Jacquelyn Visit - Part 2 - Jacq-o-lanterns!!

Happy Halloween! Today we carved pumpkins, took Kylie trick-or-treating for the first time and had tons of Halloween tricks and treats!

A magical / spooky bamboo arbor tunnel outside
Ted's Bulletin!

 US: This is fun!

Kylie: What's that awful smell? I don't like these pumpkins!

 Mini-carving

 YUCK!

 Sleeping Beauty & her pumpkin pals

 All dressed up!

 Trick-or-treat!

 Elevator-selfie!

 Baking cookies with Auntie J

Happy Halloween!

Jacquelyn Visit - Part 1 - The Corn Maze of DOOM!!

Let's go to a corn maze....

....it seemed like such a good idea at the time...

....but one hour in the corn maze is an eternity.....

Today Jaquelyn came to visit, and as you may guess, we went out to The Plains, VA for afternoon tea, corn maze "fun" and pumpkin picking. The corn maze was pretty awful, but everything else was a blast! I'm so glad that J got to come out to visit on this trip!

 Welcome to the Virginia countryside!

  This way to Crest Hills Antiques & Tea Room

Yummy teas!

 Tea sandwiches and other fancy things

 Scarecrow contest!

 Welcome to the corn maze....you'll never make it out ALIVE!

 Oh look, they have slides....

 30 minutes later...

 CORN!

 Oh this will be fun...

 Uh, we're kind of far from the farm...

 Now, where are we...?

 I see it!

 It's the end! 

 Ok, let's get the pumpkins and GO!

 Just one more slide!

Let's carve!

Majuro to North Carolina!

Kylie and I tagged along with Autumn to DC for some training and a quick family vacation. After 24+ hours of traveling, we made it to Virginia! The first day was a whirlwind of buying warm clothes for the trip and catching up with V&S. The next morning we drove through Shenendoah down to the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina (a state that I love more each time we visit). It was a long drive, but totally worth it for the beautiful fall foliage! After being in Majuro, everything seemed HUGE! I'm pretty sure that the Capitol Beltway is bigger (and wider) than the whole island!

 Cupcakes with V&S!

 If there's a carousel, Kylie will find it!

No matter how tiny!

Stopping in to the Southern Inn for some southern food!

First glimpses of fall foliage

 

Say family vay-cay!

Shopping Extravaganza

Almost every day that Autumn is in training, Kylie and I head out to Costco or Target to shop for our two year supply of consumables and return home with a rental car laden with industrial sized laundry detergent and fifty cans of beans. It's not exactly the most entertaining activity with / for a two-year old, but we try to make it as fun as possible.

"DAD! HELP! This backpack is TOO big!"

Trying on hats at Marshalls...

...Go ahead, it's Marshalls!

Visit with Aunt Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn came out to visit for a long weekend. Unfortunately it coincided with some awful winter weather. But I always say that if you let bad weather stop you in DC, then you would never be able to do anything here! haha! We faced bitter cold and a blizzard, but visited the National Mall twice. Otherwise, we just laid low, braved a typical NoVa power outage and had a great time!

 Ridin' the Metro

 Say brrrr!

 A beautiful, but cold day for visiting the Mall

 Cutie cheeks!

My first attempt at using the veggie noodler

 Braving the storm...

 Honest Abe

 Blizzard cam

 Korean War Memorial

 Pretending to be happy in the snow...

 ...actually happy to be out in the snow!

 WWII Memorial

Back home safe and sound to bake cookies!

Kylie's "helpful" method for adding the chocolate chips and M&M's is to put them in one at a time!

Thanks for a great visit Jacquelyn!!

From KF to DC

We had such a wonderful time in Kettle Falls reconnecting with family and friends! It's fun to start a new chapter in our lives, coming back to DC to reconnect with more family and friends before we head out into the Pacific! Here are a few random photos from the past few weeks:

 I'm so fancy!

 Seahawks cocktail!

 Future musician?

 Seahawks cupcake!

 Moving day with just a few suitcases....

 A snowy wood on Groundhog's Day

 Stocking up with Aya-zinha!

 Pony bed!

 Stacking up our own ice palaces with blocks at the Building Museum