We Love Fall!

We finally have some pictures to post - we still can't find our new camera, but our old one started working again! We had a very fun weekend filled with two soccer games, Conner getting contacts, fall festivals that Kelsey went to with her friends, and birthday parties for Conner and McKenzie's friends. Sunday we decided to go to church outside and take a drive out to the Columbia Gorge to see the beautiful fall leaves. We stopped at Skamania Lodge to enjoy a few games of Whoonu and to drink some coffee and hot chocolate. Then we went on a hike and saw some amazing leaves. It was so nice to spend a few hours together as a family (even though it ended with a fight over a soccer game on the lawn at Skamania - it just would have been too perfect of a day :).

First Week of School

All three kids had a wonderful first week of school. Kelsey was the first to leave Tuesday morning. She and McKenzie gave each other a great big hug. They have been going to school together for the past 4 years and won't be in school together again until McKenzie is a senior in high school. Kelsey says the best part of third grade is her teacher and that she has a class pet. She has a wonderful teacher who has many years of experience. Kelsey is "desk manager" for her class which requires her to check everyone's desk to make sure that it is clean at the end of the week. Peter and I both laughed when we found out this was her job....if only her teacher knew what her bedroom looks like!

McKenzie made a very smooth transition to middle school. After she and Conner left for the bus stop, I shut the door, and my eyes filled up with tears because our little girl is growing up. She was so confident and happy as she walked down the hill with Conner. She is very fortunate to have such a great brother. I stood at our bedroom window and video taped her as she took her first bus ride to middle school. When she came home, she told us that she made 4 new friends the very first day.

Conner also has done wonderfully well starting 7th grade. He has already made a friend who lives in the new neighborhood across the street. He said that his goal this year is to be organized, and he really followed through this week. Today he wrote a poem about himself:

Conner that's my name don't wear it out

I love the barking of the puppies as I ring the doorbell.

They jump on me and try to lick my face and chew on my socks.

We play so hard that at the end of the day they can't stand up.

I hear Jason Mraz blaring through the headphones of my i pod.

It makes me want to dance and sing.

I come home, and I smell the garlic floating in the air as the soft yet crunchy garlic bread comes out of the oven. After dinner my mom's famous chocolate chip cookies fill the air.

The aroma is so strong that it makes my mouth water.

If my name was a color the color would be red because it is vivid and bright like my personality.

Three people I could not survive without would be my mom (who I do almost everything with), my smart dad (who helps me with my homework), and Dylan my crazy yet calm friend.

One day I dream of visiting my friend in Japan.

I would watch him throw out the guy on first to win the game.

We would have a snowball fight so big everyone would come out to join.

I live in Portland that's my home.

I never want to leave.

It's Far from the Pitts in Pittsburgh

We love Pittsburgh! We arrived Wednesday and are staying at a beautiful bed and breakfast called Chapel Valley Estates. Before we could check in at the B & B we had lunch at Olde Stonewall, which is one of the top 10 public courses according to Golf Magazine. It is an absolutely beautiful course with an amazing clubhouse (the castle picture). Our bed and breakfast is a farmhouse that was built in the 1800's and completely renovated 3 years ago. It has a wrap-around porch, filled with comfy chairs and flowers. They used some of the siding from the original farmhouse throughout the interior of the new house. It is on many acres of land filled with a couple of swings to relax and enjoy the view. We are the only people staying here, so it feels like we have a huge house all to ourselves! The owner is quite the baseball fan, so he and Peter enjoyed talking all about our trip. We loved going to the Pirates game last night - the ballpark is our favorite one so far. The view of downtown Pittsburgh is so beautiful. They close down one of the bridges so people can park downtown and walk across the bridge to the game. Before the game we met some people who live right next to Findley (a school by our house). They recognized Peter's Portland Beavers hat and Oregon Duck shirt. We enjoyed talking with them for quite awhile. Their son is in Pittsburgh for the 16-18 year old baseball championship tournament. During the game Peter enjoyed three, $1 hotdogs (I helped him out with half of one). We enjoyed watching the Pirates beat the Reds 5-2. We sat 6 rows behind the Pirates dugout, so we were very close to the field. It was fun being able to see the players up so close. This morning, our host made us a delicious breakfast. Today we have a day off from baseball, so we are going to enjoy some things nearby where we are staying. We feel so blessed to have this time together.

Cleveland!

We are now in Cleveland and are so excited to be staying in an amazing bed and breakfast. The house was built in 1870 and has been restored beautifully. There is a mix of brand new furniture and antiques. There are beautiful flowers, Ralph Lauren linens, and delicious cookies in the dining room. Yesterday we watched The Bucket List which is a a great movie about two men who are diagnosed with cancer and what they decide to do with the time they have remaining. We highly recommend it to those of you who haven't seen it. The movie really made us think about what we would do if we only had a few months to live. Peter said that he is actually doing one of the things that is on his "Bucket List" by taking this trip to see so many different baseball parks. Last night we had a delicious dinner and good conversation at a brewery, a couple of blocks from our Bed and Breakfast. After dinner we walked a mile over a bridge to the stadium. It was quite a walk, but we needed the exercise! The game was exciting, with the Indians coming from behind to win 7-5. This morning we had a delicious breakfast and enjoyed visiting with the other people staying here. We are now headed off to Pittsburgh! We miss our kids like crazy and can't wait to see them early Sunday morning.

Great Fun in Detroit

We enjoyed spending two nights with Peter's brother and his family. We arrived to a wonderful, home-cooked meal of chicken marsala. We caught our first glimpse of the Olympics and took a tour of Troy, the city where they live. Katie showed us her new pet turtle, Tootsie. Katie spends lots of time catching flies to feed to her turtle. Deb and I had our alone time together visiting at Starbucks. Peter and I loved going to the Detroit/Toronto game. We arrived a couple of hours early to walk around the stadium - we had great seats, 13 rows behind home plate. We sat next to a Toronto fan who was very funny and friendly. We told him all about our trip - he bought us ice cream and offered us his peanuts! One of the vendors kept us laughing with his hot dog song. On Tuesday morning we left for Cleveland to see the Cleveland/Orioles game.

The Big (Scary) City

Okay, both Peter and I found out that we are definitely NOT the big city type. Shortly after arriving in downtown Chicago, we thought we would venture out to find a quick bite to eat and then head to the game. When we exited our hotel, we quickly felt overwhelmed by all of the people on the sidewalk, sirens blaring, and not having a clue where we were going. We were too scared to stop and try to figure out where we wanted to eat because we didn't want to hold up the people behind us. We found a little Italian restaurant and quietly shared a panini. We then had to return to our hotel because we forgot the tickets to the game. We had to take the "L" (the train) to the game, and that completely freaked us out. We had to go up these old, rusty stairs to get to the platform to buy our tickets. It looked like we were going to jail. We fumbled around figuring out how to buy our train tickets and then put our tickets in the wrong way while the attendant gave us advice about how to get through the gate. The ride to the game was crowded and bumpy; we weren't quite sure we would get there alive, but we did. We hiked up to the upper deck of the stadium and sat down 1 minute before the game started. It took us until the 4th inning to actually relax and enjoy a little baseball. We left in the middle of the 7th inning so that we could avoid the massive crowd on the train. We actually got off at the right stop and quickly rushed to our hotel to buy a glass of wine and a bottle of beer and hide away in our room. We had some good laughs and now are actually able to relax and enjoy ourselves! We might even venture out in the morning to see the Picasso sculpture which is a couple of blocks away from our hotel room. Earlier today we enjoyed some custard as we headed out of Milwaukee. We took a tour of the Jelly Belly factory on our way to Chicago which was pretty interesting. We're off to Detroit tomorrow to stay with Peter's brother - it will be great to see some familiar faces!

Go Brewers

We heard it was opening ceremonies of the Olympics yesterday - we didn't catch any of it, though, because we were tailgating and watching the Brewers beat the Nationals last night. Peter was in heaven with his beer, brats, baseball, and brothers (and his sisters-in law and wife, too). We had a great time watching the Brewers' new pitcher pitch all nine innings and get a standing ovation from the over 43,000 fans that filled the stadium. It was the Brewers 12th consecutive sell out. Our seats were behind home plate about 25 rows back. We were relatively close to catching two foul balls. Peter has tried for 51 years to get his own foul ball and is still trying. The sausage races were also a big hit with the fans - it almost seems like the fans cheer louder for the sausages than the Brewers. Milwaukee fans definitely know how to have a good time - the parking lot is filled with millions of tiny grills and people playing bean bag tossing games everywhere you look. Before the game we enjoyed swimming in Ed and Margaret's beautiful pool and eating tiramisu custard (we can't leave Wisconsin without eating some custard!) We're just about to drive off to Chicago to see the White Sox play tonight.