Pumpkin Patch

We went to a great pumpkin patch in Ohio. The owners were very creative in building fun fall activities for children and adults! They had 3 corn mazes, a playground made out of stuff you'd find around a farm, an elaborate 2-story "home" for their goats to play, and a wagon full of corn for kids to play. There were tractor rides and a hay ride. They also had 2 slides that landed in a bin of corn...one for kids and a bigger one for adults. We had so much fun that we almost forgot to pick out our pumpkins before they closed!


Me and the boys.

Logan driving the tractor made out of hay.

Owen driving Logan on the tractor.

Jacob and Owen in the pumpkin carriage.


Logan milking a cow.

Owen milking a cow.

The boys having fun in the corn wagon. They spent most of the afternoon here!




Finally picking out the pumpkins. We had two very tired boys by this time!:)

Ohio - Pine Tree Barn

We flew to Ohio to spend a couple weeks with Jacob's family. We had a nice visit and stayed very busy seeing the sights. These are some photos from one of our favorite places - Pine Tree Barn (restaurant, unique furniture etc.,) in an old barn.

Owen with a penguin.

Jacob walking down to the pond with the boys. It was beautiful weather! A special treat after thinking that we'd totally missed out on summer this year by not travelling out of Savoonga until October.

Logan running to throw a rock in the water.


Jacob, Owen, Grandma, and Logan

First Visit in Seattle

We spent a few days in the Seattle area before heading out to Ohio. My Grandma came out from Minnesota.

Logan is always a big help when she tries to knit! Somehow she managed to make them each a sweater and hat...despite all the extra help:)

Riding our old tricycle with Grandpa. Is it too much to ask for just one of the three to look at the camera! I'm such a good photographer:) I believe my photo command was "Look up" and look up they did:)

We spent a few days with my sister and family on Whidbey Island. The boys were pretty excited to see their old wagon again.

Family shot: Buddy, Michelle, Me, Grandma Roth, Mom, Dad, Logan, Caleb, Owen in the wagon.

We had good fun at the pumpkin patch. Owen picking out his pumpkin.

Logan struggling with his.

Michelle made her annual pumpkin stew so we had many pumpkins to clean.

This is how the pumpkin carving ended. Where's Logan and Owen? I believed they had retired to the playroom, but Jacob and my Dad seemed to enjoy themselves:)

Logan, "Gampa", and Owen with their pumpkins.

Barrow in October

Barrow is the northernmost city in Alaska. It was the first stop on our "vacation" because the Fall Presbytery meeting was held there. When you live in Alaska, you think of Barrow as way out there, but we experienced some culture shock upon landing! They had cars and paved roads, a full-size grocery with fresh produce and city buses! I knew these things before arriving, but it was still an experience to see it first hand right out of Savoonga. We had a nice weekend. A group of native pastors from Taiwan attended the meetings and the boys and I were invited to go sightseeing with them while Jacob stayed for the meetings. I know from talking to people who have lived in Barrow that it can be a hard place to live...issues of alcoholism, abuse, suicides, etc., but it also has a rich cultural identity and a lot of health in different segments of its population. Of the 4000+ people who live there, 40 some ethnic groups are represented. We were able to mesh with some of them. Of course the only photos I captured were at the playground:) Maybe you can see the city in the background.

Yikes!

I knew that I hadn't updated the blog for awhile, but I didn't realize that I'd missed the entire months of October and November! We were on vacation and since I'm using this blog as a place to keep track of our lives as well as a way to communicate with friends and family, I'm going to devote the next several posts to our latest travels. The Internet is incredibly slow these days, so bear with me!:) For now, we are back in Savoonga and doing well. Our bodies are adjusting to the zero degree temps with 40 mph wind gusts and the increasing darkness, but we're enjoying reconnecting with friends and feeling a bit more settled after a lot of traveling...which was good, but tiring at the same time. Enjoy skimming over the following vacation posts!

Some Old Some New

I haven't been able to access the Internet for awhile, so I just cut and pasted some entries I've been writing in Word...some are old stories and some are new:) Enjoy.

I think that we have finally recovered from a week of illness, during which Logan developed a new favorite phrase. Owen was the first to develop a 24-hour fever and need to be held all day. At the end of that day, Logan once again pleaded for me to hold him and I once again explained to him that Owen was sick and he needed me to hold him and once he was better I would hold Logan for hours on end if he so desired. Logan looked at me and said, “Me have no mama.” I thought this was a one time comment, but today, as I was actively engaged in cleaning out the dresser, Logan wanted me to play with him. I told him I would in a few minutes. Soon, I heard him mumbling in the corner, “Me have no mama.” I really think that we need to move back to Hollywood because I think our children would be stars!:)
While cleaning our room, we found our missing Berenstein Bears book. The boys were quite excited, so I left Jacob upstairs to read with the boys while I went down to cook dinner. I returned awhile later to find Logan, sitting in his bed with tissue sticking out of one nostril, blood covering most of the rest of his body, and a huge grin on his face. What happened? Jacob explained that as he was reading of Brother Bear first meeting Sister Bear, after she was born, Sister Bear “popped” Brother Bear in the nose. So, of course, I realize that Owen, in an attempt to act out the story, popped Logan in the nose. Jacob informed me that I was wrong. Logan, in an attempt to act out the story, popped himself in the nose! Apparently their was no pain involved, because Jacob continued to read the story only to hear Owen burst out in frantic tears as he noticed his brother's bloody face. It was quite the bloody nose and through it all Logan just laughed hysterically!

Just a quick update...This YWAM group will continue staying with us through next Friday and then we leave for Seattle the following Wednesday AM so we are sorting and prepping to pack for a month and a half away!:) Hope you're all well.

An Appropriate Response?

I suppose that when someone walked into our house and said, with wide eyes, “A cargo plane was just blown off the runway!” I probably shouldn’t have responded with, “Oh, that’s too bad. I’m going for a walk out to the dump and back.” Maybe I should have been clued in that the wind was rather intense?...But I was all ready and psyched up for my hour of exercise…so, off I went. I don’t run. It’s just pretty much misery to me, but today, I ran out to the dump. It was amazing! I just let my body go and with no effort at all, before I knew it, I was there…and then I turned around to go home! Whoa! It was literally everything I could do to lean into that wind at a 45+ degree angle and fight step by step to keep from being blown off of the road and out onto the tundra. I was soaking wet by the time I reached home (not from rain, but from the sea spray!) and I was having a difficult time standing up and walking straight, but it was worth it…I definitely had an hour of exercise!