Before you know it...

it will be time to shop for Christmas gifts. Here's a great place to get the cutest earrings ever!

My cousin Lori makes all of the earrings by hand. They are amazing! She was so sweet to give me a couple pair before we left for Oregon, and I absolutely love them. I get complemented all the time! Click here to check them out.

Tumalo Falls

We have looked at a lot of pictures of Tumalo Falls on the computer, and today we finally got to go! It was a beautiful day; sunny with just enough cloud cover to make it nice.

We attempted to geo-cache, so we had to cross Tumalo Creek. We were bushwhacking in manzanita that was about six feet high. Needless to say, me and the kids gave up and let Luke go find the cache alone. He finally found it, but when we met up with him on the trail, his legs were bleeding. Yikes!

Dylan found a little trail that took us right down to the waterfall. Of course, the boys wanted to get right underneath the water. It was loud. And very wet!

It was a much cooler hike on the way up the trail for Bucky. Apparently, Izzy thought it was hysterical! (click on the photo for a closer look)

Just a few more...

I know, I know. Enough with the farmer's market photos. But I couldn't help myself!

Farmer's Market

Yesterday we went to a farmer's market. It was small, but had some really neat stuff. I love to walk around and see what the locals have to offer. There were some tamales that looked pretty amazing, but we didn't get one. Maybe next time. We ended up having some yummy homemade cookies and sampling a little bit of everything from beef jerky to local honey that tasted like roasted marshmallows!

These were some of the prettiest dahlias I have ever seen. The firecracker ones were my favorite.

This is hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn. So pretty. Too bad I don't know how to crochet...the most I can do with yarn is make a killer cat's cradle :)

Middle School

Izzy made it through her first day of middle school with flying colors! She mastered her locker combination right off the bat, found all of her classes, and remembered her PE clothes. She did forget to take her calculator to math, but other than that it was a successful day. She made a few new friends and loved all of her teachers. She says that having 7 classes makes the day go really fast! It didn't go fast for me; I was so excited to hear about her day I could hardly stand it. My heart grew a size or two when I saw the sparkle in her eyes when I picked her up from school.

First Day

Dylan's first day of 4th grade was a success! His teacher seems awesome, he loved his classroom, and made some new friends. So far, we have been more than impressed with the school. Even the lunch menu blew me away...everything made from scratch. Here's a few of the items to choose from:



Chicken Tortilla soup
Katsu Chicken with brown rice
Ginger-Soy Dover Sole with coconut brown rice & pineapple salsa
Baked Beef Ziti
Fruit and yogurt parfait
Thai Quinoa salad
Fish Tacos with salsa fresca
BBQ chicken

The list goes on, but you get the idea. I think I might want to go eat school lunch! For breakfast there are made from scratch granola bars, muffins, and cinnamon rolls. Awesome!

Dylan loved the zip line on the playground, switching classes, and the Apple computers. We are so proud of him for being confident and not being afraid to try new things and meet new people. We were on pins and needles all day, but the smile on his face when he came out the front doors at the end of the school day said it all. I have to admit I got a little teary-eyed. What an awesome kid.

Oregon!

Unpacking...bleh!

The kiddos at Drake Park

Grandpa and the kids in front of a huge tree at the park. It was more than 22 feet around the bottom! Luke, Dylan, and Grandpa tried to hold hands around it, but they couldn't reach.

Izzy and Grandma at Flatbread Community Oven. Best pizza ever!

We went to a little spice store at Old Mill. This was just the curry section. Amazing store!

It was dinosaur day at the museum. More about that later...
We have had a lot of fun in a short few days. Add trying to unpack and a dog that hates to travel to the mix, and you've got a bunch of tired people. So worth it, though!