Horses and Cows and Pumpkins, Oh My!

We decided to check out a small nearby pumpkin patch this year. There wasn't as much to do as at some of the big Westside ones we used to go to, but the kids still had fun.
Checking out the horse. There were several animals you could reach to pet.
And haybales to jump on.
On the way out to the pumpkin patch - these cows all in a row cracked me up for some reason.
Definitely in the all time favorite pictures category:These friendly horses were in the neighbor's field.
Time to get carving soon!

Newt Day!

Akasha and I have been making trips over to the Westside to clean out our storage unit, and I decided to do one coinciding with Newt Day at the big nature park over there. Got a picture of this fine fellow before they released him.Then we hit the trail as they had a nice loop mapped out with numbered stops.
"I love nature!" or something like that lol.
The queen of goofy faces.

My camera doesn't take very good pictures of moving objects, but the view down the trail was lovely.
Bitty mushrooms - I love fall in the PNW!
Akasha was very excited about finding each number on the trail.
Pretty fall leaves!
And more cool shrooms!
She was especially excited to find 10.
The funny thing was, it seemed like a big culmination to her, although there were actually 12 stops. We are such a 10 centric culture, especially around most stuff designed to teach kids how to count.

Posing with the fall leaves. Cute picture even though looking at it now she kinda looks like she is in position to go potty haha!
And a couple more shrooms. Yes I like me some wild forest mushrooms!

Hangin' with Bob

We went to a big Lego event at the mall where people were helping to build a giant version of this Spongebob. Orion didn't want to help build, but we did visit the store and get some stuff of course. These master builders are pretty impressive!

Fall CA Trip

This trip to California was a little sad for me because it was the first one without Orion. He is so attached to his daddy and decided he really didn't want to be away from him for so long. So we arranged for some babysitters for the hours Ron had to go to work, and I went with just Akasha. We were able to fly this time, which was nice, and we rented a car at LAX. I forgot my camera, so all I have are a bunch of crappy phone pictures, but better than nothing I guess!

I can't even tell you how funny I find this picture.
This is my dad's Uncle Vern, his namesake, and you can really see the family resemblance. But it looks like something straight out of a movie. The expression is just priceless!

Akasha wasted no time setting up lines...
She proclaimed this a race, but I am not sure where the start or finish was! She also used these same toys to make a line across the entire living room.

Meanwhile, back in Portland...
Ron and Orion went driving to do some exploring. Orion noticed this statue and really wanted to park and walk over to it. Joan of Arc in the middle of Portland! Who knew? Well now we do. Ron sent me this picture via text while I was in Cali, so I figured it belongs in this post. :)

I could not believe how HOT it was in CA in the middle of October. Like 100 degree hot! I was looking forward to alot of time outdoors, but most of the places I wanted to go would have been insane. So we decided to take a heat break at the beach! Bonus because we got to meet one of my friends from high school and her daughter. We went to the beach next to the Santa Monica pier, and Akasha had a blast!
Weird look on her face, but she was happy, I swear!
She spent like an hour filling up this watering can and sprinkling it on the sand.
Love this shot with the rides in the background!
We did go up on the pier for a bit and Akasha chose a taco truck from the gift shop. Hahaha, she has high aspirations! It was all great until she hurt her foot and was overtired on top of it. She started walking on her tiptoes and wouldn't even let me look at it, then needed to be carried or she was screaming. :( We got out of there and she took a car nap, then we headed over to see Sarah. I was hoping her foot would feel better after her nap, but nope - more tiptoes and screaming. She let Sarah look at it, though, and sure enough - a splinter! Sticking straight out even, so no wonder. Sarah pulled it out, and Akasha talked for days about how "Sissy fixed my foot" lol.

Trying to think of what else we could do to beat the heat, we went over to an indoor play place I remembered from when we lived in Oak Park. I was really sad to see my all time favorite falafel place had closed, but we had a good time at Jungle Land. Psycho smile...
Another just plain weird smile lol. I swear she makes the strangest faces when I ask her to smile!
We also decided it would be fun to go to the pumpkin patch around the corner, but had to wait until dark because it was so damn hot! I even dragged my dad out of the house. They had a petting zoo area, which I guess I didn't get any pictures of for some reason, and some carnival type games Akasha had a good time with as well. But I did get some shots of her lovin' on the pumpkins.

Akasha looks like she is following in her brother's footsteps as far as adoring these things.
And gosh my dad, gotta love him, what a crack up.
Pretty couple!
This hat was one of the swag things Sarah had. Adorable!
On our way home again...
Remind me to just stick her in a suitcase next time we fly!