Lee Farms Harvest Festival

After weeks of beautiful weather, the fall weather finally arrived to Portland in the middle of October.  The rain hit and it became a bit cooler (in the 60s).  We had Groupon tickets to the Lee Farm Harvest festival which we went to last year as well when Brandon was 10 months old.  We went with the Mowery family.  The weather was drizzly and cloudy but we still had a lot of fun.  We went on a tractor hay ride, saw some baby chickens and baby cows, the boys climbed up a bunch of hay barrels and got to ride a tractor.  We looked at the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch and then Brandon and Logan jumped in the bouncy house for quite a while.  The boys loved the bouncy house but it was really muddy and dirty in there.  Brandon ended up with mud on his face and in his hair but he had so much fun.  Later that day after naps we went out to dinner with the Mowerys at Changs and then Brandon and Logan got to play at our house.  A very fun filled day for Brandon.

Brandon arriving at Lee Farms

Taylor, Sean, Logan, and Brandon in the faces

Brandon and Daddy on the tractor

Family shot on the tractor

Milk carton tractor ride

Mommy and Brandon went on the ride together

Playing in the hay

Playing with his good pal Logan in the hay

Fun in the hay

Taylor "driving" the tractor with Logan and Brandon

All the pumpkins!

Pumpkin fun!

Hanging around the house in October!

We had been gone so many weeks away from home that it has been nice to just be at home and relax. I took Brandon to art class one Saturday at Gymboree for a preview class and he had fun and painted a lady bug and a sunflower.  It was fun but he was one of the youngest ones in the class and it was hard for him to pay attention for an entire hour.  I decided that I could do the same sort of art projects with him myself and not pay $74/month.  I went to Target and bought some finger paints, water colors, and markers as well as a pad of art paper for Brandon all for under $10.  We went outside because it was a beautiful 80 degree day and we finger painted and regular painted outside.  Brandon had a lot of fun but did not like getting his fingers dirty with the paint.  He kept saying "icky!"  He preferred using the paint brush.  Another day we tried using the watercolors.  Brandon really liked that as well.

I came down after waking up one Saturday morning to find Sean and Brandon eating cereal together

Brandon and I painting

Watercoloring!

We have a wet land area in our neighborhood that is about 400 feet from our house.  The wetland area has a pond.  There has been about 24 ducks that have been living in the wetland area that are becoming beloved pets of the neighborhood.  There is always someone it seems feeding the ducks.  Since we have discovered the ducks, Brandon loves going to feed them.  We buy special "duck" bread (cheap bread that costs under $1) for them and usually go and feed them almost everyday after we get home from work and daycare.  Brandon usually stuffs one of the pieces of bread in his mouth on the way but has a lot of fun seeing the "duckies."  Sometimes the duckies get aggressive and Brandon has to say "bad duckies." He also likes to tell the ducks "all gone duckies" when the bread is all gone.  Speaking of which, Brandon is getting much more verbal and is better much better at being able to communicate. He can say all of his body parts and point to them.  He is getting very good at identifying animals.  He can count to 3.

Our neighborhood ducks

Brandon and his "duckies!"

Fall Trip to the Zoo!

Brandon's day care was closed the first Friday of October and so I took the entire day off from work to watch him (I usually work half days on Fridays and go in Friday afternoon).  We have had one of the nicest falls I have ever seen in Portland this year.  It has not rained since like July and it has been sunny and beautiful each day.  The temperatures have been in the high 70s to low 80s.  I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather we are having (I knew it would not last long) and so I took Brandon to the Zoo.  We actually became zoo members so we could go back as many times as we want.  Before we went to the zoo Brandon was playing around the house.  He loves to get into our shoe closet and try on our shoes.  He is actually quite balanced even with wearing my high heeled sandals!

Playing with mommy's shoes 

My Brandon how tall you are!

We got to the zoo around 10:00 AM and the weather was warm and there was not that many people because it was a week day.  Brandon had a lot more fun looking at the animals this time around.  He loved the penguins and  ran around watching them for about 20 minutes.  He also loved the monkeys, hippos and ducks.  The animals were more awake this time and a lot of them were getting fed.  We also saw the lions which made Brandon excited since he is going to be a lion for Halloween this year.  Brandon loves the grass area near the zoo theatre and the elephants.  He ran around the grass for quite a while and joined in playing tag with some of the kids on the grass.  We ended up staying for almost 3 hours and then Brandon took a really great afternoon nap.  It was a perfect trip!

Watching the ducks

Having fun watching the ducks

Being silly 

The polars bears were out!

Beautiful fall leaves

Swinging like a monkey!

Brandon and the hippos behind him to the right

Playing on the grass!

Lots of family visits in September!

This year Sean and I got half Oregon Ducks season tickets (we split with another family) and so we had the opportunity to go to three Ducks games in September.  The way the home games were this year is that the Ducks had 5 of their 7 home games in a row.  Sean, Brandon, and I all went down to Eugene for the first game against Fresno St.  Brandon got to spend some special time with Sean's Dad who he calls "Papa."  The game was fun and it was fun tail gating with Sean's Aunt and Uncle.

Family shot before the first game!

Sean and I at the Fresno St. game

We stopped off at Sokol Blosser to pick up our wine club shipment on the way home

Then the next weekend Brandon and I traveled to Corvallis while Sean traveled to Eugene.  My sister Tory was in town for the weekend visiting.  We took Brandon swimming, played at the Park, and went out to dinner to celebrate Tory's birthday and got a baby sitter which was nice to have a quiet dinner.  Sean took his parents to the Duck game against Arkansas St.

Brandon wearing the strainer as a hat!

Taking Callie on a walk

Gramsie, Brandon, and Callie on a walk

Going down the steps with Gramsie

"Sleeping" with Gramsie and Auntie Tor

The last weekend in September we had our third Duck game against Arizona.  That was an exciting game as it was the Pac-12 opener for the Ducks and it was a night game.  Sean's sister Dawn and her boyfriend Jose and his son Kevin came down for the weekend as well and we had a big celebration for Sean's grandmother's birthday.  Brandon really enjoyed playing with Kevin who is a year older than him.  It was a really fun weekend but we were happy to get home after being away from home for 4 weekends in a row!

Having fun at the park

Running outside before the game

Playing football with his new bud Kevin

Brandon and his Auntie Dawn

Autzen at night-vs. Arizona

Sean and I at the game

Summer's Last Hurrah

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We went to Sun River with Brooke, Taylor, and Logan for Labor Day weekend.  We left Friday afternoon and got into Sun River late Friday.  It took us 3 ½ hours to get there and we left during Brandon’s nap time.  Unfortunately, Brandon only napped for 45 minutes in the car and was kind of tired when he got there.  Brandon and Logan were so excited when they got reunited and saw each other (they came later).  It was hard to get Brandon to sleep that night and every morning Logan, who woke up earlier than Brandon, would be excited to see “B.”  Logan calls Brandon “B” since its easier to say.

Brandon and Logan hanging out together in the morning

The first full day that we were in Sun River we rented bikes with a bike trailer and took the kids on a bike ride all around Sun River.  That was both fun and exhausting (especially going up hills) as the kiddos weighed quite a bit together.  Sun River has an amazing new outdoor pool/water park.  They had a toddler area with a giant sand box area and a toddler pool.  They also had two really fun water slides and a water channel pool. Brandon and Logan had so much fun in the sand and playing in the water. 

All ready for a bike ride!

Me pulling the kiddos in the bike trailer

Playing in the sand

Brandon and Logan loved the giant sand box

Playing in the san box area

We rode our bikes into the village at Sun River and took Logan and Brandon on a train ride around Sun River that they loved and got yummy ice cream.  They had a fun wine tasting festival going on that we each took turns on going to without the kiddos.  The house we rented was really cheap but was nice and had a good floor plan for both the families.  We definitely had a great time and will likely make Sun River a repeat destination for many years to come!  

Brandon and Logan on the train that went around Sun River

The boys in the Sun River train

Brandon sure loved that train

Brandon and mommy eating icecream

Being silly at the restaurant

Flying with Daddy