Silver Falls Hike and Welcome Oat!

We have heard so many good things about the Silver Falls hike in Entiat.  We have been wanting to do it fo a while but the 45 minute drive to get there has kept us from being able to go.  Finally Labor Day weekend we were able to go with the Bastian's and the Fry's. 

The great thing about this hike is that you hike along the waterfall the entire time.

The water was so beautiful and clear.

And here is Oat.  Oat is a young man from Thailand.  He came to the U.S. as a foreign exchange student but his host family fell through.  He was going to get sent home.  Our friends told us about him and we decided to let him stay with us since we have a spare room.  So he is the 6th member of our family for the year!  He is a great kid.  Very smart and funny.  

Here we all are.  Zoe, Ben, Grey, Mauvia, Tate, and Oat.
I know Oat looks very serious but he is really very funny.  I asked him why he never smiles in pictures and he told me, "It's not my style."

Here are the Fry's minus Nick.  Kyla, Leslie, Cora and Ava

Greysen's favorite ride!

I love this picture except for the part where the camera looks like a goiter on my neck.  No worries, I do not have any tumors.

Here we are again; Oat, Tate, Ben, Grey, Mauvia and Zoe

Caden, Kyla and Zoe hiking.  There is someone else there too but I can't tell who it is.

Caden Kyla, Zoe, Oat, and Leslie

Caden, Chandler, Leslie's nephew, Zoe and Brooklyn.

Zoe and Brooklyn

It wasn't just the waterfall that was beautiful the views were amazing!

Okay this picture is kind of hillarious.  Ben stayed on one side of the waterfall so that he could get a picture of us across the falls.  So in this picture you can see me holding Tate.  He had just gotten his first bee sting (see below).  Next to me is Jeremy Bastian holding Greysen.  You can also kind of see Oat through the waterfall.  Oat's red shoes had gotten dusty so he washed them off in the waterfall and they turned his fingers red. 

Here is the picture of Tate's first bee sting.  There was a hive right next to the trail.  It is kind of hard to see but there is a pale pink circle just below the knee.

This was his poor sad face.

As if she isn't tall enough already!

Holding a big stick always cheers Tate up.

Look at that big man!

First Day of Middle School for Zoe!

In East Wenatchee Washington there a few things that are different.

Lots of sunshine and apples and...

5th grade is Middle School

My Zoe is now in the 5th grade so we had to make the emotionally trying transition into Middle School.

Ever the fashionista she put together this "fun, funky, fashionable" (her words)

 outfit from her school clothes.

We also did our hair the same so we could think about eachother throughout the day.

Here she is with her school in the background.

Her first locker.

This was a huge source of anxiety for her and for me.

The first time she tried it she could get the combination without a problem but she wasn't physically strong enough to life the latch.  What can you do about that?  Have her lift weights?  We were all very concerned.  Thankfully her locker partner is buff.

1st period.

Zoe and Fatima.

Zoe is growing up so fast.  She is becoming so responsible and she has handled this new scary adventure called Middle School with so much grace and maturity.  I am so proud of her and so thankful to have her in my life.

Lake Chelan again...

We got to spend a day of Greysen's birthday week at Lake Chelan.

This was the first time that we had gone to the lake for the purpose of swimming since we moved here.

We are still learning the best places to go so we went to this park that we had gone to with the Dame's for thier daughters birthday.

What we didn't know was that there was no beach at this park, just a 10 foot retaining wall that you have to jump off of directly into the icy cold waters!

Crazy eh?!

We had fun though once we all got over the freezing adjustment.

Here Grey and I are after we took our swim and were soaking up the sun.

 (Through SPF 50 of course!)

Zoe swam all over the place.

Tate found a big stick shaped like a gun.

Here Grey and I are on our swim.  He really did have fun despite his expression.

The kids got to feed a duck.

And Ben got to snorkel.

Later that night the kids hung out with the Dames kids and had a sitter while Ben and I played with Haley and Jon.

We rented paddle board which neither of us had done before but was so much fun.

Ben and I shared one.  First he stood and paddled while I rode on the front.  Ben doesn't have great balance so the board was shaking.  I kept reminding him to have "grounded feet"  which was something we used to say in dance to help us balance.  This reminded him of the Friends episode where Ross kept saying "Pivot! Pivot!"  Which made him laugh so he shook even more and then he tipped us.  Then I took over paddling and we got the hang of it.  Later he had another turn and did a great job.  It was so much fun.

Our First Garden

We planted our first garden this year.

This is our first full year where we have had a yard to plant a garden in.

We went from having no garden to having 300 square feet to work with.  We had no idea what we where doing so we just planted a bunch of stuff that sounded good.

Peas, potatos, carrots, chives, bak choy, radishes, pumpkins, corn, oregano, thyme, articholkes, raspberries, basil, cilantro, kale, greenbeans, tomatos, egg plant, green peppers, jalipenos, zuccini, yellow squash, spagetti squash, butternut squash, strawberries, blueberries and cucumber.  

Here are some things we learned:

1.  Some things need to be planted before they go outside.  For example tomatos, green peppers, jalipenos, and egg plants all need to be "started".

2.  Birds love peas, strawberries and blueberries so you have to protect them somehow.

3.  Slugs love beer

4.  Marigolds are awesome to keep away tomato bugs.

5.  If we don't label our plants sometimes we forget what they are.

6.  Zuccini takes up a lot of space.

7.  We don't like spagetti squash.

8.  Pickles and marinara from the garden rock!

Pretty Eggplant

Cute Pumpkin

Our corn row path

Here's Zoe's reaction to some unexpectedly large produce.

Zuccini mustache!

Unicorn squash!

This is one days worth of produce.

Pickles and Pickled Green Beans.

Yummy!

Happy Birthday Greysen!

Our little man has turned 2!

Look at that sweet face! Don't you just want to smush those cheeks?

Our little man is so funny and smart.

Here are some of my favorite things about Grey:

1. He says "I puds" When he needs a diaper change and points to his bottom.

2. He hums the Star Wars Theme and the Darth Vader Theme

3. He loves to pretend to be a monster

4. When you ask him for something he says "Sure!" In his sweet voice.

5. He loves cars, trains, trucks and anything with a motor. On the way from the car into the church every sunday he names every vehicle he can see ie: car, truck, truck car.

6. He has squishy kissable cheeks.

7. He does very dramatic fake deaths when playing Star Wars.

8. He pats your back when he is trying to comfort you.

9. His little voice is so sweet.

10. He still thinks that my kiss heals his ouwies.

Greysen decided to wear Ben's shorts.


The infamous blanket, only he doesn't cover his body with it he wrapps it around his head while he sleeps.

Greysen does not like cake so for his birthday this year we had fruit and whipped cream.

This was Greysen's personal birthday cake made specially by Ben.

Happy Birthday to Greysen!

Yummy Birthday Cake (minus the cake!)

Birthday Presents!

Whenever we ask Greysen how old he is he says "I dknow"

Love the monster!

He loves dogs!

Epic Star Wars Battle

Leavenworth pond

There is a pond in leavenworth that is stocked every year with trout in the summer. Kinds under 15 are allowed to catch 5 fish a day there.

We thought that would be a great place to spark the kids interest in fishing by actually catching a fish.

Zoe casted out one time and immediatly caught her first fish. She was so excited and scared and kind of grossed out.

Grey isn't fishing yet so instead he filled his pockets with rocks.

I taught Tate how to cast so that he could fish on his own. I am very proud of the fact that I taught both Zoe and Tate to cast. Tate had so much fun that he told me he wanted to be a professional fisherman when he grows up. Or a scientist that studies dinosaurs.

There is that gorgeous girl of mine catching fish like crazy.

There were 6 fish caught in total. Tate caught one and Zoe caught 5.

Greysen fell in the pond and pushed Tate in also.

It was a great day.