Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

We started off the holiday by heading down to the river where Tara did the 4 mile Turkey Trot. She logged a time around 34 minutes. Afterwards both of the boys did the 200m dash. There was a turnaround point at 100m into the dash, and poor little Ryzen missed it and kept on running straight ahead past the turnaround point. Dane had to go run after him while holding Nova to help him get back on track. After a little consoling, he was fine. :) 

We held a Thanksgiving meal at our house, and Dane's parents, Kari's family, and some family friends came.

In addition to eating a small army of pies that Dave made, the kids enjoyed gobbling up these little turkey's they'd made the night before.

The girls had fun coloring  the table cloth.

The boys got together and played some new games (Camel Up & 7 Wonders).

More Family

Shara's family came up to have Thanksgiving with Stephen's clan. She and Stephen stopped by for a day and the kids got to hang out. 

Christmas Tree Lighting
We took the kids to the Christmas Tree Lighting in the 5th Street Market in Eugene. Since the temperatures are still in the 50's, they had a snow machine going to make it more festive. :) The kids also enjoyed sitting on Santa's lap.

Return of the Geese
When we bought our house there were a couple geese hanging around the yard. They disappeared within a short period of time. Well, now they've returned, along with 100 of their closest friends. Literally.

Hot Springs

Hot Springs

The weather has been great so we went out to Terwilliger (Cougar) Hot Springs with the kids. There are 5 pools that cascade into each other, with the hottest pool being around 105 degrees Fahrenheit. We all enjoyed soaking in deep in the forest. 

 

There's even a waterfall on the hike to the hot springs.

A nice sunset from our backyard.

I took Tara to the Oregon Electric Station. It's a fun restaurant partially constructed with railroad cars.

Little Nova is starting to pull herself up on things, but she's still not walking. She generally refuses to let us help her practice by pulling her legs up into the air when we try. We've even gotten her a walker, which she also refuses to use. Oh, someday that girl will learn. 

Halloween

For Halloween, Aria chose to be a Goddess, Zade was Chris from Wild Kratts, wearing a creature powersuit, Ryzen was a skeleton, and Nova was a pirate. The kids got a triple installment of trick-r-treating this year: 1) at their school, 2) trunk or treat at the church, and 3) Halloween itself. Needless to say, they've got plenty of candy to last a long time. 

Aria wanted us to carve Picachu from Pokemon, Zade wanted a face full of sharp teeth, and Ryzen had the little jack-o-lantern with a smiley face. So I got busy carving, and with the kids help, we got the job done. We were all pleased with the final products. 

OMSI
To make sure the kids had a good time when we went up tot the temple, we took the kids to OMSI up in Portland. They enjoyed the whole museum, and especially liked the submarine.

Aria enjoyed the fun house mirrors that made her appear 4 or 14. The pictures don't do justice to the scene, but they give a taste of what she saw. 

Return of the rains
We had some good rain recently and the wetlands are coming alive again. Now that the ponds have water in them, the geese and ducks are returning.