Fall fun

Karen had a mountain bike thing last weekend in Bellingham, so Reed, Barley and I went along for the ride and decided to make a weekend out of it.  I love Bellingham, and I love Fall, and I love pumpkins, and I really like  to swim.  The following pics will explain why I had such a great time, and I think Reed did too.

Bellingham has a great Farmers Market on Saturdays.  I think we caught one of the last markets of the season.  The stands at this market are just super cute.  Maybe it is because their overall selling volume is lower, but the farmers (and vendors for that matter) do such a great job making their stands look really cute and inviting.  Sorry,  did not snap any pics to show you, but we did buy this new hat for Reed from an artiste with a very cute table.  Naturally, we had to take some pics of Reed in his new chapeau.

The hotel pool happened to be just the perfect temp.  So in went Reed and his moms.  Oh boy.  This was his third time in the water (read: the third time his moms placed him in the water hoping to make an instant swimmer of him), and this time, he LOVED it!  Finally, we have found a way to harness the energy of Reed's constant arm/leg flapping.   With just a tiny bit more stroke instruction, I think he will be ready to join the local rec swim team.  

This is baby watsu.

On our way home, we stopped at a pumpkin patch for the obligatory pumpkin patch pics.   We skipped the corn maze, the caramel apples, and the bobbing for apples this time.   I am sure we will catch those next year!

Barley likes to pose with the pumpkins too.  I love her.

Love this little sucker!

A few more pics of our boy from this weekend.  Love him!

Coeur d'Alene

When Bobi Jo came to Seattle in August, we put together a little plan for an Ousnamer/Nelson/O'Connell get together.  We decided to build it around Sheridan's Second Birthday.  Our fun little reunion was last weekend, in Cour de Lane, or Couer de Alane.  Or however you spell it. 

While the weekend had a very stressful beginning that had something to do with me not putting the key back in the lock box on the front porch and then putting a pot of water on the stove to start the dinner preparations and then the Idaho gang arriving and us all hugging in the front yard and then the doors having an automatic locking mechanism upon shutting and then us all realizing that we were done locked out and then Neil going around to every window to check for just one lucky unlocked window to no avail and then trying to get in touch with the owner for her to come and save us so that we could have our lovely weekend and then the fire alarm in the house started alarming because of my stupid pot of stupid water and then Karen learned that a neighbor had a key to our weekend house so she went over to her house, barefoot, because her shoes were inside, but she wasn't home anyway so she couldn't help, and then........i kind of went into a catatonic state of anxiety because i was so afraid of burning down somebody else's house....and really, i was hopping around the back porch watching the pot on the stove and waiting for it to ignite into a ball of flames.  And then--Neil broke a window and jumped inside to save the evening (the weekend, the house, my life....)  Thank god the house did not burn down.  

There was no smoke damage, the window was repaired, and we had a GREAT weekend!  And Karen and I got to ring in Sheridan's third year of life!!

Altogether, we were a group of seven adults, two kids, and five four-leggeds (or three four-leggeds, according to Bobi Jo's calculation).  We managed just fine!  The dogs did amazingly well together.  

This is Lane

 This is Riley

He looks forlorn here, but he is actually a happy dog.

 This is Jimmy and Vic

Jimmy is still a puppy, hence the crazed expression.  Vic is a gorgeous specimen and I would like to adopt him should the Mary and Neil ever need to give him up.  Both these guys are big goofs.  Love.

 And you all know what Barley looks like.  She was along for the ride as well. 

Patrick took us our for a boat ride.  It was a perfect Bluebird day.  See?

That's right, I am TWO!

Lovebirds, Patrick and Bobi Jo

We had a lot of fun, just hanging around the (not burned down) house.  I love hang out time.  It was so fun to see everybody, share meals, laugh, see Sheridan laugh and run and tell us what coyotes eat, and really just BE.  It was also really fun to share Reed with the Ousnamers.  This Family is awesome, and I love that Karen and I get to be part of it.

Briana and Sheridan and the canine pillow, Vic

I hate that I did not get enough pics of Neil and Mary.  This is Neil, and he is a very, very fun Bamba.

This is Mary

It was fun to see Sheridan and Reed interact.  I look forward to watching their friendship develop over the years.

Thanks, Everybody!  We had a great time.  Looking forward to Sheridan's Third birthday!!

Heidi and Judy

Having a baby in the house is pretty awesome, because people come and visit all the time.  I love it.  After Ali's visit, my Best Friend From Seventh Grade, Heidi, came--along with her Mom, Judy.  It was great to see them.  It was a bit of a whirlwind trip, and I did not come near to catching it all in pics.  It felt like a lets-try-to-catch-Jo-up-on-her-life-trip.  Which was great for me....but not sure how much fun those two had.  :-)  (why can't i make smileys on this dumb blog?)

Here are some of the things they did (for me)

pruned my hydrangea and batchelor buttons 

tamed the wysteria

took us to breakfast

insisted on buying the pies for lunch   (YUM)

played with, read to, bathed, and cooed at Reed

accompanied us to three god forsaken stores (Target, JCPenneys, and BedBathandBeyond)  (that triumvirate about did me in)

and then--they cleaned the back house upon leaving!

It was awesome.  I hope it was okay for them.  Here are the few pics I have of the weekend:

I know.  We bathe this kid all the time.  Once a day.  Is that too much?

Thanks, Heidi and Judy!  I owe you--BIG!!

Auntie Ali

Ali, Karen's sister came for a visit in September.  Reed was so excited to meet his second (of four) O'Connell Aunties!!  We had lots of fun.  I a little bit felt like we were playing "house", since Ali is expecting a baby just around Thanksgiving time.  It actually felt like I had some tips and tricks to share with Ali--which was kind of weird, but kind of okay, too.  We are so, so, so excited to meet her Wee One.  I love Cousins.  I love that Reed has Nelson and Gabe as cousins, he is about to get a girl cousin in November.....  And so you other O'Connel sisters, it would be fun to add to the bunch.  Just sayin'.

The Moby carrier never did work for me.  This is Karen and Ali trying to fold it up so that Ali could take it back to DC and hopefully make some use of it.  All 35 yards of it.  (even if only for a sewing project.)  

We took a trip down to the Ballard Farmers Market, because, well that is just what one does on a Sunday in Ballard.  Fun!

Dinner....bathtime....

We love you Ali---thanks for the visit!