Rainy Days

Ah, fall has arrived in New England. Brilliant foliage, cooler temperatures and...rain. Lots of rain. Some here might be dissapointed by this soggy start to the new season, but the duck, beaver and young platypus in this household are thrilled to see some Oregon-like weather. I've had enough sun. Bring on the rain!

We are lucky that as Oregonians, a little rain hardly ever spoils our plans. This weekend we are traveling to Springfield, MA to visit the Big E --the largest fair in the northeast, for all 6 New England states. It's going to pour. Luckily, much of the exhibits and food are under cover, and we are staying for the night at a reserve base nearby, so I don't think the rain will bother us at all. Looking forward to an adventure!

Also this weekend is our third anniversary! We don't have anything special planned, but I think the three of us will thoroughly enjoy our little weekend getaway. Actually, an excellent recognition of our anniversary was to finally have an updated family picture. Holly took some awesome pictures of us while she was here (which was fantastic, by the way) and we love them.

On a totally different note, here's Holly with her "fish and chips" which was literally one giant chunk of fish. We thought it was pretty funny--I know i'd never seen it like that before!

Evan is doing great--when the weather is nice, he's really been enjoying spending lots of time at the playground. He seems to enjoy it much more now that he can walk steadily and go explore whatever he wants. Lately, hes mostly been chasing other kids his size around and shrieking at them because he's so excited. Most of them are scared of him...

but he's made some friends. He's a happy boy.

Also, this week Mike got to go for a flight with his squadron on a C-130 which took off from Hanscom, flew up to Niagara Falls, circled around there a few times, and flew back. It sounded pretty cool, and it must have been neat to see the falls from above like that. Jealous!

Off to enjoy the rain!

yard sale extravaganza!

Today was yard sale day, and I am exhausted. Which doesn't really make sense, because all we really did was sit out in the yard all day, but we are pooped nonetheless. It turned out to be a perfect day for a yard sale--there was no rain, and it was quite sunny and warm. There is something to be said about sitting in the sun all day though, I think it just saps the energy right out of you. Plus, I made about a hundred trips up and down the stairs from the basement carrying boxes of stuff at 6 this morning, so that might have something to do with it.

All in all, we had a fantastic day. Our friends Jarrod, Sarah, Scott and Anne came over and sold some of their own things at the yard sale, so it was really nice to be able to just hang out with them all day. Evan had a good time also, equally enjoying hanging out in his play yard and watching people or playing with the assorted items strewn about our lawn. He's so easy-going. It was so neat to see what people bought and think about what they might be planning on doing with it or why they wanted it. My favorite purchase of the day? An elderly gentleman who bought a pair of pink high heeled shoes. What did he want with those? Thinking about that continues to entertain me even now. It was also nice to just visit with the people who came by, (I always love to strike up a convo with a stranger!) and we even met a neighbor we hadn't met.

I was planning on taking a lot of pictures today, especially because all three of us were entirely decked out in Beavers gear, hoping someone would come by and say "Oregon? I'm from Oregon!" or something along those lines, but of course, that never happened. I also didn't take any pictures. Go figure. Take my word for it though, we looked darn good.

Here's a picture of Evan to make up for the fact that I have no pictures for this post. Imagine him in an Oregon State shirt instead of a Washington State shirt. Unless you're Poppa, then you can just enjoy this one. :)



After we were done, we went to our favorite marginal Mexican food restaurant where Evan ate an entire bean and cheese burrito. I'm sure we will learn the consequences of that sometime tomorrow. On another note, the Keurig made me a cup of Green Mountain blueberry flavored coffee this afternoon. I know it sounds terrible, but it was delicious. I am officially in love with our coffee maker.

Definitely a good day. Best part though? We made over two hundred dollars! Go team Smith.