Adventures in Washington

Alright. I finally buckled down and went through my photos so you all can get a rundown of what we have been up to the past month since we got here. There will be no rhyme or reason to anything here. I just picked the pictures I liked and stories I wanted to tell and left everything else out. I'm not even going to try to put it in chronological order.

I watched my tiny apartment go from this:

To this:
I don't feel like it's changed much since. There are still boxes all over. One of these days I might be able to post finally unpacked photos.

We've gone up to visit Grandma and Grandpa 3 times since we got here.

This is Anton's Dad. He has lung cancer and a brain tumor and it's all starting to take its toll. His condition worsens everyday, so we are trying to see them as much as possible while we can.

Three generations. They've all got those bright blue eyes.

While at G'ma and G'pa's we have done all sorts of things.

We have picked many, many blackberries. They grow out here like a weed. They line all the streets. I love it.

We used child labor in all its forms to help process all the apples on the tree in their front yard.

The kids loved picking the apples. They would pick buckets full of them and go sit on the grass with their cousin and have an apple picnic.

It was a rare time that you could find Alex without an apple in his hands.

But he doesn't like the skins. He would leave trails of them half chewed all around the house.

After picking the apples we put the kids to work making applesauce of them.

We jarred over 60 bottles of applesauce and apple pie filling that day. It was lots of fun. See:

Anton's parents live on a branch of the Puget Sound, so while we were there there have also been fishing trips. Sadly, the only fish we caught were yucky shark look-alikes.

But the kids didn't care, as long as we were catching something. Though Uncle David did catch a crab that Anton and I took home, cooked, and ate.

Yum.

And last but not least while visiting the in-laws we found out that Aunt Sarah:

And Aunt Camile:

Are both going to be having babies in the spring! Hooray! The kids are excited to have more cousins to play with. It's all they ever talk about, their cousins.

So other than visiting family we have also been busy doing our own stuff. We've gone and seen Anton run with the cross country team at his school a couple times.

He's one of the old guys on the team and the only one married with kids. They think he's weird.
But look how fast he runs! He's met his time goals in both races so far.

We are proud of him.

After one of his races we drove over to visit the Freemont Troll. Ella was a little concerned about meeting a real troll. I had to explain to her that this wasn't real, just a statue.

Alex also got to check out the scenery up his nose.

We were going to have a picnic there but it smelled like dirty homeless people so we ate in the car instead.

One night we went out to a park just in time to watch the sun set. The light was fabulous and I was able to get cool pictures of my fam.

And then the park rangers drove by and told us the park was closing. So much for our 5 minute visit.

Other things we have done that have no worthwhile accompanying pictures include, going to Oktoberfest, lots of trips to the library, playgroups, figuring out where everything is in town, school, work, more work, reading, cooking, and that's all I can think of right now.

So there you are. Our month in a glance. No promises on more frequent posting. After working hours a day in front of the computer I just don't feel like blogging, usually. Though work is going well. It should manage to keep us afloat while Anton is going to school.

And that is all!