Pumpkin Patch!

We went to the Spooner Farm pumpkin patch this year.  It's out near Sumner and it was worth the drive out there. The set up they had was really neat; they have hay bale spiders and cow benchs and LOTS of places set up for pictures. It was nice that everything wasn't really spread out as well. We watched some people sling pumpkins, the kids discovered that rubber boots are excellent for walking through puddles, we all got our pumpkins and we went through the corn maze. I think next year we'll go down planning to spend more time there. It looked like they had a few other things that we didn't get to do. It was good that we left when we did though because it started raining just after we left.

Check out Kayda's Jump! The first puddle she came across she was trying to go around and couldn't. I told her "It's okay to go in the puddles, that's why we wore our boots." After that there was no stopping either of them. I think they would've just run from puddle to puddle if we let them. Kayda did manage to find one that was a little too big and ended up stuck in the mud. We had to pry her out, thank goodness for the little handles on their boots!

Poor Cousin

Aileena, Kayda's second oldest cousin (7 years old), has been having quite an ordeal over the last couple of days. Unfortunately it will be a while until it is completely over. Thursday she had severe head and neck pain and numbness in her arm. She was airlifted to harborview where she was given steroids and a CAT scan. There was a large mass in her brain, fortunately the steroids helped with the numbness which is a good sign that permanent damage wasn't inflicted. She had an MRI and they found that it was a tumor. Yesterday she went in to surgery to have it removed. The doctors are very optimistic. It is a rare, aggressive type of cancer but it responds well to treatment and doesn't spread to other parts of the body. She will be having an MRI to make sure that they removed all of the tumor, she will have som radiation therapy and then regular MRI's to be sure it doesn't relapse. While she has been in the hospital the other cousins have been spending a lot of time together. They spent the first night with Aunt Anna and Uncle Scott (Jarrett, Nathan and Ella). Then Friday all the cousins played in the morning before Dillon, Kayda and Ella came home with me for Dillon's nap. Ella ended up wanting to have a sleep over here so she slept next to Kayda, sideways in the bed. They had a great time and Ella went to sleep more easily than Kayda and Dillon did (they were so excited that Ella was staying the night). Jarrett, Chase and Nathan stayed with Grandma Peggy. Here are the kiddos in Kayda's bed. Hopefully Aileena will recovery quickly because her siblings miss her VERY much. Ella doesn't understand exactly what's going on but she asks "Where is Aileena going to sleep?"

In the morning I heard Kayda moving around so I got up real quick to get her. She was in there saying "Ella...Ella". She wanted Ella to wake up and play. She didn't have to wait long. Ella was walking down the hall in just a couple of minutes. They were settled in to watch morning cartoons when Dillon woke up and wanted to sit by Ella too. So here they are all snuggled in together.

Puyallup Fair!

We went to the Puyallup Fair this evening for a couple of hours. It's the first time Daddy and I have been there since back when we were dating...7 years ago. We had a great time, spent more money than we probably should have (spoiling our children of course) but is was quite relaxing and a great change of pace. The kids had a great time on the rides. I was pleasantly surprised that after they went on the carousel (which Kayda insisted was first) the kids were HAPPY to try more rides. They couldn't go on many because they just aren't big enough yet but they loved the ones they got to go on. They also went on a pony ride! Dillon rode Honey and was perfectly happy to do it all by himself. Kayda was excited at first, riding Cinnamon, but after a while she remembered that she wanted to ride the WHITE horse and got upset. These are pictures of pictures that we bought so they're not real clear but they were adorable.

The carousel... It was going really fast so it was hard to get pictures but the kids loved it!

A train ride!

Pony ride!

It had to be a GREEN car. A family in front of us was nice enough to trade so that Kayda could have the green one instead of a pink one.

The canoe ride. This one was nice because we got to walk right next to them the whole way around.

"Riding" an elephant while we were waiting for an elephant ear!

The petting zoo.

Kayda's First Swim Lessons WITHOUT Mom and Dad!

I managed to get Kayda signed up for swim lessons (WITHOUT Mommy or Daddy in the water) at Lindbergh. I used to work there and I found out Kyoko still worked there. She is a fantastic swim teacher so I was REALLY excited that I was able to get Kayda into one of her classes. Kayda absolutely loved it. 90% of the time she had a huge grin on her face, the other 10% she was underwater! She did SO well, I was concerned that she wouldn't be ready to swim without Daddy or I but she started going underwater without even being asked to!!! Daddy was able to take a short break from work and come down and see her first day of swim lessons.

Her cheeks must have been sore! Look at that SMILE!!!

She's getting a ring from the table!

One of the very few times we managed to get Dillon to just SIT.

Dillon DESPERATELY wanted to go in with big sister but he just isn't old enough yet. This week is too busy but starting next week either Daddy or I will be taking him for some "Dillon swimming time" in the evenings. I felt awful. I don't know how I'm going to do it when Daddy isn't there to help me. I want SO much to just sit and watch Kayda swim!

This picture cracks me up! Kyoko and Kayda were touching the bottom of the pool after Kayda jumped. I love the bubbles!

The Circus

A couple of weeks back (September 3rd) we went to the circus for Grandma Peggy's birthday. The kids LOVED the animals but got really antsy and distracted when it was just people, even for the clowns! Dillon had a hard time sitting still but he still had fun. Since we went, every time Kayda sees a commercial for it she starts yelling for me and tells me she wants to go. Unfortunately by the time I was ready to relent the circus had already moved on.

Catching up...Random Tidbits from the Summer

A couple of weeks ago, on one of the chillier days, I brought the kids to Lake Meridian for an hour or so to throw rocks. They had a great time! The only bad part was this one duck would not leave. Every time the kids threw a rock it would swim after it thinking it was food. Fortunately the kids picked up on the fact pretty quickly that they were NOT supposed to throw rocks at the duck. It only took a couple of times with me reminding them right before they threw anything!

About two weeks ago (right before my days at work started) Grandma G and I cleaned out their old hot tub. It doesn't really run anymore but we cleaned it out. The kids had a great time filling it up and they had an even better time playing in there over the next few days.

Last Friday after a couple of hours on the picket line we went to the park with my friend Tracy and her two kiddos. The kids didn't really play together. There were too many exciting things at the playground. Dillon went down the biggest slide on his own though..WOW.

Kayda is getting better and better at riding her trike! Here's a video. If you turn on the volume she actually tells me that she's riding her bike! She falls over at the end but she was NOT hurt.