Bellewood Acres

On Monday, Annaliese's class went on a field trip to Bellewood Acres, a local apple orchard/pumpkin patch. After raining all weekend, we were grateful that it wasn't raining on Monday morning, but it was still quite chilly and the pumpkin patch was all mud! 

An attempt at a class photo...plus a few siblings! (Annaliese is wearing the yellow rain jacket)

Annaliese and her friend Keziah

We rode the 'apple-bin train' through the apple orchard, stopping several times to learn about Bellewood Acres and the apples that they grow here. We then saw how the apples are cleaned and sorted, as well as how they make their apple juice. At the end of the tour, each person picked a few apples, tasted a few different kinds and sampled their apple cider. 

The apples were huge!

Annaliese with Senora Maria

Annaliese is making sure Haleigh doesn't get too close!

McKinley and Annaliese watched the apples get washed and dried...
they are currently in a water 'bath' and then move up a belt on the left where they are dried and shined.

Learning about how the apples are sorted by size and sorted.

A Weekend in Portland

Last weekend, Grandma Kelley ran the Portland Marathon! Since Portland is only a few hours away (4 1/2 hrs without traffic or stops,) we decided to drive down to watch her run. We found a fabulous hotel, complete with two rooms and a full kitchen, and spent both Friday and Saturday night there.

Friday evening we picked up Grandma from her hotel and went to a cute Italian restaurant for dinner. This was the first time we've taken all three girls to a nice restaurant and they all did quite well! It helped that Grandma was there, our waiter was very accommodating, and they were able to order their own pizzas for dinner!

Lydia spent the first half of the meal just chillin' in her carseat!

Saturday was a free day at the Oregon Zoo so we decided to check that out. We met Grandma there and spent a good part of the day checking out all the animals. Thankfully it didn't rain and turned out to be a beautiful day!

Polar Bear

We spent a lot of time by the elephants; we actually saw them close off one section and then let out a few other elephants, including a baby, into a different area...it was pretty neat to watch the zoo-keepers make them go where they wanted!

I'm not sure what they are looking at...but it certainly has their attention!

The rhinoceros...did you know they can run up to 30mph?

Trying to be a flamingo too! 

We ended the day with some ice cream!

From here, we headed back to our hotel and Grandma met up with her friend Mimi, and Mimi's family. We stopped at the store and grabbed some food for dinner (since we had a kitchen at the hotel!) and then spent the afternoon relaxing. The girls were excited to watch a movie and Kyle and I watched some football before dinner and getting everyone to bed early. 

The marathon was Sunday, which unfortunately was a very rainy day. We decided we didn't want to try to figure out traffic/road closures/zillions of people down by the start/finish areas so we planned on being around mile 18 and 21 to see Grandma and Mimi. I was able to download an app that had a live-tracking system so we could see exactly where Grandma was at and plan accordingly. It worked out really well! After the first stop, we hurried to get back in the car, and as we were going, Annaliese started crying and screaming, "I don't want to go to one more." Kyle and I were a bit perplexed by that and when we asked her why not, she said, "I don't want to go to one more. I want to go to more than just one more." Oh, the mind of an almost-five year old!!

Kyle dancing in the rain with Annaliese and Haleigh

The 5th Annual Gillette-Prentice-Feffer Get-Together

For our annual get-together, the Prentice's and Feffer's made the journey up to the Pacific Northwest! The Feffer's flew into Bellingham last Friday afternoon and the Prentice's joined us later that evening. With 6 adults and 8 kids all under the age of 5, things had the potential to be quite hectic, but things actually went pretty well!

Haleigh, Eden, Josephine, Annaliese, Lydia, Eleia, Holden, Brooks

The most frequent question asked when people hear about our friends visiting is, "Are they all staying at your house?" and "Where is everyone sleeping?" So to answer these questions, yes, everyone stayed here! After all, with early bedtimes and the need for naps, we didn't want anyone to have to leave so that these things could happen. So we borrowed a trailer! (Thanks Auntie Patti and Uncle Harv!) Russ and Jenn and the boys slept in it; we used a baby monitor to be able to hear how naptime/bedtime was going. Adam and Ashlie slept on an air mattress in the living room, Josephine and Elea were on air mattresses in Annaliese and Haleigh's room and Eden slept in Lydia's crib and had the room to herself!

As far as activities went, we kept things pretty low-key. In fact, the kids never left the house! They spent all their time dressing up as princesses, queens, fairies or Winnie-the-Pooh or playing outside!

It wasn't actually that warm outside...

Brooks wishing he could be outside too!

The big girls hanging out with Lydia

Bedtime story with Adam

Watching a movie for rest time

Apparently it's more fun to eat lunch under the table!

Kyle and Adam getting their girls ready for bed!

Trying to figure out the water filter on the fridge:)

Josephine and Annaliese

All princesses play outside in their dress-up clothes, right?

Sorry Holden and Brooks...this is what happens when all your friends are girls!

We thought it would be nice for the adults to get some kid-free time as well. On Saturday, Kyle, Russ and Adam played racquetball together and then ran a few errands for us. Sunday, Ashlie, Jenn and I walked down the street to Greene's Corner for lunch. I think we all enjoyed the uninterrupted conversation!

Ashlie, Jenn and I enjoying lunch at Greene's Corner

Kyle, Russ and Adam trying to figure out how they can watch football:)

Playing cornhole

Playing in their fort since it was too cold to play outisde in bathing suits!

The fort!

Russ and Jenn had to leave early Monday morning in order to catch their flight from Seattle. The Feffer's were spending the week with other friends so they didn't have to leave until after lunch. We decided to venture out of the house and all go for a walk at Hovander Park. 

Haleigh and Eleia

Josephine and Annaliese...take 1

It's so wonderful to have friends who are willing to travel so far, even with little kids, in order to keep this friendship intact. You guys are amazing and we are blessed to have you as friends. We are already looking forward to next year!