October at a Glance

Our weeks were filled with the normalness of preschool and work. We were able to fit in a few fun weekend things, however and both the girls have been a lot of fun this month!

Annaliese has said a few funny things recently that I remembered to write down:

Driving to church, Annaliese is doing something in her carseat when all we hear is "oof-ta!" Definitely a Grandpa Glen-ism.

We were in the car last week heading to the grocery store and Annaliese said to me, "Mom, when I get big, am I going to drive too? What kind of a car are you going to get me?" (silent pause) "I want a car. And a dog. That's what I'm going to put on my birthday list."

Annaliese is into finding things to put in her treasure chest (usually dried leaves) doing art projects (mostly cutting and taping) and reading (currently the favorite book is Stellaluna.)

 A little science experiment

 Making our own lava lamp...it wasn't that impressive.

Kelsey and Mallory came up for a few days so we headed out to Silver Lake for a short walk and to check out the new playground.

 Annaliese and Elias 'skipping rocks' 

4th Annual Gillette-Feffer-Prentice Camping Trip

When we started talking about moving last summer, we also talked about the importance of keeping the Gillette-Feffer-Prentice camping trip a yearly tradition. We started planning months ago and found just one weekend that would work for everyone...and since Jenn is 37 weeks pregnant, we decided to skip the 'camping' part of the trip and instead all camp out at the Prentice household.

Friday afternoon we all arrived at Russ and Jenn's house...We grilled hamburgers and ate chocolate cake for Eleia's 2nd birthday (none of those pictures turned out...must have had the camera on the wrong setting!) Then it was time for bed. We were cautiously optimistic and put the 4 older kids in Holden's room together...

 Bedtime stories with Auntie Jenn

The sleeping arrangements: Eleia in the pack-n-play, Josephine on the air mattress in the middle of the room, Holden in his bed, and Annaliese on the air mattress at the foot of the bed. Eleia ended up moving into the living room with Adam and Ashlie but the other 3 were able to make it work! 

 Saturday morning cuddles

 Holden, Annaliese, Eleia, and Haleigh all playing together

 Breakfast time!

Late Saturday morning we headed out to Oso Flaco Lake for a short hike. The kids all did great and it was nice to get outside and see the ocean and sandy beaches again!

 Josephine and Annaliese will both be 4 at the end of this year, and Holden will turn 3 in January.

 Holden and Annaliese...these two love each other! You'd never know they haven't been together for the last year!

Jenn, Ashlie, Kari and Haleigh

A little relaxing was in order once we got back home... the guys got in some Hearts and Jenn, Ashlie, and I tried to play Skip-bo...but by the time we got it out and figured out how to play, the movie was done, the napping children woke up and it was time to think about dinner:)

 Since these two don't nap anymore, they got to watch Frozen together!

Russ, Adam, and Kyle

Saturday night's dinner plan was to buy pizza and have a bonfire at the beach. We made it out to the beach, which was crazy busy and found ourselves a little spot to build a fire. Unfortunately, it was also crazy windy and not that much fun...so we packed everything back up and headed back to Russ and Jenn's house where we built a fire in their outdoor fire pit and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores without having to eat sand:)

Kelli Vanderhoof stopped over to say hi

 The jeep is definitely a favorite toy:)

 Group hug!

It was another successful 'camping trip' and it was so wonderful to see these dear friends and spend some time together. Crazy to think that next year when we do this there will be 2 more kiddos in the mix! (That would be another Prentice and another Feffer, just to clarify) Thanks friends for making this weekend so much fun!

Anacortes...A Hendricks Family Getaway

Last year we all met up in Oregon for Spring Break...but now that everyone lives close by and we see each other on a regular basis, we thought it would still be fun to rent a house for a long weekend and getaway from normal routines. We found a Vacation-Rental-By-Owner 5 bedroom house overlooking the marina in Anacortes, about 45 minutes away.

Kyle and I both had Thursday off work, so we headed out fairly early and met my parents in Anacortes; since we couldn't actually get into the house until after 4:00pm, we met them at the ferry terminal and headed over to Guemes Island. It only took about 5 minutes to cross over to the island; once on the other side, we headed to a short hike we had heard about (and really the only thing to do on this particular island!)

 Looking for birds

The view from the top of Guemes Mountain...if you look closely, there is an eagle in the picture!

After the hike, we opted for an ice cream stop, but since Guemes didn't have anyplace to get ice cream, we hopped back on the ferry and headed to The Mad Hatter in Anacortes. This was followed by a visit to Washington Park, a large park right on the water very close to where our rental house was located.

At 4:00, everyone met up at the rental house where we claimed rooms and set up house...I should have taken a picture of the kitchen counter because as we all unpacked the food that we had brought along, we realized that we had 3 bunches of bananas, lots of peaches and nectarines and more carrots than we knew what to do with... Let's just say we didn't go hungry!

A fair amount of our time was spent hanging out at the house; playing games, eating, reading, and eating some more!

 Annaliese and Elias found the hose in the backyard...it was all fun and games until they started getting each other wet...and then things sort of fell apart!

 There was a foosball table in the basement! Looks like it's Auntie Kelsey and Annaliese against Grandpa and Elias!

 Grandpa with Haleigh and Malachi

 There was lots of climbing on and jumping off of the outdoor furniture

 Bedtime stories with Grandpa

The downside of playing on the deck was the splinters on the top of Haleigh's feet and shins...she didn't really seem to care; although we did try to get a few of them out (which is what she is trying to do in this pic)

 Uncle Ben and Uncle Thane catching a quick nap

We did plan a few outings during our time there and one day we headed out for a 'hike' on the Tommy Thompson trail. 

 These two little munchkins had to stop and read every sign along the way!

 Picking a few blackberries along the way

 We were able to pick enough blackberries for a delicious dessert!

 This was our view as we hiked along...the tide was out and the oil refinery is in the distance!

 

 

 When Annaliese's legs got tired and she needed to quit riding the bike, her solution was to just carry it:)

We also spent some time at the Shipwreck Festival which was basically a ginormous flea market with an overabundance of stuff! Kelsey and I ran from the house down to where the market was located and met up with the rest of the family to roam around looking for treasures:)

Pondering our next steps...

Our final fun outing was a trip to a local park that had a huge playground! We didn't even have time to play on all the different play structures!

 Mallory is clearly loving the slide!

 Auntie Kim and Malachi

 All the cousins!

Looks like someone is ready to go home and go to bed!

Sunday we packed up our things and headed out. We needed to be out of the house by 11:00 and since we were pretty close to home, no one was quite ready for the weekend fun to be done. So we headed down to Deception Pass State Park and found a little spot on the beach to have lunch, play in the sand and watch for whales. 

Going over the bridge at Deception Pass

All tuckered out after a fun weekend with family!