Thanksgiving

The calendar said November 26; Turkey Day is here!

We invited family and friends far and near...

Decorated the house with Fall colors and cheer

And brined the turkey for what seemed like a year.

At last turkey was done, and we crowded around

Anticipating tastes and full tummies all  'round,

Karl carved, as we watched, could hardly wait

'Til everything was served onto each plate.

"Yahoo!  Tastes wonderful," We all proclaimed.

This will last us 'til Christmas when we'll do it again!

Autumn in Washington

Here is how it was a couple of months ago---105 degrees as we worked in the yard. With no rain for many days, we were enjoying the petunias, lilies, roses, and working on weeds. It's not like that anymore!

It's now cooler and the summer flowers are fading. But the fall color has been spectacular!

Our maple has turned from bronze to almost bright red.

And the trees in the back are turning to gold and dropping their leaves. However, some plants decide that fall is the time to bloom. And some are still blooming from summer. I cut hydrangeas and white dahlias to bring in today.

We spent many hours during the summer clearing an area in our yard along the neighbor's fence. It has been covered with wild plants since we moved in. We left the salal, which is a native broad-leaf plant. It is harvested and used in floral arrangements, so it is quite pretty. 

Paul planted 140 daffodil bulbs to intermingle with the salal. Can't wait to see how it looks in the spring. He also bought some tulips at Costco to add to the mix.

Maybe you can see the white straws he put in the ground where the bulbs are. The green plants are the salal.

This is called burning bush. We have several. They are green in summer and then turn bright red. After dropping their leaves, they have tiny red berries on the gray-green stems.

I think this is almost the last rose of summer!

We're looking forward to Halloween and Thanksgiving! (Not to mention Christmas when we will be having company from California. Yeah!)

I recently made this little quilt to hang on our house by the front door. 

Ward Party at Paulson's Barn

Last Saturday our ward had it's annual party at the property owned by a generous family--Jane and Fred Paulson. They have created an area full of wonderful activities for their family and friends to enjoy,

The "barn" (large building in the picture above) is where the food is put out on long buffet tables.

There are lots of things to do in a very large park-like setting, Kids wait in line for the merry-go-round (note Spencer, fifth in line waiting his turn), operated by our Primary president in the center.

There are two zip lines, a water slide, bounce house, and hayrides! (a big favorite).

One zip line is for children up to 125 pounds.

The other line will hold over 300 pounds. We have a ninety-year old lady in our ward who has gone down it!

Fred Paulson enjoys giving  the kids turns on the hayride.

There are all kinds of interesting critters around the place. . .

Just kidding!

Little people made music and big people had to try their hands at it too (elders in the background).

Jane Paulson loves flowers, children and animals--they are everywhere!

Life-sized statues are beautiful.

There was even a DJ playing music in the gazebo.

Big Game Country

Spencer, Mason, Paul and RA visited Cabela's store in Olympia, WA. recently. Pretty amazing display of wild animals. Spencer was "game" to getting in the pictures while Mason and Paul looked on.

End of the Oregon Trail

While Melanie, Karl and Lindsey took Lauren to BYU this week, Spencer and Mason stayed with us. On Friday we drove south to Oregon City, Oregon (just out of Portland) to visit the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center. We saw lots of interesting artifacts and pretended we were pioneers in 1842 traveling from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City.

The outside of the building is pretty interesting; it resembles a covered wagon.

There were interesting artifacts and storytellers who gave us the history of the trail. The journey even made us lose a few pounds! (Don't you think we look thinner?)

Once our wagon arrived in Oregon City, Spencer couldn't resist opening the door of the pretend outhouse (note the moon on the door) only to find Mason inside. Surprise!!