Sunny Arizona - take 1

So for Thanksgiving this year, we decided to come see my dad's grandpa (who's 96!)  He lives is sunny Tucson, AZ so it was a good reason to escape the rain in Portland!   The part I was most excited about though was staying in a house with my cousins Megan and Cam.   We all got the house around the same time and I think within about 10 mins or so we were all in princess dresses (Caits included) and walking around in high heels (well, not Cam :).    Let's just say it took us a while to go to bed that night because Megan and I got to share a room! (ie trouble).

We kicked things off in true Tucson fashion at the Old Tucson Studios...  It's an old movie set town where they've filmed all sorts of cowboy movies (according to the tour guide John Wayne was in some of them I think).  We had fun on the carousel and old time cars and then checked out some "shows".. let's see there were the flamenco dancers at the Grand Palace Saloon, then there was the shoot out in front of the courthouse (it scared me and Caits so we didn't watch much!)    We topped it off with an old fashion stage coach ride and an ice cream cone... and one more ride on the carousel of course!

Dad's muddy bike race

So my dad and my friend Amelia's dad decided to do this muddy bike race out at the farm last weekend... since he was willing to get all wet and muddy, we figured we should go cheer him on :)

He was awesome... he even had to get off his bike and run (and jump) carrying his bike - it looked like hard, dirty work to us, but to him - it was fun (guess big kids like to play in the mud too:)

original artwork... by Sophia Self

For my friend Chloe's birthday, we all got to be artist for the day!  With our own easel and everything!  Check out my little piece of artwork... it's was a collaboration between myself and my mom... I let her do the beginning piece and then I put on all the finishing touches...  it's a one of kind original :)

The Princess and the Frog

You'll never guess what Caits and I were for Halloween this year... well, I was a Princess (shocker right?) and Caits was a frog (since we she loves green and pretty much hops around all the time) - she was pretty excited to be a frog and guess who made our costumes.... Yiayia!!!  We got lots of compliments on them (I think Yiayia should start a business making costumes!!)  Check us out!

We got lots of candy too!  Daddy was silly handing out our candy in his "Scottish" hat - can you imagine if daddy had hair like that?!?

we had fun carving our pumpkins too - we did 4 faces - can you tell which is which??

Happy face, scared face, mean face and surprised face

Time to pick out the perfect pumpkin!

We headed to the pumpkin patch today...  Plan was to pick out 6 pumpkins - one for mommy, one for daddy, one for Caitlyn, one for me, one for Mazie and one for Bruno.  We got a little distracted by the pony's when we came in - they REALLY wanted us to ride them (so we obliged :).  Then it was time for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch!!!  Caitlyn and I looked long and hard at ALL the pumpkins and we came up with the 10 perfect ones... hmmm - what to do - well, we figured we'd just take them all home (you should have seen my mom and dad try to carry the all - hehe).  Oh yeah, and that was even the best part... the best part was the big mud puddles!!!

Block party 2012

well, every year, we get our one "day" where we get to play all day long outside, ride bikes in the street, and jump in our very own jump house... Our street party is actually beginning to get a bit of a reputation I think because lots of neighbors came to join in the fun from all the nearby blocks too - the more the merrier!!  ... and what better way to top it off then with some smore making around the fire pit..

Soccer season

So, after watching soccer on TV every weekend morning since I was born, I decided to give it a go... :)    Check me out all decked out for "Mighty Mights" practice!!  At first I was a bit skeptical (as I always am with new things...) so I just played with dad my first practice, but now that I'm 3 weeks in, I decided that it's actually pretty fun to play with the group and coaches... go figure!

Pumpkin Patch field trip

Yesterday was our first field trip of the year.. to the pumpkin patch!!   We got to ride a school bus (with no car seats or seat belts!), ride on a tractor, and pick our own perfect pumpkin :)

After much contemplation on which one was the "perfect" pumpkin, I decided to go for a big one  (because I eat lots of spinach and I have big muscles so I can carry heavy things now :).

We also got to learn about how they harvest potatoes from the ground, clean them and pile them up in a big shed.  Did you know they store them in a dark shed because if they have too much light on them they turn green?  I also learned that the yellow ones, red ones and purple one all taste different!  

Adventures on Mt Hood

It's been soooo beautiful here (which I know I've already mentioned, but us Portlander's really appreciate sunny days after Labor day and Sept has been full of them!!)  We decided to get out of town and get a birds eye view on the sunny day from Mt Hood.  We see Mt. Hood driving into work everyday so you can imagine my excitement when mom and dad said we were going up there!

  
We had fun hiking up the trails, jumping off of rocks, looking for chipmunks and checkin' out the views... they are awesome from up there!!

-c