I just love this time of year!!!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch today, an advantage of homeschooling is that Steve and the kids can do some school on a rainy Sunday afternoon that I have to work anyway, and then take off half a day to do the pumpkin patch on Monday! It was rainy and windy, but it was the only day we had to go, so we did it. I forgot the memory card for my camera, so missed out on getting pics at the pumpkin patch this year, but here are a few of the pumpkins we decorated at home, and our little scary decorations for the front porch. We had fun. Andrew was too busy watching a movie to be in the pics but Nicole was willing, so here she is with the pumpkins!

Blake Island

We had a really nice trip to Blake Island on the boat this weekend. We even brought the dogs and were pleasantly surprised how well it went, except for Marlie falling into the water at the marina, she was cold and very wet, but survived. We left Saturday morning nice and early, sailed/motored to Blake Island which was about a four hour trip. It is an Island that has a view of Seattle, so is close to urban areas, but is quite remote. It has a nice marina for visitors and a nice play area, nice hiking trails and also Tillicum Village, for a "full Native American Experience." Check out these websites for more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Island and
http://www.camping.com/camping-gems/1452

We didn't do the salmon dinner and see the dancing, although it would have been very interesting and a nice addition to our homeschooling, but it was $120 for the four of us! So we went and had our own bar-b-q on the boat. Oh well, maybe next year...

Here are the dogs getting out of the van, these are thier new life vests, made of neoprine, it kept them warm too, didn't seem to bother them.




Nicole enjoying the ride
The skipper


The wanna be sailor and her princess


At the Marina at Blake Island.


On a hike
It was a long hike! We all got pretty tired. Andrew did too... =0)
Still on the hike
Close up of Nicole's new short cut. Too cute
Sissy took this one, she thought the trees were pretty, I do too!
At the beach

Seattle through the trees

Tillicum Village





Kite flying after the hike


Us
The playground
There was a lot of deer, very used to peole, came right up close
Snuggled in for bed, Shadow slept in the quarter berth with the kids. Some rules change when your on a boat...
Breakfast and a movie
Hanging out in the boat


Playing on the beach


The boat, how beautiful she is!
Wing and wing on a down wind run. Very pretty

Hanging out down below

Showdow, the boat dog, suprised at how well they did.
Marlie and Me
This is how you stear a boat, you look up, not forward, a good portion of the time. Kind of hard on the neck, as you can imagne.
Headed home, it was a glorious time.

Overnight at Eagle Island

We had our first overnight trip on the boat this weekend. We went to Eagle Island it is about a 4 hour motor/sail from Tacoma, we had an amazing time. We motored in after dark, so has a little bit of an issue looking for a mooring ball and then giving up and anchored out. A little bit of technical difficulty (um like not having the anchor ready and me FREAKING OUT, albeit briefly, and then we were back on track, thank you Steve, sorry for my FREAKING OUT!) After we were safely anchored and the kids were asleep Steve and I were out in the cockpit and heard a lot of seals, they make funny sounds when you are close enough to hear them, and it sounded like quite a few. Well in the morning we saw probably more than 100 of them on the beach about 100 feet away from us! Since we had come in after dark we did not see them, probably would not have anchored there, but in the dark, who knew! So we enjoyed watching them that morning, a little later after Steve did some work on the boat (our toilet was giving us fits, not a good thing!) we took the dingy out to row to the island and did a little exploring, found a rope swing someone had rigged and enjoyed some huckleberries as we hiked, they were wild and were amzing, almost like grape clusters. Then we motored home till we got to the narrows bridge and then we sailed into Gig Harbor briefly then motored back to our marina. It was an amazing day!

Me at the helm, watch out world!


Enjoying the sail...

Enjoying a movie down below...

Nicole wanted to fly a kite, we tried to do it off the aft of a boat, but it didn't work. Oh well.

The sight we had of the beach Saturday morning...

On the way to Eagle Island for some exploring...

The rope swing

Our little boat

Thought this was the funniest rock, we just happened upon it, I think it looks like Albert Einstein, Steve agreed!

Finding beach treasure

Yummy huckleberries!

Yummy huckleberry face!

There were a lot of huckleberries!