First Snow

The temperatures have dropped and the wet weather hit us hard. It was really nice of Kent to make me a fire in the fireplace a few nights ago because I could not get warm all day! One night the temperatures dipped down to 17* and it killed everything. We didn't even get a chance to see fall colors on our street. The leaves just dropped. For beautiful fall colors in Alaska, check out my mom's blog called Snippets.

Travel Trailer!

We took of at 6am Friday morning and headed south to Pasco to pick up our travel trailer. We purchased it from my friend Kristin's parents. We drove through Quincy we saw the most beautiful sunrise.

It's hard to capture how magnificent the sky looked that morning.

Here it is! It's a 23' Kit Road Ranger with some great features like two doors, a separate room, real wood shelves and skylights.

Here's the main bedroom which can be closed off by a door.

Brooke LOVES the couch/eating area. This area turns into a large 2nd bed which is actually larger than the 1st bed.



Here we are enjoying the trailer already! Can't wait to play cards and have some great meals around this table with family and friends.


There is a lot of storage and a pretty spacious kitchen area. Kent has the "door" closed here into the back bedroom.


Below is tour of our new rig. Hopefully you don't get too dizzy from my poor video skills!

14 Months Old

On the first day of Brooke's 14th month we experienced a lot of firsts. One that I'm not as proud to announce is the fact that she ate at McDonalds. Well, let me phrase that... she drank milk and had two bite my tortilla at McDonalds. We never (well, almost never) go to McDonalds, but today it was the only option for a quick bite to eat. Brooke thought the milk container was the coolest thing ever, carrying it around for the rest of the day. The second "first" we had was picking up our travel trailer (I'll save a separate blog post for that).

We spent most of today in the truck driving to the Tri-Cities and back (7 + hours of travel total). Brooke was entertained by eating, music, books and sleeping for 1 1/2 hours. Once we arrived home we went up to the high school to watch Kent's band perform at their homecoming tailgate party. Brooke was an instant attraction for the band kids, cheerleaders, and school mascot. Thanks Emily for the adorable pink tiger outfit, it kept her so warm tonight!


Some of the boys even let her play their drums!

It took a few visits with the Cashmere Bulldog to warm up, but once she realized she liked the big dog she couldn't get enough of him! She kept on saying, "woof, woof!"

Random Photos

We try to give Brooke opportunities to learn how to eat with spoons and forks. She really tries but it's so much easier to grab it with her hand. She is a very clean eater for a toddler (despite a few dropped items on the floor).

We bought a new car seat and made a box house. How many people can fit in one little house?

One afternoon I needed ten minutes to finish dinner. My solution was the indoor sandbox (bowls and cornmeal)! I was amazed that I didn't need to clean much off the floor afterwards!

I have been enjoying knitting hats lately. My next project is knitting her a sweater. I am learning a few new techniques and I'm really happy that I chose an easy pattern.

We were given my Great Grandmother's table from my Uncle Norris. It wasn't cheap to refinish it, but they did an amazing job. It had heavy wear and warping of the wood. The company that refinished it said it was a very high quality table worthy of the work they did to it. We are now enjoying this piece in our house.

Chilly Mornings

Fall has hit us really hard after a week of record high temperatures in the 90's. Lately the afternoons have been absolutely perfect with highs in the 60's but the mornings are getting really chilly! Every Thursday morning I have been going on a walk with my friend Rebecca and her little two month baby Emily. At 9am this morning was 35* and sunny; we were so proud of ourselves that we didn't call to cancel/delay our exercise. This really showed me that I have no excuse to get out and walk daily no matter the temperature!

Brooke is content in the mornings for about two hours. After that she is ready to get going! She especially likes to play outside, go on a walk, or anything away from the "boring" inside of our house. This could become a challenge this winter!

One of Brooke's favorite games is to throw balls to Cassy.


She knows exactly where the raspberries are. She picks her own to eat too. I wonder if she'll ever learn that the white ones don't taste too good.


One of Brooke's favorite treats! We're lucky that Grandma Britta gave us some very good plants that have done wonderfully in our climate and soil. We've had constant berries for so many months!

Playing outside is so much fun!

A Pumpkin Sunday

To raise money for support of our church garden people can donate money and take home the big pumpkins. They grew 350 pumpkins this year! The girls got to take home a little pumpkin just their size! It was so nice having Bob and Emily join us at church this morning. We got a chance to perform a brass quartet for the offertory. The congregation clapped afterwards so we know they enjoyed our music. It was so easy just putting a piece together with Bob and Emily, it must have been all those years of playing together in college. After church we had to say goodbye. But we are happy that there are only a few weeks until we get to see each other again.

Daddy and Me!

Brooke was very chatty on the phone while we waited in downtown Leavenworth. She also enjoyed the polka music and gave the tourists a little sample of her dancing!

One of the new hotels in Leavenworth has some gorgeous flowers decorating it's rooms.


Another view near the marathon.

After the race, we headed for a local restaurant for some brats and beer... Leavenworth's specialty!

Etta and Brooke were pretty well behaved during lunch even though it was getting close to nap time (which never really happened...).

Good Times in Cashmere

Emily and I were both impressed by how well our two girls to played with each other. They even liked to hug! The hug shown above had an unfortunate ending, but no child was hurt!

Both girls got to taste a bit of Cashmere's own candy Aplets and Cotlets. They both approved!







The flowers outside really looked beautiful.

A quick stop by the swings made both girls laugh and smile.

Leavenworth Marathon

Our friends Bob, Emily and Etta came over this weekend. On Saturday morning we got out early in the chilly fall weather to cheer on Emily as she ran the Leavenworth Half Marathon.

We were at Blackbird Island Park waiting for Emily to pass by. Brooke enjoyed playing in the grass and watching the runners.


Go runners! GO!

There were some very interesting costumes... dirndls and lederhosen! It was a constant reminder to all that it was the first weekend of Oktoberfest in Leavenworth.

Kent and I were discussing back and forth about what Emily was wearing. Good thing we spotted her off in the distance!

What a beautiful day for a run!