Exciting News...

So, It's offical. We are moving back to Seattle next month when Dave finishes school.

He has accepted a full time offer to work for Microsoft in their HR department. We are excited and scrambling to find lots of rain gear!:) Now everyone needs to come visit us!

Fall activities

Here is Scott playing outside our apartment with his baseball. He received this particular one at school for participating in a Healthy Eating and Exercise Program.:)



Love fall here, in case you haven't gathered that.:)

Pitching to himself while I take pictures.:)

My mom and I found these at a little store in NH. It is a little wind air balloon. It spins around with the wind. We thought they were just so adorable!:)

The weekend before Halloween, our family headed over to Iron Kettle Farms with our good friends, the McAllister's. Scott got to go through his first Haunted House. Madeline opted out of that one. So Dave took Scott, and both said it wasn't really that scary. Scott liked it though.:)

Here is Scott helping Lucy up onto the hay jump. The kids loved running around in there.

Scott kept throwing hay all over Dylan. He was a good sport about it though.:)

Madeline and Lucy waiting for their daddies to compete in the pumpkin toss.

The Pumpkin Toss

Here is Madeline getting ready to launch her pumpkin

And Scott. The kids had fun, but didn't quite make it into the rings. They got close though!

Family Photo!

Pumpkin People going potty! Our kids liked this one!:)

At the end, we all went into the Corn Maze. We let the kids take turns deciding which way to go, and we made it out in like 15 minutes! I think that should be a record for two families with five kids 6 and under.:) Oh, and it was like two acres big. I thought we would be lost in there for a while, actually.:)

Here is my cute friend Roo and her little guy who is almost a year old. Thanks for coming with us guys! It was lots of fun!:)

Scott and Madeline's 1st FieldTtrip

The day after my parents left to go back home, Scott and Madeline had their first field trip, so Dylan and I came along. They were going to Grisamore farms for hay rides, pumpkin and apple picking, and animal watching.




Each child got to pick a pumpkin to take home. Here is Madeline finding her perfect one.:)




Here is Scott and Madeline with their friend Weston. They are like three peas in a pod. So cute to play together. Weston goes to our church as well as being in their Kindergarten class.




Madeline picking her apple. I love this picture of her.:)

Here is most all of the kids in their Kindergarten class, along with little Dylan sitting next to Madeline. It was a fun day for them, and I liked seeing them with their friends. They will sure miss going to school with all these kids.

Leaf Peeping Adventure, Day 4 and Day 5

So, on with our adventure through New England. After spending the day in Franconia Notch State Park, we headed down to Lake Winnipesaukee, on our way to a Shaker Village. En route, we were going to pass by Funspot. Do you know Funspot!?



Well, our good friends, the Hamilton's, introduced us to the documentary "The King of Kong" which talks about how the current points record holder came to hold the title. The movie is great, by the way, and you should check it out.:) But, in the movie, the good guy of the movie heads to Funspot in NH, to compete for the record. This is where many records for video games take place. So, we of course had to stop for at least an hour. Here's Dave in front of the movie poster with his game face on.:)

Here is Dave taking a crack at breaking the world record of Donkey Kong. For those who are curious, he didn't even get past the first screen.:) Tough luck, Dave! Incidentally, the kids had a GREAT time at this stop!

Next we drove to the Shaker Village. Here is one of the roads we drove down to get there. Isn't it absolutely great?

The Shaker Village

It was such a picturesque setting. There are only a couple Shakers left in the world. They practiced celibacy, so it shouldn't come as a great surprise that they kind of died out. It was interesting to learn about them though.

Here is proof Dave relaxed on our trip.:)

Look at the above sign....Yes, Scott put his leg under the rope so that the alarm would sound. No, we didn't get kicked out, luckily.:)

My sweet little Madeline.:)

After the Shaker Village, we headed to Albany for the evening. On the way home the next day, Dave and my dad wanted to stop by Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. For those who know me, you know this was not the most anticipated stop on our trip in my opinion. I was thinking we would spend like an hour there, so imagine my dismay, when I asked Dave that question and he said we would be there about 3-4 hours! What could he possibly look at for 3-4 hours?! Well, we compromised it down to 2 hours. Dave and my dad loved ever minute of it, I'm sure, while my mom, the kids and I were bored out of our minds. But, we did get Scott his first little softball and bat there, so he has been excited about that.

Well, there is our adventure through New England. It was gorgeous, and I would highly recommend doing it if you get a chance!:)

Leaf Peeping Adventure, Day 3

So, to clarify any confusion with the term "Leaf Peepers", I didn't come up with it all on my own. I wish I did, because I love it! But that is a term someone came up with for those people who come to New England (or maybe other areas too, I am not sure) during the peak fall foliage to check out all the leaves.

Anyway, on with Day 3. After leaving Sharon, VT we drove into New Hampshire (unfortunately, this drive was after dark. Not near as fun when you can't see anything...) and stayed the night close to the White Mountains in the central part of the state. That next day we were heading out to Franconia Notch State Park. After breakfasting at a place called "The Stix" (it was delis! Homemade Pumpkin Pancakes with 100% NH maple syrup! Yum!), we drove to the Park.


First up, we wanted to hike through the Flume Gorge, and before it got too crowded (there were no hotel vacancy's around for over 50 miles...). When walking into the Flume's Visitor Center, Dylan grabs a leaf and takes a BITE out of it. Weird, I know. But we took a picture of his prized leaf anyway (and for those who are wondering, he didn't swallow any of it, but spit it back out all chewed up. Silly boy.).

Here is Dave and the kids waiting for the bus to take us up a little ways to the Gorge.

We saw some people with walking sticks, so the twins each had to have one...

Along with Mr. Dylan.:)

A picture during the hike (boys always have to be silly).

The Gorge was kind of narrow going through but so pretty with the water flowing through and all the falls leaves around.

And Scott was excited to go into the Bear Cave!

Dylan was being kind of funny on our hike. He kept laying down and and said he was a sleeping bear.:)

One of the many covered bridges we saw on our trip. They said this bridge was one of the most photographed covered bridges.

After hiking through the Flume Gorge, we took a tram ride up a mountain, and then
went on a drive through one of the most scenic highways in New Hampshire, Kancamagus Hwy. It really was so pretty driving through here. We pulled off every once in a while to take some pictures.

After our drive across the Hwy, we ended about 15-20 miles away from the border of Maine. So, we of course had to drive into Maine. This was the only New England state we hadn't visited yet, between this trip and living in CT in the summer of 2009. Also, my mom and I wanted to stop at a gas station to get a souvenir magnet of the state. No such luck with finding a magnet, but we still set foot on Maine soil, so that can count as a state we have been in.:)

As far as the above picture, don't judge, yes our kids watched a few movies on the portable DVD player on our trip. It was a life saver. Seriously, who ever invented this was a genius. They also spent some of the time listening to some books on tape (one great one we had got from a Wendy's kids meal a year ago, go figure), and my mom read them some books out loud (I could not really read to them thanks to my voice not working properly from getting sick the day before we left). They were pretty good little travelers.:) On another post, I will put pictures up of Days 4 and 5, more in NH and our drive home.:)

Leaf Peeping Adventure, Day 1 and Day 2

My parents flew out to the east coast at the end of September to visit D.C. and then to come visit us in Ithaca. I had been wanting them to come visit us sometime in October because fall in NY is absolutely stunning. And since Dave had his fall break at Cornell while they were here, we decided to take full advantage and go visit New England (along with everyone else in the US...). We had such a hard time trying to find hotels with a vacancy a month before our trip. It was well worth the search though. What better time to visit New England then in autumn?! We have officially become Leaf Peepers! And proud to call ourselves such!:)



The first day we drove as far as Lake George, NY. We were hoping to get off to an early start, but, alas, with three kids we didn't get off as early as we wanted. The kids did pretty good on our car trip, but Dylan, to our dismay, decided not to take a nap on the way, and was pretty cranky by the time we got there. After grabbing some lunch, we headed to our hotel, thinking maybe Dylan would take a nap. An hour and a half later, no such luck. So we headed out to the Lake.

This is Dylan, the calm before the storm...:)

The storm. Dylan is in the midst of the "terrible twos", as they call it. My mom tagged him best, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He can be such a good, cooperative boy one minute and a little monster the next. Hence the above photo. Here, Dave is just preventing him from falling off the sidewalk into the water. Mean parents, I know.:)

This photo is great too, although I don't completely blame him for screaming in his car seat. He was sandwiched between Scott and Madeline, who think it is fun to annoy and tease their little brother. And since it was either Mommy or Dylan in between them, Mommy pulled rank and opted for the middle row seat to keep my sanity.:) Sorry, my love. But we all know, if Mommy is not happy, life is not good for anyone.:)

The next day, we headed to Vermont. Our first stop was Quechee (pronounced like Qweechee).

There was a waterfall there right by a cool, glass blowing, and pottery making store. It was fun the watch them make things, but boy was it expensive stuff, so no souvenirs for us!

After buying some authentic Vermont Maple syrup (yum!), we headed to the Quechee Gorge. It was so pretty to hike down there. And Dylan was a little happier running around the whole time. It was hard getting a picture of him during most of our trip.

Scott's a trooper. He accidentally fell into the creek behind him and got his shirt all wet (luckily not really his pants). Since he wasn't really wanting to walk around in a wet shirt the rest of the day, we took it off and just put on his jacket.

Yes, once again the kids had to hit sticks together to keep the bears away. (Parent Trap anyone!? Love that movie!)

So pretty!

After Quechee, we headed over to Sharon, VT which is the birthplace of Joesph Smith. They had a great visitors center and monument there. Such a pretty place; if you are in the area, worth a visit.

The next day, we headed into New Hampshire and Franconia Notch State Park in the White Mountains. I will post of that one next.:)