Preschool Field Trip to Remlinger Farms Pumpkin Patch

It's Friday, November 2nd. The day of the rain-or-shine preschool field trip to Remlinger Farms. And...it's raining. Drat. Double drat. 

No matter, we'll dress warmly and head out in it. As they say in England: "There is no bad weather, only inadequate clothing."

We're here! Ollie is super excited! 

Waiting to head into the farm, we take a quick spin through the country store.

Ollie, posing on a tractor with apple trees in the background.

The farm had a petting zoo and some other interesting
animals in cages. Not sure what this bird is. Anyone?

Ollie has a lifelong love of school buses. This was a photo op he was NOT going
to miss out on! :)

Ah, the petting zoo. I was a little put off by the signs that say, "May Bite."
I mean, I guess it's always a risk and maybe that's just legalese to cover their
butts, but still.... made me nervous. This little burro looks a little sketchy,
don't you think?

Ollie petting a (biter?) goat.

Ollie with the burro again. We saw chickens, sheep, turkeys, and pigs too.

Ollie climbing around on the (cold, wet) old-fashioned fire engine.

...And riding on the (cold, wet) mini steam engine.

...Look, a (cold, wet) scarecrow.

By noon, I was so ready to leave. We had ridden the school bus from the
preschool to the farm and THANKFULLY our friend Stacey, who'd driven
her van, offered to give us a ride home if we wanted to cut the (cold, wet)
preschool pumpkin patch field trip short. Yes! Yes, we do! 

But first, let's pick out a pumpkin. After all, it's why we came!

Cougar Mountain Zoo

Some friends of ours asked us to tag along on their zoo trip today. This great little zoo is closer to our house and is smaller than the big zoo in Seattle. Sometimes it's nice to have a change of pace and a bit of a smaller spot to explore with the kids. You don't feel like you have to "see it all" and so you spend more time at each exhibit.

The kids love posing for pictures with the animal
sculptures. I took about a million pics. This was one of the cutest ones.

The kids watch the alpaca eat. Watch out! He spits!

Emus. We got to see the zookepper give the emus a bath with a hose,
which was pretty cool.

Our friends' little boy, Brennan, feeds the alpacas.

Our friends' kids watch the macaws.

Forgot what these birds were called, but they are super cool looking.

The stars of the show: The cougars. This cage has three
siblings. We got to see two handlers go in and interact
with them and talk about cougar habitat, diet, etc. 

Ollie actually fell asleep in my lap during the bird show, so he and I napped while Merrit went with our friends to see the tigers.  And we finished off the day with ice cream. What a great day. Summer here in the Northwest couldn't be lovelier. The weather has, literally, been PERFECT since July.

The zoo overlooks the Cascade mountains, and (though you can't see it in this picture) Lake Sammammish just at the base of the hill. The sky was absolutely clear and gorgeous. Temps in the mid-70s.

When we first moved here, everyone kept saying, "Just wait til summer; all this rain will be worth it." 

They were right!

Photo Recap: Daily Life

I'm a few weeks behind on the blog, but trying to play
catch-up a little here today. This was the last little snow
we got...I think it was right around March 10.

Skippy has been an indoor cat her whole life, but we've recently been
letting her out on the fully-enclosed, second story deck. Rain, snow, or
sun, she loves it out there!

With so much rain and snow, the boys have been watching more TV and
movies than usual. Mike recently introduced them to vintage G.I. Joe.

Tuckered out after an afternoon of action figure play.

Breakfast one day.

Ollie with tanagram puzzles. He goes into preschool at
12:35, but he and I do some "schoolish" stuff together
in the mornings. 

I'm finally going through the last of our boxes. Believe it or not, I even had
to make a trip to Goodwill!

Every Wednesday, Merrit has a half-day of school and Ollie's out of school
all day. Wednesday afternoons are perfect library days!

Merrit is going through a graphic novel/comic book phase. I hope he
returns to the plain ol' written word again one of these days...

Another day, another breakfast.
We love being able to see the lake from our dining table!

Ollie and I have been having fun with the train set.
Until we have our guest room set up, it's the perfect
spot for building big tracks!

Feeding the ducks at a local park on Lake Sammammish (about a 10-minute
drive away from our house).

You know I had to buy this shirt for Ollie in the Seattle
Aquarium gift shop. He loves all things Star Wars.

Mike splurged and bought the boys a set of Star Wars
ships to go with the action figures they already have.
A TIE Fighter and an X-Wing.

"Luke Sci-copter" (as Ollie says) and R2-D2 go in this ship.

A week later. Still infatuated.

We have been getting tons of rain lately. It rained straight for, I think, 12
days. It was really getting to be crazy. Skippy likes to go out and lick up
the puddles on the deck, though.

My new favorite hot beverage. Perfect on cold, rainy days.

I wear a size eight. This is a huge earthworm!!!
(Like my new boots? Now I want a navy blue rain trench to go with .)

A hairstyle I'm trying out. Big loose curls.
Bangs growing out. Length growing out.

We were killing some time last weekend. Spent $20 on lottery tickets,
won $16 back. Then spent $16 and won $4 back. Ah, that's the way it goes...

Mike and I cheezing it up at a neat little place we found in Seattle
called the Little Water Cantina, right on Lake Union. Patio seating
looked awesome...but too cold. We'll have to go back in summer.

Being little hams.

My best friend and I.

The guacamole was really good.

"Oh yeaaaaaah!"

Later that same weekend...
We met up with my brother, Rich, for authentic Ethiopian
food. Everything is served on sourdough flat bread (called
injera), which is sort of like a spongy, tangy crepe. You
use little pieces of the injera to scoop up the food from
the shared plate in the center of the table.

To be honest, I'm not even sure what we ordered; Rich ordered. But there
was homemade cheese (delicious), a lamb dish, a beef dish, a chicken dish,
sauteed greens, a lentil dish, a marinated salad, and a potato dish.

Rich just got back from a five-week trip to Australia, which he told us all about.
What an adventure!

Sunset, a clear night, and the Space Needle as we drive
through town.

Getting ready for my next killer workout. I've been working out like an animal
since late February. Doing Shaun T's "Insanity" workout. I'm smiling now,
but I won't be in about 45 minutes...

Those workouts ARE insane. I had to take this pic and send it to my friend Dawn
 as a joke, but it's worth including here. This is me half-way through one workout.
Dying. On the floor. In a pool of my own sweat! :)

Part two of the plan: Lots of veggies and lean meats.
Also doing some protein shakes and lots of water!

We have this great tree out in front of the house. Merrit has
learned to climb it and likes to sit up in the crook.

Mike and Ollie ... Mike took this pic. So cute.

The best part of the day!