spice lattes and anything generally "pumpkin." Brooke even started using the phrase "I turn into a pumpkin at 8:00" again, referring to the fact that she does indeed gain 200 pounds and turns orange in the face. All kidding aside, we decided this would be a good year to take the kids back to Remlinger Farm in Carnation. We went Sunday the 14th and it was a wonderful day to go. The sun was out, the wind was calm, and the kids were in good spirits. If you've never been to Remlinger Farms, it's kind of like a small scale Knott's Berry Farm. And if you've never been THERE, then I'll explain a little bit. This is a working farm - I assume that because they raise animals, grow corn, and have a barn. Well, it's probably more likely they have all that to get money from parents who want their kids to touch dirty animals and get their clothes filthy dirty with various activities. Scattered throughout the many acres of land are carnival rides and play areas which has nothing to do with actual farming but is nonetheless fun to do to celebrate the fall harvest (much like in ye olden days.) This is a guaranteed fun time for all.

The first things the kids did was ride the ponies. Our two little girls are not afraid of ponies and will ride them at every opportunity. The whole time the girls would not stop smiling. Then it was off to the giant blow-up slide. The only problem was the line was too long and the girls wanted to slide LOTS more. This seemed to be the big downside to the whole festival. Too many people and not enough rides. Luckily, the next line we waited in for the canoe ride was short and fast. The girls loved watching the wooden ducks float by. Now we come to the girls' favorite attraction of the day - the Hay Jump. This was a giant pit filled with hay, which sticks to everything and invades spaces not meant for hay. The girls jumped and swam and buried themselves over and over and over again. It was worth the admission price just to see them play. Afterwards, we tried out the Hay Maze, Flying Pumpkins, Spinning Logs, Toddler Ferris Wheel, Sort-Of-Carousel Horse Ride, Bouncy House, Whirley-Thing, and the Train Ride. The last ride of the day was the miniature Roller Coaster that was actually pretty scary. Not so much in the "Fast and Furious" sense but more in the "Years of Whiplash Therapy" sense. Definitely a ride designed with shorter occupants in mind. And what day would be complete without a second turn in the Hay Jump. By then most of the other families were on their way home (I think there was a Seahawks game or something.) We were feeling pretty exhausted by then too so we went back home. Oh, we forgot to pick out some pumpkins.

Dear Mom & Dad - Send Money!

As many of you know, we are adding on to our house. We bought the house 4 years ago because of the price and also its versatility. The house is on 1&1/2 lots which leaves a lot of space for improvement. When we bought the house, it included a mother-in-law (MIL) suite but has remained unused to this day except storage. I think we actually had a mother-in-law stay in it one time so I suppose you could say we got our use out of it. But we only have 1 bathroom between the four of us and it gets pretty crowded around potty time. So we've decided to undertake a dreaded remodel slash addition. Our initial idea was to build a room and hallway where our patio stood to connect the MIL to the house and remodel the MIL into the new master bedroom. We foolishly borrowed $20,000 thinking that would be enough to complete the majority of the project. After having to spend just $1500 on an architect, we realized we were wrong. Very, very wrong.
So here we are now (see picture) with a partly completed wall and a destroyed backyard (and a destraught gardener.) The contractors got this far before realizing the roof was going to be a problem. If you've seen our house you know that the peaks don't all run north and south. You might have guessed that the MIL peak runs east to west. So, basically, to make the whole thing structurally sound, the builders have to turn the roof 90 degrees. Complicatedly, they have to rebuild the whole roof and parts of the garage roof with trusses that are specially engineered into triangle shapes that look like M.C. Escher drawings. Which means more money (donations welcome!) and more delays.
The girls have had some fun during this time. The first day the construction workers came out, they sat at the back window all day watching "the builders." And since we don't have a backyard to swing in anymore, we've gotten to go to almost every park in Skagit Valley at LEAST 10 times each. And Savvy always mentions how excited she is that daddy is going to make her a play room upstairs, pending we have enough of the aforementioned money. All in all, this will be a great learning experience for all of us, provided it doesn't break our spirits (and our bank account.)

Our Girls, An Introduction

So here are our little girls. Most people would refer to their kids as "little angels" but that's mostly heavy sarcasm and not at all true. Yes they do LOOK like little angels, but beneath that innocent exterior is a mischevious mind calculating the quickest way to make a person lose their sanity. Savannah is brilliant for a 4 year old and will play chase until you are laying in a hospital breathless from heart failure, but she is also a sneakly little monkey who will get into food cupboards and take one bite out of your food before putting it back AND who can color an entire dining room floor with unwashable crayons in the 10 minutes it takes you to use the bathroom. Paige is a little behind Savvy in the smarts department but she makes up for it in tremendous heart and sensitivity. She will hug and kiss you at the drop of a hat but her sensitivity also translates into a LOT of hurt feelings, especially when dealing with big sister. If you don't have two of everything (which is most of the time), you get a lot of one thing: cry-screaming. That's where you cry a lot while screaming at the top of your lungs. Then as sensible parents you try to calm her down with lots of yell-pleading, i.e. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO CRY. I WILL GET YOU WHATEVER YOU WANT AS LONG AS YOU PLEASE STOP CRYING!" Needless to say, this is REALLY effective because all us parents know how easy it is to reason with 2 year olds. But we love them just the same.

First Post, Last Day of My Unblogged Life

So this is officially my(our) first blog. This will be a spot where we can update family and friends on the goings-on on our household and post about stuff we see and hear. I tried blogging on MySpace but its not too user-friendly. MySpace is fun for finding friends and all but there are problems inherent in the system. Hopefully we can keep this space up to date and figure out how best to show off our kids:)