Trip to Washington

So, as promised, I have a report on our trip to Washington. The day we took off has a story of it’s own, which I will share later. Our first full day in Mount Vernon, Missy and her cute kids took us to Gordon’s Pumpkin Patch. We went there last year too and I wanted to put it on our List Of Things We Must Do In Washington (it’s a long list...getting longer every time we go...). Here are a few pictures we took there. I also got a really cool print of Gordon’s Pumpkins from Missy, which I have framed (I’ll post a picture later...).

I know, I know...I have been terrible at posting lately...my apologies and I promise to do better. I have a lot of catching up to do, so let’s get started. Back to our trip to Washington last month. Again, we had a great time. One of life’s greatest pleasures is to introduce a new family member to your family and this trip we were able to do just that! No one in Washington (except my mom and dad) had met Olivia, so that made the trip even more fun. Here she is in my little sister Heather’s arms, wearing her bunny coat from Aunt Missy. We met up with my mom and some of my sisters at the co-op for lunch and then meandered around their little shop for a while. It was a lot of fun and I wish I could do lunch with them more often! I miss you guys!

Cute Karen and her daughter Jordan showed up one day at my mom’s house bearing gifts for Olivia: a new outfit with matching sweaters for Jordan and Olivia. Aren’t they so cute? I had to snap a pictures of the girls. It was so fun to have my kids play with their cousins. Olivia was held and held and held and held and she loved it and I LOVED it!

When my sister, Kristen, and I talk on the phone, she asks me if my kids have any funny new puppy tricks. While in Washington I discovered a new one: when the red-eye reduction goes off on my camera, Olivia smiles. She, at the tender age of 9 months, knows how to “say cheese!” How funny is that? I was going through all of the pictures I took in Washington and there were at least 20 pictures of her on there, so I could show everyone her little trick.

One of life’s great pleasures is having your family fawn over your children, and we had so many opportunities for that in Washington. One such opportunity was in our visit to Slesk Acres...Jamie’s house. We spent a few days at Jamie’s house last year too, and this year while we were there Jamie and Billy hosted Oktoberfest 2008. All of my family members (in Washington) came to her house and Jamie had an itinerary packed full of FUN things like: face painting, making cider with her press from apples in her yard (YUM!!!), decorating sugar cookies, building a greenhouse in her garden, visiting the Appel Dairy Farm and a pumpkin patch. It was super fun and we had a great time. Thank you Jamie and Billy! Here are a few pictures from Oktoberfest, and there are more on Jamie and Karen’s blogs...