Jared's First Halloween

Happy Halloween!!! Last night we carved pumpkins and Jared got in the act. He helped clean out his little pumpkin but his favorite part was actually taking bites out of the tops of the pumpkins. I have no idea what that would taste like but he was just loving it.

For Halloween Jared was a green Dragon. We stopped by Nannie and Poppies for some Trick O' Treating and then went to our Ward's Trunk or Treat. To bad for Jared he doesn't get any candy!

Beach Day

For the past couple of weeks we've had some beautiful weather here in Oregon, so we decided to take a trip to the coast for some sun! On the way to the beach we stopped at the Nehalem river so Ronald could go fishing for some trout. He caught a few trout but got to see some really big Chinook salmon that are coming in from the ocean to spawn up river. He really enjoyed that, he has never seen them in a river like that!

The Coast was a bit windy but not a cloud in the sky. Ronald let Jared crawl on the rocks on a bit log (see picture) Jared unfortunately bent down to pick something up and fell over and hit his eye on a rock. No blood but he got a pretty sweet bruise that is turning an interesting color of yellow right now. Ronald got in some trouble for that one big time!!!

Lee's Farm

This past weekend we went to the Lee's Family Farm Fall Festival. They had kiddie rides like a mini ferris wheel, burlap bag slides, pony rides, tractor rides and tons of pumpkins already picked and ready to go in huge piles. You just picked out your pumpkins and they loaded them in your car for you! We got three pumpkins, a big, medium and small one to represent our Ohana. Lee's Farm is also a Christmas tree farm where you can pick out your own tree, but the special treat was the fresh cooked Apple Cider and Pumpkin donuts that were covered in cinnamon and sugar. Needless to say it was a very tasty weekend!!!

Hood River Weekend

On Saturday we took a trip up the Columbia River Gorge to a little town called Hood River located at the foot of Mt. Hood. It is a very popular spot for windsurfing on the Columbia river because the Gorge narrows quite a bit and funnels the wind through this spot of the river. However when you go towards Mt. Hood you enter into a beautiful valley that is surrounded by hills and the volcanic soil was found to be extremely fertile and the tempratures just right to grow apples and pears among many other fruits.

Laura and I went there last year about this time and we had a ton of fun so we wanted to do it again. We first went to Rasmussen's Farm where they sell all kinds of apples and pears, some great fruit jellies and some tasty Onion mustards as well. The nice part is that you can sample everything and they cook ebelskevers and let you sample them as much as you like. They also have a cute pumpkin patch and a corn maze that we didn't have time to go through but we did it last year.

Then we went to this other fruit farm that also sells the best cookies, we all love their chocolate dipped coconut macaroons. After the cookie stop we went to the Apple Valley Country store for BBQ ribs and pulled pork sandwiches! Yummy!!! Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without topping it off with a tasty Marion berry milkshake!

All in all it was an awesome time had by all.

Jared Sleeping

We just thought we had better take a picture of the way Jared sometimes sleeps, he sure does look relaxed though doesn't he?

Labor Day Weekend

This was a great Labor Day weekend! On Saturday we drove out to Girabaldi, Oregon which is about five miles north of Tillamook on the Oregon Coast. Girabaldi is a little town situated right on Tillamook bay and they have a public crabbing dock. Ronald really wanted to go crabbing for some dungeness crab! We got there around 11am and finally left around 4pm, and only caught two crabs over the 5 3/4 inch minimum width. Don't get me wrong, Ronald pulled up tons of crabs, and about four female crabs each over 6 inches, but it is illegal to keep female crabs. So we threw tons of them back into the water, but at least it was lots of fun...for Ronald :-) The crabs were really tasty when we got home though!!!

On Sunday we went out to Shady Dell park out close to Mollala, Oregon. Its a little private park ran by a train club. They have the cutest little trains and since my brother Paul Jones and his family is down here for the week from Montana we all wanted to go out there so Wyatt my nephew could ride the rails! It rained a bit but it was still fun, we forgot our camera but we went not too long ago when my sister Karrie was visiting from Colorado. Good times.

On Monday we went across the bridge to Vancouver and worked our way up the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington side to Bonneville Dam. The Washington side of the Dam has a cool fish ladder and since the Chinook and Silvers are running (the Chinook run on Sunday was over 13,000 fish) we wanted to take a look (read Ronald there). It was cool and there were some really big fish going by. We took the Bridge of the Gods back over to the Oregon side and had lunch in Cascade Locks at a place called Char Burger. It wasn't half bad, plus it had an awesome view of the Columbia River right outside the windows.

Overall we enjoyed our Labor Day weekend, and Ronald can't wait to go crabbing again. Shout out to Brother Ditty who hooked Ronald up with a couple of crab rings so we didn't have to rent anything.

Picnic at Cook Park

The last week of August was a sunny week with highs only in the mid 70's, so it was a perfect time for a picnic in the park. Ronald hurried home from work and we just went down the street to this really big city park. They have a couple of play structures and swings for babies and toddlers so it was perfect for Jared. We roasted up some Cheddarwurst and had a good time! The fresh Northwest peaches were tasty, Jared loved them!!!