Fall Stuff

Some weekend mid-October we trekked all the way out to Stocker Farms to conquer the corn maze and give their haunted house a try.

I think this was the first time it hit us that it was starting to get cold out. We weren't dressed warm enough for the weather, but luckily Rob had a few extra sweatshirts and pairs of gloves in the car!

We got there too late to hit their pumpkin patch, but were not much for pumpkin carving anyways. With an hour or so of daylight left we took on the corn maze. They offered us a map as we beginning, but we passed and entered the maze with nothing but our superior navigating skills.

There were all these CornText check points throughout the maze, but we didn't give in. We were certain we'd make our way through without any help.

Turns out we sorta suck. We ended up coming back out of the maze without any problems...only we came back out the entrance, not the exit. So technically we didn't do the whole maze, but I thought we did pretty good.

The haunted house was awesome! It wasn't really scary, but there were definitely some parts where I was startled. We met some fun people in line and went through it with them, which made it even more entertaining.

On the way home we tried to ignore the fact that our shoes and pants were all muddy and stopped PF Chang's for dinner. I think we got a weird look or two, but pretended not to notice!

I think we can scratch corn mazes and haunted houses off our list for a few years.

Salmon Days

We joined the rest of Issaquah over the weekend and hopped a shuttle down to Salmon Days. Apparently it's quite a big deal.

At several points in the river you can see the salmon swimming upstream. Some of them were HUGE. And you can see all the ones that have 'met their ends' after laying their eggs. Ah, the circle of life. It's strange to see them swimming around in front of you, then picture all the frozen filets in the freezer. But we do love some salmon at our house!

This big blow up salmon's mouth opened up and kids could climb in, sit down and listen to stories being told {by the salmon, I think}. Weird.

It was a perfect Fall day to be outside, although I'd like to see a few more Fall leaves. I'm inpatient. This is supposed to be a long Fall, so I hope that we'll have plenty of nice outdoor-worthy weekends ahead of us.

Great day for a hike

We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather today so we thought we'd take advantage of that (as well as our extra hour, thanks daylight savings!) and explore some more of millions of the trails up by our house. We also managed to check out some real estate along the way. No winners though.

Along one of these trails we stumbled onto a great dog park. It had all of these goober-y, dog lover signs and we thought that this was the funniest.

Um, I think I'll pass on the licking!

After about four or five miles worth of hills we were all tired and ready to head back home. Poor Jackson's little legs couldn't carry him much further! I know it's not likely, but I hope we have a few more weekends with great weather like this.

Visit from the girls

We have been lucky enough to have some house guests this past week. My Mom, aunt Alane and sister-in-law Melanie arrived in Seattle on Wednesday. That evening we headed over to Alki Beach for a great seafood dinner at Dukes and did some catching up. Snoqualmie Falls was our first stop Thursday morning.

The foliage surrounding the falls was so beautiful. We took tons of pictures of all the changing leaves. That afternoon we walked around the Seattle Art Museum. It was definitely not on the list of my favorite museums, but it was interesting nonetheless. As you walked in they had white about 5 white Taurus cars hanging from the ceiling with big flashing light sticks coming out of them. Weird, but it's art...I guess. The last picture shows Mel's favorite piece (the long silver robe made out of dog tags) and my least favorite piece (a large rat on top of a bed).

On our way home we stopped by Southcenter Mall to grab some Red Mango and do a little shopping. Here is Mel posing with a crazy headband she found in Forever 21. She cracks me up!! I also found a great dusty blue handbag/clutch there for only $25! I love their accessories...they are so cheap!

On Friday we went to Pikes Place Market and did some shopping. Alane bought me a pretty bunch of dried flowers. I love getting dried flowers from the market...they look great and last forever!

That night we dined at a good old favorite; The Crab Pot on the waterfront.

After dinner we went home for a little R & R before hitting the 10:00 showing of The Secret Life of Bees at the Lincoln Center.

I read the book a few years back and liked it. The movie was great, but you know what they all say: the book is always better than the movie. Everyone else (minus Rob :) he was so good to go along with our movie selection!) really enjoyed the movie. It was 12:30 before we arrived home. We were all so tired!!

After sleeping in a few hours on Saturday morning we drove through the Arboretum to check out the changing leaves and have a little walk around. The weather was exceptionally warm and bright. There were so many people out with their cameras!

The next stop of the day was Gas Works Park. You get a great view of the city and Lake Union from this park. See the sky in the background? Clearness of that kind in nearly unheard of during this time of year. The girls really lucked out on their trip up here...hardly any rain at all! There were a bunch of people (all adults!) there dressed up crazy costumes and playing weird games...it was a funny site to see.

We arrived at the Seattle Center in the late afternoon. I was so surprised that they still had the fountain going. There were even a few people playing in the water...crazy! It was definitely starting to cool down by this time in the day, so I could only imagine how cold it was if you were wet. :)

While waiting in line at the Space Needle a lady in front of us handed us some free passes...nice, huh! Since everyone but Alane had been up in to the top before, Rob and Alane waited in line to go up to the top and Mel, Mom and I went back to the Center House to watch the Seattle Turkish Festival dancers. It was pretty entertaining!!

Back at home we played some games over pizza and a movie and hit the sack. The girls were off to the airport the next morning and our exciting time with them came to an end. We had such a great time with them all!! Rob was such a good tour guide and drove us all over the place! He sure did a better job than I could have. :)

Thanks for coming to visit us...can't wait to see you again soon!

What's with all of the NOISE!?!

Last week I was thrilled about all of the leaves falling outside my office window. Today I have realized a major downside of that...leaf blowers.

Especially when there are three of them being operated outside my window while I am in the middle of a VERY, VERY, VERY (really, 3 very's are in order!) important conference call. Argh!

Oh well...Happy Friday!

Leaves are falling all around!

All throughout the day I have been watching leaves fall off of the trees outside my office window. It has put me in such a great mood! I have been so excited for the Fall, but the last week or so has been an extension of summer...it was in the high eighties for the past few days (boo!).

I think that this weekend may include a nice drive in the mountains to check out the foliage.

Hooray for the Fall!!

This time of year already? Bummer!

The fall is my absolute favorite time of year! Once it is over I am already counting down the days until it comes again. It just so happens that Rob does the same exact thing, but for a completely different reason than I do. I love the crispness of the air, the changing of the leaves...all the good stuff. Rob's countdown is solely for the start of the College Football season. This is actually one thing that I do not like about the fall. During the season all day long, every Saturday our house revolves around the football games that start at 9:00 and go into the night. In the first year in our relationship I would watch the games with Rob. Not because I was really into them but because our relationship was still fairly new and I just wanted to be with him. I was definitely singing a different song the following year. The second year I spent a majority of the time complaining about how much time he spent watching it. This didn't do any good...he watched them anyways. Well, he watched them most of the time. There were a handful of occasions where he would give into my whining. By year three I understood that this was something I could give in on. Rob really doesn't ask for much and is always so wonderful to me, so why not just give him his College Football. We have been through eight seasons and I have found other things to do on my solo Saturdays. It has even gotten to be kind of nice for us to have the day to our self. Apparently the season started last week while I was out of town, so I hadn't realized it was upon us. Boy was I in for a rude awakening this morning! I was up and wanting to do something. I had a plans that would last us all day long and I was looking forward to it. But alas, I walk downstairs to the familiar sound of football commentary and I knew my fate. None of my exciting things would happen today, College Football has arrived. Bummer for me! I sulked around all day (in my pajamas by the way!) and moved my oh-so-exciting plans to tomorrow...hopefully. I am going to have to take up a new hobby to entertain myself on Saturdays.

Go Florida State!