halloween recap.

i started halloween morning out by doing a 12K trail race up in port gamble with several friends. which would have been quite enjoyable, had it not DUMPED rain on us the night before, rendering most of the course slippery and muddy. nevertheless, sunday morning turned out to be *beautiful*, and it was worth braving the mucky trails just for some of the costumes. my personal favorite: the hooters guy. oohhhhh yeah.


pre-race. michael, ruby, dee, audi, me, rocky.


the sun getting ready to poke out at us.


audi and i, post-race. it looks like i have no halloween spirit, but that's just because you can't see the really cute orange and black striped tights i was wearing.


my vote for best costume LOL

and some pics from halloween evening, spent with the fabulously fun Hughes fam. jeff kept nathan company in front of the fire pit in our driveway where they handed out candy, while heather and i walked the littles around the neighborhood.


jeff, nathan, and all the littles. i am still not quite sure what jeff was supposed to be....


daddy and lil' red.


the girls ♥ violet the princess; katie as little red riding hood, and lilyanne as a fairy princess.


katie, pushing sam around on the floor at the Reider's. they thought this was great fun :)

thanks for looking!

3 years ago today.....

samuel made his debut into the world. thank god it was today and not a day later or his name would have been kent LOL (ask me about that story sometime.) today was a pretty lazy day, we pretty much just hung out around the house and watched scary halloween movies all day, and then grammy bought us pizza for dinner. we did head out long enough to go to the "no-scare" haunted house on base (which was pretty scary still, both littles had to be carried throughout the entire thing and sam let out quite a few cries. happy birthday to you sam, now let me scar you for life.) then back home for presents and brownies.


watching a scary movie on grammy's lap.


waiting in line at the haunted house.


grammy brought a halloween trunk with goodies in it for all the littles.


katie is apparantly VERY excited for her B&N gift card.


opening his new "camping" set.


just what he's been wanting....his very own scooter! (can i get a little help with this thing?! it's kinda heavy!)


trying out his new tent.


it even came with a headlamp!


happy numero tres, buddy.


he HAD to go try out the scooter in the garage.

thanks for looking!

costume reveal!

VOILA!

here we have the littles' costumes, which have cost me precious blood/sweat/tears the last week or two.





LIL' RED: skirt is made from house on hill road's tutorial with an added apron front. shirt is loosely based on the top of a dress she already has. cape is loosely based on a dress-up cape she has as well. faux corset i just winged it, 2 rectangles of polyester satin crap invented by the devil himself (can you tell i don't like sewing with it?!) with ribbon "lacing" up the front. oh, and the *perfect* basket for the part that i scored at value village for 99₵.






CUTE LITTLE WOLF (as opposed to "big bad", he's just too cute :): found the hat/mitten thingy at a store up in canada. winged the tail and some shoe covers outta gray fleece.


the wolf "gettin'" lil' red.

please-please-PLEASE just don't let it rain on halloween night now!

thanks for looking!

sea critters, and cruises, and the space needle (because i couldn't think of a "C" word to alliterate 'space needle')

so today we were like any other seattle tourist, walking around the city and taking in all the tourist-y hot spots. my mom had some friends here this past week visiting who purchased seattle city passes and only used one coupon out of the entire book, so she passed them onto us. since they had to be used by friday, and this was going to be the only day we would make it over before then, we squeezed as much as we could into the day. we were up at the CRACK o' dawn (AHEM. nathan. don't ever say that i can't make it out of the house at a decent time again, mmmmmmkay?) our first stop was the Seattle Aquarium. i find it hard to understand that with all the cool, new stuff there is to see, my children would rather run amok and act like little hoodlums. ach. they were on my last nerve by the time the harbor cruise was boarding. thankfully, they mellowed out for the Argosy harbor cruise a bit and it was actually quite enjoyable. it was a BEAUTIFUL day, and even when we got out on the water a ways and the wind picked up a little, it was chilly but not miserably so, and we stayed up top the entire time. then we went on a little urban hike up to the Space Needle. we sat around up there for a bit, had a snack (and i enjoyed a white chocolate mocha, yum.) we left there just in time to hightail it back to the ferry terminal to catch our ferry home. thank goodness for the "free ride zone" bus that gave us a lift for a partial way or i don't think we would've made it. and a great big thanks to cindy and hank for the city passes!


the ferry ride over. i am basking in the october sun.


a sea of fish above us in the aquarium.


my favorite part. hearing about the harbor seals. this guy is getting his teeth brushed :D


these guys must've been tuckered out. i don't think i've ever seen river otters this chill.


what it must feel like for a goldfish.


us. on an otter.


our "cruise" ship, the "spirit of seattle"


gettin' ready to set sail.


seattle as we pulled away.


getting a lift from daddy up top the space needle.


view of lake union via the space needle


passed these guys on our way back to the ferry. i love it!

thanks for looking!

hunter farms.

today we went to hunter farms with some friends. we'd never been down there before but had heard lots of great things about it so we decided to check it out. we were not disappointed. they have a really cool hay maze inside of a huge barn that the kids played in forever, with a slide at the end where you come out. there were animals to see, pet and feed (and sometimes throw hay at) and yummy food to eat and pumpkins to pick and tractors to ride.










nothing quite says "sexy" like a big daddy wearing a puppy backpack :D


the crew on the way out to the pumpkin patch!


a'pumpkin-hunting we will go


us.


pumkpin-tossing


sam liked this one.


sam and we-ann playing follow the leader


heather and i cheesin'



these aren't from today but i thought they fit in with this post pretty well.....


sam, showin' some pumpkin love.



thanks for looking!