Santa!

We rode the Santa Train last weekend, from North Bend to Snoqualmie and back, and Griffin had a chance to sit on Santa's lap and eat some yummy cookies while at the Snoqualmie Depot.

November art

Here are some recent artworks by Griffin, just for fun. A person (with legs now!), a submarine, and a triceratops!

Halloween

Griffin has been talking about "Cargoman" for months now, and decided he wanted to be this new superhero he created for Halloween. So he drew a picture of Cargoman's outfit for me and we pulled it off together! He had a great time trick or treating with Grandpa around their neighborhood. I have a feeling he may be wearing his red cape some in the near future!

Cargoman before going to Grandma and Grandpa's

Pumpkins in jail. The big one is Griffin's (if you look at last week's post with photos of the pumpkin patch, you'll begin to recognize his love of big pumpkins.)

Happy Cargoman after trick or treating!

He says he wants to be a witch next Halloween, but I think I'll wait before making the costume, since it might just be possible that he changes his mind in the next 364 days.

Pre-Halloween Weekend Craziness

We had an amazingly busy but fun time this past weekend. Evidence below:

Griffin's first tennis class, courtesy of Grandma's great suggestion!

Griffin's first bumper car ride at the Seattle Center, courtesy of his friend Quin's birthday.

A muddy trip to the South 47 pumpkin patch (Griffin got a pumpkin about the size of the one he is standing next to, and Doug and I are arguing over who has to scoop it out - I vote for Grandpa!)

Griffin is contemplating all the pumpkins he didn't pick, that are feeling lonely and left out. (Or he's looking for the boot he lost in the mud for a few minutes.)

Memories of Summer

I'm trying to finish scanning some of Griffin's amazing artwork he has produced lately, but until I do that, here are some photos of Griffin's first swim since he was a baby. Hopefully this will all make us think of summer and how warm we were then! The life vest makes a huge difference in his comfort level!

Garden happenings

We will post photos from our fabulous trip to Saturna Island, BC, soon, but Griffin and I had a gardening day yesterday that we wanted to share. We went to the South 47 Farm in Redmond where we learned about spiders, had a hayride, and picked carrots, which Griffin immediately washed and ate!


We then visited our garden after a few days away and found lots of tomatoes ready to pick and eat. Our lettuce is growing well, too!



Griffin enjoyed one of the tomatoes straight from the garden when we got home.

Midsummer's Garden

Here are a few photos of our pea patch garden, much changed since last May!

One cherry tomato, ready to be picked!

One tomato picker, ready to eat his long-awaited tomato!

Another tomato almost ready for us!

Lettuce is starting to show up and the sugar snap peas are holding themselves up in the background.

Corn and sugar snap peas.

The sugar snap peas were pulled up this week, and we have planted more lettuce, radishes, and carrots, hoping we can get a crop in by early fall. We'll see. This whole garden is one big experiment for Griffin and me, and we're really enjoying it, no matter what thrives and what fails.

California Trip, Part 2

Here are a few more photos taken by Griffin, or taken of Griffin, during our trip.

Cousins Nadja, Lisa and Emma and Aunt Jan on the train at Traintown in Sonoma.

Griffin and Emma on the train

Griffin and Emma playing bocce at Nadja and Greg's house.

Griffin at the NASA/Snoopy exhibit at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa

Charlie Brown and Griffin

Griffin's photo of the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge

Daddy and Griffin playing happy tourists at Fisherman's Wharf

Griffin and a cable car!

Daddy and Griffin on the Powell & Hyde cable car

The artist at work

Griffin's first California trip pictures

Griffin has taken over 200 photos on his camera so far, approximately 167 of them are from his seat in the car, trying to catch a passing truck going the other way. Needless to say, that is not very successful. However, he has captured a few nice shots and many of the scenery beyond the freeway. Here is the first set!

Mommy and Daddy at the Mt. St. Helens Visitors Center

flowers at Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center

Mt. St. Helens (in the clouds between the trees - see it?)

lilypads

tractor-trailer

cows (in the lower left corner)

three-trailer big rig

Some recent events

With the end of school for both Griffin and me, I haven't been great about updating our blog. What I really need to do is take a photo of our garden, which looks very different from the May photo! We harvested fava beans and sugar snap peas last week, and have a few green tomatoes which should be waiting for us when we return from California!

Recent events in Griffin's life:

Hugging an elephant at the Woodland Park Zoo

Feeding a horse!

Making sure the grass is cut just right, while being supervised by the horse.

The Gorge!

Pea Patch Garden

We are lucky to have a half of a garden space at Griffin's school this year, along with other parents, classrooms and community members who have plots alongside. The students have fun seeing the garden spaces as they move around the school grounds. Griffin and I stop by after school to water and weed at least three times a week.

So far we have tomatoes, corn, lettuce, fava beans, sugar snap peas, pumpkins, basil and flowers we planted last fall that have been blooming over the past month. Crops that have failed (so far): rosemary, radishes and rhubarb (strange, they all start with the letter R!). We have five tomato plants, three of which we started from seeds, so it will be an interesting experiment to see how all of them do.

Here are some less-than-perfect photos for now (I had to use my phone's camera, which is not up-to-date with the latest technology). More to come as our plants bloom and grow!

sign by the garden


fava beans, garlic, and tomatoes in back


pumpkin

our HUGE tulip, almost three feet tall!