Our fall continues be full of fun and adventure as well as school for us all. We are getting better and better at homeschooling so it less and less torture for us all. I love Autumn so I just drink up the Fall colors, the cool weather, and great smells. We picked our pumpkin out of a pumpkin patch, we went on one or two more smaller RV trips and went to Ohio for Thanksgiving. It is always great to be with my parents and the kids love everything about being in Ohio. We even saw a little snow.

Science with Dad, the greatest? show on earth, another national park and other adventures

September has been a month of adventures. Many of Evan's classes did not start until late September so we had lots of time to play! It started with a science lesson from Dad with dry ice. Joshua has been wanted to experiment with it for awhile so finally Evan gave in and got a block and for two days they kids had fun experimenting with it. We also had the opportunity to go to the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus. It was so fun to see the kids enjoy all the amazing, talented acts. Joshua loved the elephants and the human cannonballs. It was hard to tell what Gareth liked best as he was a bit grumpy. He really liked going to McDonald's afterwards. It was an interesting experience for me. It truly was a phenomanal show and I am glad we went, but one of the interesting things about living in Seattle is that people protest everything here. They were protesting Barnum and Bailey's treatment of their elephants.

We then took our last and very fun RV adventure to Cascade National Park. We practiced our rock throwing skills, saw glass blowing in a hot shop in a small tourist town, walked over a dam, and just enjoyed playing in a valley among amazing mountains. September was also full of many favorites and some new adventures....going to the Woodlawn Park Zoo....the Seattle Mariners game with Dad.... Matthew's beach near our house....watching the Transformers movie at the Imax downtown. I also had a very fun and refreshing visit from my kindred spirit Monica. It was a full and exciting month. I feel so rich. God is so good and I am so grateful.

We are so thankful! Rainier National Park

It was time again. Time to get into the RV for another National Park adventure. It had only been about a week since our last one-Crater Lake National Park in Oregon- but our RVing season is quickly coming to an end so we were anxious to get back out there!
Our plan was to leave on Tuesday, August 28. Things kept coming up so we didn't actually leave the house til 3:00. Evan was even wondering if we should wait til the next day to go. We had to stop by the library on our way out and then toSam's club...well on our way out we felt, heard and smelled that something was wrong. Since we were only five minutes from our house, we were able to make it back home. Our alternater belt melted off. We were disappointed we couldn't go but I told the kids God was in control. Evan called the RV guy who had helped us before and he came out that night, fixed the problem and a few other things as well and it is running better than ever! And it only cost us fifty dollars!! Evan took it for a test drive and went out to dinner with his friends John H and Hans. Ifwe had been farther along on the road, it could of cost us so much more!!! We are so thankful how everything worked out!!!
On Wednesday, we finally hit the road. I prayed before we left that we would be patient with each and we certainly had plenty of opportunities for that!! Even though it was only two in the afternoon, we still hit major traffic going thru downtown Seattle. Somewhere around Tacoma, a big semi in front of us locked its break, causing us to slam on our brakes. We are so THANKFUL that we did not rear end him and nobody reared us. It was so close!!

We made it a bit farther and in Puyallup Evan pulled over because he noticed our brakes were a bit mushy. Sure enough, we broke a brake line. God led us to just the right mechanic who fit us in right away, worked hard in the hot weather, and let me and the kids pick blueberries from his yard! I got a galloon sized ziploc of the sweetest, biggest blueberries!

It took us awhile to get to our final destination and that had some testy moments as well but it was so worth it. We ended up camping (illegally) in a parking lot but we had an amazing view of Mt. Rainier and beautiful lake Mowich. The kids loved playing on the rocks, at the beach, with some frogs, and hearing an owl at night. Our enjoyment of the evening was interupted by Gareth throwing up all over Evan but other than that it was great! Our next two days there were just as amazing. Gareth had managed to get into the RV with no shoes whatsoever so he was forced to wear Joshua's flip flops. We did a three mile hike to Eagle's roost view point, of which Gareth hiked barefoot the whole way!! It was such an amazing trip! We are so hooked on RVing!!! We are thankful!!