Big Horns

And here's what we have to watch out for on the roads (along with the deer of course). A herd of about 20 have settled near the highway about 15 miles north of us making our drives into Wenatchee a little more exciting!

Trick or Treat!

Here in Chelan all the businesses on main street open their doors and hand out millions of pieces of candy. It's really quite handy-no tromping around neighborhoods knocking on doors! Emily had a grand time though she confessed to only saying "trick or treat" one time. She did remember her thank you's though... And of course here she is counting and sorting her loot as soon as we got home. Her request? "can we please just have a teeny tiny bit of dinner tonight??"

Here is our little witch all ready for her Halloween party at school! She was so very excited to be able to wear her costume all day long. At school they "bobbed" for apples, decorated pumpkins, frosted cookies and played pin the spider on the web among many other fun activities.

Ooey Gooey

This is the first year that Emily got brave enough to pull the slimy innards out of the pumpkin. We didn't get a picture of the finished product, but we ended up with a kitty pumpkin this year.

Autumn Fun

We went to one of our favorite pumpkin patches during a weekend trip to Seattle to pick up a few pumpkins and jump in some hay. A beautiful day on the westside! Back on the eastside of the mountains we journeyed up the hill to a farm to see some animals. They had all kinds of rescue farm animals there and since we were the only people visiting we got the grand tour! Our favorites were Chris the Clydesdale and the miniture horse who liked to hang out with him. We thought it was fun that the biggest animal and the smallest animal on the farm were friends.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Emily and Chris headed out on their first real date to a daddy daughter dance that was put on as a fundraiser for the Chelan girls basketball team. They danced the night away, but I think Emily's favorite thing was getting to hang out with the older girls she so adores. These pictures uploaded in the wrong order...the first one is the meltdown when she got home from the dance-long past her curfew. It's a good thing her date was with her dad!

A New Little Bean

estimated day of arrival: May 1

the fruits of their labor

Here are the classmates of Emily's who were able to make it and thier yummy cider...

Fall is here...

Emily's class went on a field trip to a homestead farm here in Chelan. The couple who own the farm grow most of their own food. The grounds were beautiful, flowers and greenery everywhere, fruit trees randomly placed, all perched high on a hillside with an amazing view. Emily was sure fairies lived in their midst... The kids all got to press some cider which was a very fun (and tasty!) learning event. They also helped shuck the beans so they could be planted next year.

First Day of School

Here is our little girl on her first doy of preschool at her new school. She is beyond excited about school and bounds into the classroom each morning (huge difference from last year when the teacher had to hold her while I left!). Ironically, her school is located in the Masonic Hall which those of you from AmeriCorps will remember. Also the place where Chris and I met for the first time...aww.

A Little Bit Country

Our neighbor gave us a huge amount of delicious delicious peaches from his tree. After many bowls of vanilla ice cream topped with peaches and some peach cobbler we were running out of things to make with the peaches before they went bad. Then I thought, "I'm in the country now, the land of canning your harvest." So that's what I did. Well, it wasn't my harvest and it didn't yield too terribly much but I am very proud of my 6 quarts. If you are ever craving peaches you know where to come.

Beautiful

Chelan sunset from our balcony

Emily's Fairy Fun 4th Birthday Party

Emily's 4th birthday was spent in Bellevue with her friends at a park. A real Fairy Princess came and she brought dress up clothes so the kids could dress up like fairies and other magical forest creatures. Then the fairy princess led them on an adventure through the forest. The kids were spell bound, the parents got to chat and everyone was happy. I especially love Emily's cheesy smile as she posed with her cake :)

The 80th

While we were in WI Chris' Grandparent's celebrated their 80th birthdays with a big bash. All the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there so it was quite an event! Here are the 9 great-grandchildren and the 11 grandchildren with their families. And look how young Grandma and Grandpa look!

Wisconsin '08

In July we spent two weeks in Wisconsin with Chris' family. Emily played hide and seek in the hay barn with her cousins, attended her first Country Jam and rocked out, went fishing with Uncle Cory and caught her first fish (in the picture she's showing us just how big that fish was of course), watched the Chicog water fights and of course rode the mower with Grandpa Dave.

Emily and Dalton

Emily hasn't seen her cousing Dalton since he was just a few days old! Their first meeting started off great, until Dalton wanted to check out all of Emily's toys and Emily decided that she didn't want him to touch anything. They soon got over that and had a great time chasing each other around. Emily even made it her cousin-ly duty to teach Dalton how to properly stomp in puddles!

4th Of July

We spent the 4th of July in Oroville with my family. Emily got special pink cowgirl boots to wear to the annual rodeo which she loved. What she did not love so much? Sparklers. We thought she would have fun waving them around but she was a little terrified of the sparks! She did ooh and ahh over the big firework display over the lake though :)

Our last Seattle hurrah

After the truck was completely loaded and all our sweaty selves were showered we headed to Safeco to take in a Mariners Game. The Mariners lost but we had a lot of fun hanging out in one of our favorite city spots with all our moving helpers-my whole family as well as my sister's boyfriend Dave and his friend Timmy who had been staying with us that week (they earned their keep well!). And I swear-Emily was having a lot more fun than she seems to be in this picture!

Moving

July 1st was moving day. I went to pick up the moving truck we had reserved. They brought up a much much larger truck than I had anticipated which I then had to drive home...much laughing was done on my part on the drive home as I went over sidewalks and took out small trees... Trying to figure out how to get the giant truck into our tiny driveway was another fun feat which required our friend climbing onto the cab of the truck in order to move the cable wires so that the truck could be driven underneath them. After the truck was finally in place Emily had a grand time marching up and down the ramp ordering everyone around :)

Bowling

Emily's first bowling trip-very exciting! She didn't really like the shoes, but she loved rolling the ball down and watching it hit the pins. Pumba taught her the ropes. She would roll the ball then stand there cheering it on till it hit. Though she got frustrated when she left pins standing!

May Day

We went to Oroville for the May Day celebration which turned out very chilly! Despite the cold weather, Emily loved the parade-especially collecting the candy that was thrown out. We went home with quite a haul. She also loved seeing her Auntie Kailyn as a Princess (for the Junior Class) ride by.

Two Wheeler!

Emi got a two wheel bike and has been on it ever since! We took her to a big parking lot up the hill from our house to get the hang of riding. She picked it up quickly and even rode down the hill to our house (with mom holding on of course, she still hasn't mastered the brakes!). Daddy got a big thumbs up when we got home.

Last Day of Preschool

May 28 was Emily's last day of school. She took about half the year to warm up, but was very sad to not be able to go to school anymore. She loved her teacher dearly and draws pictures for her all the time. The last day of school they had a bubble party on the lawn followed by a snack picnic. We then went inside for the last circle time. We will really miss FPCP!

A New Friend

Emily got a new pet today, a beta fish she named Buddy. I know it's hard to see him in the picture, but Buddy is a very beautiful blue and looks like your normal run of the mill beta. Emily was introducing Lea to Buddy with the hopes that they would become fast friends...I'm not so sure Lea cared. Emily has spent the evening on a blanket in front of Buddy's home reading him stories (she says One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish is his favorite book) and playing songs for him on her guitar (songs about loving him and him being happy in his new fishy home). A beautiful new friendship is emerging.

Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny came to our house and left an empty basket outside Emily's bedroom door with a trail of eggs leading to the living room where the rest of the eggs were hidden and were her big basket was waiting thinking this would be really fun for Emily to wake up to.... Well she woke up grumpy, stomped out of her room right past everything and threw herself on the couch stating she didn't want to have any part of it! A half hour later she finally relented and found all the eggs, checked out her basket and ate a peep, some chocolate eggs and jellybeans, and half a chocolate bunny for breakfast.

The Big Hunt

Every year the church has a big community Easter egg hunt. We met Emily's friends there and the hunt was on!

Don't worry Grandma, I know the boys look terribly bundled up and Emily's only wearing a sweater...the boys live closer to the mountains and it was colder at their house when they left home, by the time the hunt started it was pretty warm out! =)

A Little Silliness

Emily was feeling a little silly during the Badger game....

Color and Basketball

Saturday we spent dying 18 beautiful eggs. Emily was in heaven, not only did she get to play with water (one of her favorite things) she also got to be mostly in charge of the whole procedure...she is a leo after all! The Badgers were also playing so we were all decked out for the game.