New House

I realized I never mentioned our new house. We closed early December and are happy to have a home that we will not be leaving in less than a year. Part of the deal was a new furnace and roof plus a whole bunch of other added perks. We feel we made the right choice. We bought from someone in the ward that moved to Utah and she took great care of the home. We are really happy with the choice!

November: Birthday and Family Visit

For my birthday, Spencer made me an apple strudel . It was pretty good.

Right before Thanksgiving, Grandma and Grandpa Garlick came to visit. They treated us to the zoo. This was our first time at the Pt. Defiance Zoo in Tacoma and it was a great time.

What I loved most about this zoo was that it was not crowded as we went on a Tuesday in November and it also felt very intimate and personal. Many of the animals were out and visible and the zoo was designed to make it easy to get close enough to get a great view.

The highlight was the marine life.

Eva loved all the Nemos and Doris.

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We have had a lot of chances to touch the marine life as well since we live so close to the Puget Sound.

The kids, especially Eva, were mesmorized by the Asian elephants. We were there a long time.

We tried to capture the Mt Rainier in the background.

Since Thanksgiving was so late this year, it felt like Christmas was just around the corner. We decided to head up 2 days before Thanksgiving and pick out our tree.

We found a Frasier Fur tree that we liked.

The kids were so excited to start decorating and for Christmas time to begin.

Halloween

Down the road from our house, there is a little market that was all decked out for Halloween. I took Eva one day while Maren was a school to check it out. This little guy is what she picked out.

My cousin Arianna lives in the Seattle area and came to visit. It was great to catch up.

One day we decided to take the scenic route and hit up a few of the farms on the other side of Tacoma. It was a beautiful drive and a fun time.

Eva became obsessed with pumpkins. At her age, everything is new and exciting and it makes it so much more fun.

We stopped at a farm storehouse and they had a bunch of cats around that had thumbs! If you look closely you can see it.

The last stop was at a farm where we played for a couple hours.

They had a giant pit of corn kernels that the kids loved to play in.

Maren fond the dress ups!

Eva is our slide junkie

Then we had fun (made the mistake) of walking a corn maze.

Again, another beautiful fall day.

The kids were real troopers.

And this one was a little stinker...

But then they started to get pretty tired.

We were almost done and Maren was about ready to fall asleep. She also got a blister from walking so much in her rain boots.

We eventually made it. What a relief.

They were rewarded by a ride on... this marshmallow thing? Not sure, but they loved it.

This beauty finally died on us. It was a sad day to watch it be towed away. The 1991 hottie next to it was the replacement.

Eva loved jumping the freshly raked leaves. Once again, her excitement for all the new experiences makes it so fun.

Maren loved doing the dirty work.

Eva went through a phase where she was Snow White every single day.

The view from our kitchen window.

Maren at her first school Halloween party

When Maren decided to be Dorothy, we thought it would be cute to have Eva be a munchkin. I made her a little cloak, apron and hat that matched one of the characters in the movie. Every time I tried it on her, she refused to wear  because she wanted to be a princess of course.

We showed her the munchkins in the movie to get her to warm up but it was not until Halloween that she flipped a switch and decided it was ok to be a munchkin.

Spencer had to dress up for work that day and went as a mobster. Eva called him "Poppins" as she thought he looked like he belonged on Mary Poppins. We decided to experience the trick or treating downtown at the harbor. They hand out earlier in afternoon which gave us time to get back to our neighborhood to hand out candy. Everyone thought Eva was a cute little flower pot. I gave up trying to explain and just smiled. Eva talked about getting candy for weeks after that. If you even said the word Halloween she was quick to say: "Candy, chocate!"