I MISS SUMMER ALREADY

Our "summer" is quickly coming to a close. In short, as far as weather goes, our summer was short. It rained LOTS, much to my huge disappointment. Payton is pretending to "swim" in our dry pond. It just dried out about a month ago. Usually it is dry by the end of June or start of July. It will be filling up soon.
The sun-tanned grass, turned brown for only a short time. Then the rains began and in less than a week, it was . . .

this green. In the Fall the deer and turkeys come closer to the house. We call this guy "Spike".

The beautiful hibiscus stayed pretty for a short time and then the rains beat them up.

In the Fall the stonecrop(next to the hibiscus) begins to bloom.

Our garden wasn't great, but it produced the best watermelon we have ever grown. 15" long and 22" around. We cut it open, ate it and it was soooooooo sweet and delicious!

But the best part of this whole weekend, was that Jim got 2 HUGE projects done, that he's been wanting to get done for years. Kevin and Jim cut down 2 big rotten oak trees, that loose huge limbs into the pond every year.

Here goes one of them. Kevin cut through in 2 places, but it needed some "nudging" to finish the job.


Yaaaa, it's done and cut up for the winter.

The other big project was getting 2 rusted cars off the property. They were almost to the bottom of our 10 acres. We had to get them up to the driveway, loaded onto a trailor and taken to the auto wrecking place. Kevin and I had to cut away a bunch of brush and blackberries just to get to the cars. Then Jerry pulled them up the hill. This one is only 1/2 a car. The other one was whole. Jim says they are from the 50's, a Ford and Buick, I think.


The trailor tilted and had a hand-crank wench, but Jim had to get it started and guided it with this 20-foot 2 x 4.
Good job Guys. Testosterone was oozing all over the place this weekend.

But the thing that really capped it off, was the trip to the wrecking yard and seeing "the Claw" in action. The part I liked is that they gave us money for the old cars. Who knew "rusted tin foil" could bring a price?

Hope you're having fun with your Fall projects and maybe you had a better summer than we did. Take care and enjoy the beauty of those colorful falling leaves.

ALEX, PAYTON & OWEN COME VISIT

Ryan and Crystal attended 2 Oregon weddings on this past weekend. So it was time for the grandparents to get some grandkiddy time. They were at Grandma Darla's first and then came here. So we played and played. We had inside fun with the "magic carpet ride" with Uncle Kevin.

Grandpa Jim and Owen played with Kevin's old Hot Wheels. Payton and I played with the dolls. Payton had fun with the Hot Wheels also.

We had outside fun. Several months ago, Payton planted these pumpkins. She was excited to see how much they had grown.

Then we played on the Trampoline. It was Owen and Payton's first time. They liked it.

At first Payton was a little apprehensive. Grandpa kept telling her to jump like a frog. She really got into it and then she turned into super jumper.

Lots of jumping can wear ya out!

But the big hit of the day was when Grandpa brought out the riding lawn mower and the kids got to ride with him. Every time Owen's turn was over, the neighbors heard about it. He did NOT want to get off. (Don't worry, the blades were not engaged)

On Monday, we met Crystal and Ryan in Sherwood. They were coming from Seaside and we met at Safari Sam's for lunch and a couple of hours of play time before they went to the airport to fly home.

I had never been there. It was a cute place with mini golf,

video games,

and a giant indoor jungle jim. Crystal and Ryan had to go into it to help Owen get around.

Alex was a really a nice big brother and helped Payton get around.
At the end, Alex was cashing in his tickets that he earned in the arcade games, to get some fun prizes. He's a pro, as you can tell, by the hands on the hips.
Payton was fasinated by the way the machine ate up her tickets and counted them so quickly.
It was a fun time to hang out with Alex, Payton and Owen. I love you guys, thanks for the fun!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDKIDS!

Jim and I went to California from Aug. 26th to the 29th. We gave our grandkids a birthday party all on 1 day to celebrate their 6 birthdays. In August, Addy turned 14, Alex 12 and Payton 4. In Sep., Dylan will be 2 and Oct. Owen turns 2. Sophia will be 10 in Jan. So we decided to party hardy on just 1 weekend. Here's our cute little gang below.
Before the Saturday party day, we did some other activities. We took the kids to the park. The park is right across the street from Crystal's house. Loaded up and ready to go.

Monkey man Owen.

Pay and Papa

Played in Kelly and Chris' backyard. They gave this swingset to Dylan for his birthday a little early.

He loves it.

Kelly gave us a tour of her work. She actually works at 2 different buildings, but we got to see her at this one and meet her co-workers.

Jim and Kelly outside her work.

The next day, Jim went a ride along with Chris.

On the day of the party, Addy, Sophia and Payton decorated Kelly's house with streamers.

And converted Dylan's old birthday sign to include all the grandkids names and ages.

We played "minute to win it" games. This one is called "Defying Gravity"

Breakfast Scramble.

Noodling Around.

Blow it.

We had a BBQ and of course --- cake. The grandkids love this Oreo Ice Cream cake. We put 44 candles on it, which was the total of their ages.

We opened presents.

And ended with fireworks.

It was a fun weekend and we loved spending time and partying with the kids and grandkids.

Thanks for having us!!