Preston got to go on his first field trip to the pumpkin patch with his kindergarten class. He had the greatest time and a week later is still taking about it.
Being Hunters 12th year this is a transitional year for him as he enters his teens, so we are trying to plan some memorable events for him. This weekend he and I went down to the Steens mountain area of southeastern Oregon. This is cowboy country so I thought it would be fun to go horse back riding while there. We went with Steens Mountain Guest Ranch. This is a working ranch where they heard 600 head of cattle. Tim and Susan (owners) do week long trail rides during the summer as they move cattle around. For us, it was just a 2 hour trail ride up to the Kiger Ridge area.
Being October the weather is starting to be more unsettled and in this wide open country it made for some great photos and lighting with storms and rain around.
Here are some pictures as we got ready to go on our trail ride at Steens Mountain Guest Ranch.
Pictures from the trail ride:
Short Video:
Couple other shots of where we stayed.
Great fun in late October!
Today, there was an end of the season cross country meet and 7 boys from each grade made it. Hunter was super excited to qualify. Out of 66, 6th grade runners, Hunter came in 28th place. We are very proud of the great season Hunter had. What a great group of kids and coaches. We look forward to watching and cheering him on next year. Go Diamondbacks!
Amazing sunrise colors out front of the house this morning in late October.
We love to decorate the front of the house for fall. New house this year but following our similar harvest format.
We were able to get away for a couple days for our 15th anniversary this October to Sisters Oregon. We had amazing fall weather. We stayed at the five pines resort with a cabin that backed up to the forest. At some great meals at a couple of places we have not been before that were excellent: The cottonwood cafe and the open door where we were able sit outside on a beauty fall day. Both places highly recommended!
We're pretty proud of these two! Hunter and Preston got the Initiative award at chapel this morning.
This morning like most mornings we were scrambling to get out the door in time for school. This morning for some reason we did it with a few minutes to spare. On our way down the driveway we ran into this beauty.
This boy makes our heart so happy! ❤
Our middle schooler was over the moon to get his x country sweat shirt today. I think this might have made his week.... maybe even month.
We 💘 our runner!
We just got back from our annual fall boys camping trip for 2017.
Previous years:
A little later than average this year - Sept 30/Oct 1 and the weather was a little more cool and unsettled but still a great time. This year we were joined by PJ for the first time! Kelly was a little nervous about this but decided to ok it. The trip this year was via canoe upon request from Noah. The plan was to travel along an ~8 mile stretch of the Deschutes river from Tenino boat launch just below Wickiup reservoir to Wyeth boat launch just above Pringle falls. This stretch has no rapids and is a nice easy down-river float. Here is a map of the route and our selected primitive camp spot (blue dot) along the river.
We dropped one car at Wyeth and had Kelly drive us to the put in point at Tenino. Here we are at the put in and just starting down river.
We selected this camp spot about 2/3 down river to our exit as it was relatively remote. Had a great little eddy to pull the canoe into to unload.
I had a few new recipes I wanted to try on this trip. The first was pizza over a camp stove. I originally learned this with NOLS many years ago but haven't tried it recently. Chose to top it with peppercorn feta, kalamata olives, and arugula on half (for Noah and I). First pic is Hunter helping me by cutting up olives. Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without hot-dogs over a fire which we did later when the wind died down. I also cooked a peach cobbler for desert.
Here is a video of the kids throwing pin cones in the river on a walk for entertainment.
After a cool night we rose Sunday morning with a little rain to start but clearing to partly cloudy with a cool wind but not bad for October. For breakfast I made Fresh sourdough french toast with raspberries and pumpkin spice maple syrup along with a side bacon. It was tasty!
