"Pumpkin Maze!"

Ezra has become enjoyable company again. Even if we go somewhere! And he realized (again) that he does in fact love his father. Add in the fact that Seth is soon leaving for a week and I really wanted us to try to get in a family date before his trip.

All month long Facebook has been full of people's pumpkin patch adventures, and, gradually the idea grew on me enough to suggest it to Seth. We might have gone to a corn maze in high school? but we couldn't really remember. Besides that, I'm pretty sure I've never gone to a corn maze and I just didn't think it would be all that much fun (especially because of what I thought was all.the.hype).

We're also not sure what we think in regards to Halloween/fall festival, etc., celebrations. I grew up with Reformation Day/Reformers celebrations being the focus of October and Seth grew up with parents very, very opposed to anything Halloween-ish (like pumpkin carving). And in general, we don't really make a big deal out of holidays and such.

Does that paint the picture? We were pretty skeptical.

But when Seth's job got cancelled last minute (11pm the night before!?!) we decided to make Friday our family day.

The boys woke us all up by 7am (lovely, right? except this morning they woke us up at 5:30am). Seth was going to go to a coffee shop to work on the computer in peace, but Ezra freaked out when Seth started walking out the door, grabbing at his bag and trying to pull him back into the house. (!?!?) So Seth stayed, hiding away in the bedroom to make phone calls... but it wasn't too long before Ezra slipped in there as I was distracted by Isaac.

I heard them talking, but assumed Ezra would pop back out again in a few seconds. But he didn't... and he didn't... When I finally got curious and peaked in, they were cuddled up on the bed watching Curious George on the laptop! So adorable. I love it when Ezra deigns to cuddle with Seth.

After cuddle time was over, Seth dictated e-mails to me and I washed dishes and packed our bags and made lunch... and then off we went to Maris Farms!

It's rather a long drive, I suppose. I always pretend like it isn't, since I want to justify driving so far for piano lessons, but it was a good 45 minutes from our house. Ezra did look sleepy towards the end, so we ate pumpkin cookies and potato chips (nutritious!) and sang "What Does the Fox Say?" to keep him awake.

And then we arrived. There's an episode of Curious George where George goes through a corn maze (which Ezra talked about on the drive out there), so he totally knew what to expect. Of course, he also got very distracted...

He bee-lined to the tractor and wanted to drive it.

But then we found the sheep and goats! And even bought a quarter's worth of feed out of the dispenser (which he's very interested in, thanks to Uncle David's recent  of a candy machine in my parents' living room...

We took a ride, sitting on hale bales in a trailer pulled by a big orange tractor.

We admired pumpkins and stomped in thick mud.

We enjoyed all of the activities in their play area, including tunnels and spider webs and bouncy houses.

And we also walked through the corn maze, but we didn't take photos of it, I guess. We definitely, definitely got our $10 worth. It was a fantastic family date.

Baby Wyatt

We went to go celebrate my Grandma's 79th birthday at her house Friday night. Ezra was so excited for his Great Grandma's birthday party! He gave Grandma a painting he made last week and proudly told everyone about it ("a flower! a bird! a house!") when they first walked through the door.

We also got to meet my cousin's new baby, Wyatt Allen Anderson. Wyatt is my grandparent's third great grandchild, my first cousin once removed and Ezra and Isaac's second cousin.

Ezra was pretty fascinated by the "little tiny baby Wyatt".

Concert in the Park

Although we got off to a tumultuous start, we finally made it to the (very last!) concert-in-the-park in Steilacoom.

"Elvis" was performing, and though we didn't have very good seats, we enjoyed laying around on our blanket and listening to music.

"We Going To Walnut Creek, California!" (part two)

Saturday morning we woke up early and then, once we met up with the Meldrums (just down the hall from us in the hotel) we went to lunch at a BBQ place. Then we drove over to an indoor jungle gym so the boys could play and then be exhausted enough to nap before the wedding. Well, Ezra fell asleep on the way there. Stinker. So while Jesse played for a while, we sat in the lobby and held Ezra. He did wake up - just before the Meldrums left for the hotel. Oh well. Though the boys didn't play together, they both got to play and they both got to nap.

Then we went back to the hotel and got all dressed up and headed to the wedding. I wish we'd gotten a better photo of the four of us.

Thee ceremony was beautiful. I certainly haven't known Kaleb for as long or as well as Eric and Seth, but for the first few years I knew him I knew him as a committed bachelor. So to hear him read his sing song rhyming vows and a personalized version of a George Straight song, just for Ashley, made me cry. And laugh - they were both ridiculous, after all, a la Kaleb. But it was so sweet to see the two of them become husband and wife.

 Between the ceremony and the food, Ezra and Jesse went exploring. Jesse certainly was game to follow along, but I don't think he would have gone as far if Ezra hadn't goaded him into it. (Ok, goaded is harsh... but he was pretty demanding.)

After a night of dancing (all eight of us on the dance floor looked rather ridiculous, I'm sure), we headed back to our hotel room for a night of Isaac waking up every few hours. Stupidly, we didn't realize until the next day that he was teething. I guess the excuse is that he's only four and a half months old. Teething wasn't on my radar. But he was unusually difficult to put to sleep at the wedding and he was drooling a lot and gnawing excessively... Thankfully, once we got to Chico the next day we got teething tablets, which helped immensely.

Saturday morning we had to say goodbye to the Meldrums. I so wish we lived closer. Spending so much time with them made us realize how profoundly lonely we are. Both in general and for them.

It was especially sweet to watch Jesse and Ezra interact. I don't think they argued/fought once. They really enjoyed one another's company.

Then we headed back to Chico! When we got there one of Dad's old friends from high school was there, reminiscing. And then "everyone" came over for dinner again. The guys all played a few rousing games of wiffle ball and we went swimming several times. We were really grateful that it was only 95* (instead of 103* like on Wednesday and Thursday).

We took a bunch of photographs and then headed home! We got back to Tacoma in another eleven hours. Yay!

Grandpa Date

Ezra is so blessed to have such a sweet relationship with his Grandpa. These two love each other just about as much as any two people could love each other.

They dressed alike (on purpose) this week at church.

And then they also got to go on a date to Wapato Park.

History Walk: Immigration

You know that saying "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" Well. Here's a photo instead.

After the walk, we went to Wright Park with Mom and had a blast!