Pumpkin Patch Time

Well, since we have been home, it has mostly been catching up with friends, pumpkin patches and birthdays. So, we shall begin with the pumpkin patch with the Braille Institute. We have always taken this opportunity to go as a school group and learn about pumpkins, only this year we forgot about the learning part. :-)

I know, it's hard to tell if there is any attitude in this group.

I was going to cut Em off from the stickers when she said, "No Mom, I'm making an 'E'!"  Good girl!  Nevermind the instructions, you know your letters!

We also got to feed the goats...

And ride the horses...

And Em even made a new friend.  They didn't talk much but they got to hang out for a while.

Then the youngest member has now turned one.  She wasn't too sure about this at first, poor girl has been suffering from an intestinal bacterial infection for quite a while.  They think they know what it is and she is on antibiotics now but please pray for her complete healing!

Yeah, she figured it out.

Next, it was off to the train ride to the pumpkin patch with our cousins.  Em talked about it all week and was very excited to ride on the "twain"!

The scouts had games for the kids to play while they waited.

And that is J's latest adventure...in a 'boys will be boys' maneuver, which was explained to me in novel version by the little man himself, everyone was doing something they weren't supposed to be doing and the end result was his head and a couple of staples. :-) In good news, this was the very next day and he was doing well and seemed fine, minus the obvious disappointment of having to slow down for a few days! :(

Finally, the train!

The first time the conductor walked by, K tapped me on the shoulder and told me that "Santa just went by!"  She had to have a picture.

When we arrived at the 'pumpking patch', we got off the train, picked out a pumpkin and decorated it.  Managed to get a pic of both girls with tongues out.

B was cracking me up!  He was across the table, but his facial expressions were killer!  He would panic, then smile, then panic, serious, smile...

When I asked Auntie K to see if he would smile at me, this was what I got.  LOL!!

Em's finished product.  Yes, do you notice the crossing is happening in the other eye?  That is her good eye (well, better).  This has always been why they say they won't do surgery because she trades eyes, which means she still has vision in the weak eye.  The thing is, this is the first time I have seen her use the weak eye in a long time.  Ah!  We need wisdom. I am taking her to one of the healing services we have at our church next weekend. Otherwise, in the next two months she will see the neurologist and opthamologist and they can duke it out (and probably just keep blaming each other).

The grounds here are actually a train museum and they are chalk full of old artifacts, most of which you can touch and climb on.  Pretty neat.  This is K playing in an area with functioning railroad signals.

On top of a train, they have a trolly that rides around the grounds.  We sang the theme song to "Daniel Tiger's Neighbrhood" more than once that day!  The bell was very cute and just like the show.

Finally a shot of the station and the trolly all in one.

The kid trolly.  It is very kid-friendly.  :-)

Inside an old trolly.

We finally left after K, the introvert, having reached her quota of people time, asked several times to go.  So, I tore Em, the extrovert and having not the slightest inclination to go home, away from an old bus, which she was driving.  Funny to have such opposites!  Keeps us in balance, I guess.  :-)  

Well, happy, happy, joy, joy, and God bless!!  

Last Hoorah

For the last hoorah of our vacation, we rented a boat to drive around Lake Shasta for a day. Lake Shasta is the lake created by the dam due north of our house by about fifteen miles. It is the lake from which the Sacramento River comes.

Oh Audrey! I told her to stare off at the trees...

My aunt and uncle wanted to see my sister's family and when they heard we were renting a boat, well, this is the day they came.  :-)

The lake is incredibly low...super, duper, oober low.  But, some very neat rock formations become visible when this happens.

On a boat, you play games, play with your cousin's barbies...

...sit and chat with family...

...text and drive...Andy!

...take turns driving...

...wear your children's hats because you forgot yours...

(oooo, more rocks.  I know one of you appreciates this as much as I do, so this is for you).

This is the dam from the back side.  We didn't get very close because my mom has an irrational fear of dams and we decided not to be mean on this our last day together.

When we stopped, at first, I was the only one who would get out and into the water.  The ground was incredibly muddy - the kind where you sink several inches before you land on solid ground.  Plus I found shells...freshwater something.

For a long time, it was just Megan and I.

Then the rest started going out in the kayaks.

Ok, so someone grabbed the camera to take a picture of us out there...my mom had been picking up trash to clean up a little.  She didn't even realize she was holding a beer can out there (my parents don't drink at all).  So this is step one...nice photo, mom holding up beer can.

Step two, we all realize we have captured a picture of my mom holding a beer can.

We had a collossal feast!  Since all photos of people eating catch someone looking ridiculous, I told them all to put a bite of food in their mouth.  We had fresh river salmon (the boys caught earlier in the week), steak, bratts, potatoes, chips and salsa and I don't even know what else!

After lunch, K finally got brave enough to get in.

In case you didn't catch on to how low the lake is, that tiny speck on the hill, a little blue and white, that's me.  Next to me is K and above us a little is Audrey.  This is a giant lake and that is why it doesn't look so terribly low, until you get up close.  Sacramento wants to raise the dam so it can fill even higher and they can take even more water each year.  This will flood many, many towns and even more businesses along the way, not to mention rerouting highway five, costing billions of dollars just so LA can have more water.  Wait, I am not going there.

We went for a hike to see all the tree roots at the regular water line.

Em played in the mud, by herself, while we climbed.  And they thought she would be texture phobic!

This was the end result...this dirt stains...

As we headed back, we figured out we could sit and get a foot massage as we went.

And this was to be my relaxing good-bye photo of my vacation.

We celebrated Dad's bday.  Love you old man!

Have a great day!