End of Summer

Tussie Mountain Kickoff

To start off a new academic year, the accounting department here at Penn State had a nice afternoon up at Tussie Mountain.  It was fun to hang out with people in the department, and the kids had fun fishing.  There was a kid at the dock by the lake who brought his own rod and was catching some fish.  Zade thought it was pretty cool and made his own fishing rod out of long grass.  We need to get him a rod and take him out.  

Airport Park

Ryzen was able to climb up the steps and go down this little slide without any help.  He loved it!  He was so proud of himself.  He's now holding our hands and will walk around with assistance, but hasn't quite started walking on his own yet.  He'll be walking soon. 

Aria's swimming lessons
Tara setup swimming lessons for Aria with Vanessa Wiest, who we know from our ward.  Aria had a great time!

Garden of Mystery

This year we planted pumpkins, squash, and red peppers.  Despite putting up fencing, the deer and bunnies devoured the pumpkins and squash plants.  Fortunately for us though, they apparently didn't like the red peppers. Although we didn't do much to take care of them (we don't even need to water them because it rains so much in the summer here), our plants began producing some delicious red peppers!  We've never grown peppers before, so this was quite a treat! 

Soccer
At Zade's request, we signed him up for soccer.  His first "game" was this week and he had a great time. In reality, it was really just a practice, where the kids were learning the basics of the game, and had a little scrimmage at the end. My favorite activity they did was to tell the kids they were dinosaurs and were supposed to kick the balls around the little volcanoes without hitting them, or they'd go off.  They had all sorts of neat ideas, which helped make the game come alive for little 3-4 year olds.  Zade was a bundle of energy and was running around non-stop. It was neat to see him have so much fun.  Here he is afterwards getting a sticker for working hard.

Washington D.C.
We went and visited the temple this weekend, and afterwards went to the National Zoo with the kids.  Aria was really excited to finally see a panda in real life, since pandas are her favorite animal.