Hoppy Halloween

This Halloween was quite an adventure. With stay at home Scott acting as the pre-school class president for Katya's pre-school, we were obliged to attend the annual field trip to Hunter's farm and pumpkin patch.

The Happy Family

This had this GREAT hay maze too for the kids, Katya wasn't scared at all.
Yeah, it was really dark in some places, we were pulling hay out of ears for days afterward.
We had a party on Halloween night with some trick or treating and games involved.
Katya was a "wicked bunny", Jack was a cowboy, I was an injured soccer player, and Beck was a Nephite.







And Dexter was Super... Dog

At the party we bobbed for apples. Poor Rebekah had never done it before (or witnessed it either apparently), but she gave it a concerted effort, I guess. The top score for the night was 21 apples in one minute. Just watch the video.



I am proud of her though, we had a great time. Hope you all did too.

Beck's Birthday

For those who didn't know (or forgot), Rebekah birthday was on the 6th of October. It was a beautiful drizzly day, so we went to a glass museum in Tacoma with the kids and enjoyed lunch while watching some artists blow glass in a huge cone shaped room. Then we returned home to get some business done before Rebekah and I escaped to dinner at "La Fermata", a quaint authentic Italian restaurant on the art district of Bremerton. After an amzing dinner, we went to see the movie Fearless. I know what your thinking, that Scott picked the movie out, but my Beck loves her Kung-Fu movies. She says, and I quote, "how could you not like them, they are beautiful with the way they move. like dancing... with violence". That's why I love her.

Oh I wish, I wish

I am a happy individual, but if there was one thing that I could have in my life, it would simply be the video tape recording of our beloved Taylor Mildenhall performing "Street Rat Ballad" from Disney's Aladdin. It was a sight, and I am forced to relive the memory in my head, often in fact. We are no longer blessed with this classic performance because, in Taylor's justified wrath (something about Star Search and being tricked into making the tape in the first place) he recorded over this amazing performance with a stop-motion Lego school project or something else mundane. Oh well, Taylor is still with us, and I do have some other stirring (mainly in the stomach) performances by him. and the feats of "strength" events:But nothing will compare ... Oh well, what are we but a sum of our memories; thanks Taylor for some great summation.

On a side note, I imagine Taylor's current girlfriend as looking a lot like princess Jasmine, I'm not sure though, but Katya likes the idea, and that counts for a lot 'round here. (that means get a pic Taylor!!!)

Pape' Goes to Deutschland

So, Nick is off to Germany to start his mission. We are anxious to hear how things are there and to see how changes. I am sure he'll make great friends there like I did, Kyle Tait for example. He now lives near us here in Washington and even attended Jacko's Birthday party with his lovely wife Amy and their soon to be Henery.

One last bit of advice for Ol' Pappy... and for Bob and Bree come to think of it: Watch out for Pirates, even the cute ones... On cell phones.

Climbing Mountains

I personally have tried and sometimes succeeded at climbing mountains. Often times, the hardest part in doing (pronounced do-ing as opposed to doyng) this is finding someone to go with you at the same time, desire, ability, and relative insanity as yourself. So I drags me wife and kids sometimes, but mostly it's this 17 year old kid, named preston, who goes to our church who is ridiculously similar to my 17 year-old self in many ways but not all (that would be too much of a burden on the world). So here we have two photographic accounts of attempts. The first is a failed attempt up Mt Eleanor, which was under a haze of forest fire (stinky)


The second here was a successful one, after trying to summit again the next morning, up to one of the most beautiful country I've ever been in, top to bottom, completely breath taking: The Brothers. The ridge line rests on the western side of of Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park.
The Valley of the Silent Men
The Grotto
Ridge Line/Failed summit attempt Day One
Camp site Morning of day two
Old Man Mildenhall heading up the trail about 1,500 feet below the peak
The Peak
Looking out from the peak

Preston looking out from peak
Resting and enjoying magnitude

Many have asked why... But the ones who ask are the ones who haven't done it. Replying to the interrogatives always comes up short, no matter what the words. I used to say "to get chicks" to satisfy the philistines, but that doesn't work anymore; besides, I am way too happy with my Beck

Jack's Birthday

Jack Turned one on the 12th, and we had a bit of a party to celebrate. We had friends from church and Rebekah's work there, and the Taits. We cooked up some delicious burgers and hebrew nationals, and Jack enjoyed his first bit of chocolate with a double chocolate cake. He got more gifts then we could shake a stick at, and seemed quite impressed by all the goings-on. He is not walking yet, but he is crawling up a storm, and babbling like the proverbial brook. The kid is growing like bamboo.

TREK

The trek was awesome! We both enjoyed it so much and it was just what we were hoping for. We had our doubts with the overzealous leader and the 22 miles in 2 1/2 days she had planned, but everything went great and was planned really well. We loved our kids and felt so close to them. They all bore their testimonies of the gospel and Jesus Christ and their gratitude for the pioneers on the last day during a testimony meeting. We had some good debriefs and conversations with them. It was neat to see them change so much in their attitudes practically overnight! For those of you not familiar with the pioneer trek, each stake (about 6-7 local congregations) takes the youth on a 3-day camping/hiking trip. We all dress in pioneer clothes and pull handcarts up and down hills and camp out under the stars and cook our meals from scratch outside. This is to simulate the Mormon pioneer journey across the plains 150 years ago.

Perry's visit

Mom and Dad came for a visit and to take care of Katya and Jack while Scott and I went on the stake youth pioneer Trek. We went to Mt. Ranier one day. It was beautiful! We also went shopping in Poulsbo one day. Scott took them to the Olympic Mts one day. They also took a day trip to Port Angeles and Seattle and overnight to Victoria, B.C. We had a great time with them, especially Jack and Katya. We also got our new cabinets installed while they were here. They were good sports about sharing their bathroom with the dishes since we have no counters, kitchen sink, or dishwasher for a few weeks. I'll include pics of our new kitchen when it's all completed.

GED-LPN

Congrats to Scott who is no longer known as GED, but is now an LPN!!! (Scott passed his boards to become a licensed nurse practitioner)

Adam

After we returned home from GA/TX, our friend Adam Frey came to visit. He was playing as a guest musician with the Seattle Symphony. We had a great time with him going hiking and to the park for a picnic. We also went to Seattle one night to hear him play. We had sucha fun time! WE invitied our friends, the Taits, and met them at P. F. Changs and got some gelatto and then heard the concert. It was so good! A very enjoyable time. The weather was quite nice while Adam was here and the kids really got along well with him. It will be fun when we live closer to Adam and Janet in a couple years! Check out his website: http://www.euphonium.com

Perry Reunion

We headed over to Paris, TX for our annual Perry family reunion. We went to a Christian retreat at a ranch. We started out with a yummy dinner and entertainment by cousin Jonathan's bluegrass band, Hard 2 Git. Here he is above playing the dobro. They were such fun, and Katya had a great time dancing. We got up the next morning and played ping pong, putt putt, frisbee, went swimming and used the water slides, had a tour of their rescued wild animals including tigers, emus, an ostrich, buffalo, a rhino, monkeys, kangaroos, and Katya's favorite, donkeys. We also took a trip into town to do some antique shopping and see Debbie and Randall's house and Jon and Lindsey's new house. The food was so good and of course there were games! Jessica and Rachel almost pulled it out to play Dad and Scott in the finals, but got beat the last hand. Dad and Scott were the champs and are pictured above with their "trophies" which they gave to J and R for the great job they did. We flew home on Sunday after a devotional with our family and a prayer circle for Uncle O. E.

Home, sweet home

Thursday, Mom, Dad, Rachel and Jessica left for their drive to MS and then to TX. Our family drove through North Georgia trying to figure out where we thought we'd like to live in two years. We decided on Dahlonega pretty quickly and are super excited about moving there. We also drove up to Blairsville and Blue Ridge and Ellijay where I had never been before. Blue Ridge is so cute. I recommend it for a day or weekend trip for any of you who live in the area. It's like what we all wish Gatlinburg would be. We headed to the Mildenhall's after that and had another birthday dinner for Katya! www.dahlonega.org

GOOOO DAWGS! SIC 'EM! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

We drove over to Athens on Tuesday and saw Briant and Katie's cute new house. It's in such a great neighborhood and has a huge backyard with a great deck. We are very happy for them. We drove through a couple of neighborhoods and saw the new park on the Eastside where we used to live. Then we drove downtown and met B and K and Robert and Bree and family at The Grit - I still can't believe Robert eats at a vegetarian restaurant! It was delicious as always and we even had some vegan dessert - Scott and I shared some chocolate cake and Sadie got the Key Lime pie. She would make her Grandpa proud! He mom said she'd help her eat it, but I don't think she got the chance. We drove up through Gainesville to check it out on our way to the Perry house in Skylake. We arrived to Mom and Dad trying to install their new dart board. We went swimming and played games that night. The next day was Katya's birthday celebration. We went swimming, canoeing, watched movies, played games, made her birthday cake, and had a party. She opened presents and was so excited all day! She loved seeing Rachel and Jessica so much.