Pumpkin Farm

Two weekends ago we headed out to the pumpkin farm, creatively called The Farm, with our friends Jared and Diana. It was a beautiful sunny day. We enjoyed seeing all the animals, hunting for pumpkins, eating hot dogs, roasted corn and pumpkin desserts, and spending time with friends.



Family Shot

Sweet little Heidi.





Brian, Benjamin and Lacey on the hunt.

Benjamin picked this funny one for Heidi.





The line for the hay ride was ridiculous, so the kids got wheelbarrow rides instead.



A very cute kitty kept trying to eat our food. It didn't seem to bother any one but me. Brian -"Jessica, its just a cat." Jessica - "But it could have worms!" Can you tell who didn't grow up with pets?



Lacey and Kellan looking at the animals. (PS, I made Lacey's hat :) )



This sign worked out nicely.

The group (minus Brian) - Lacey, Jessica, Heidi, Diana, Kellan, Jared, Benjamin



Brian's Birthday / Vancouver, BC Trip

It's official. Brian is now 29 and we are the same age, at least for the time being. He won't be able to tease me about being a year older for another 5 or so months. His birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, so we waited until Saturday to celebrate. It was a dreary day, but we packed up the kids in the Camry and took the ferry over to Sequim to visit the Olympic Game Farm.

I'm sure most don't know what this is. The game farm is basically like a drive through zoo where you can feed the animals through your window. There are cows, llamas, zebras, buffalo, bears, elk, and more. The more dangerous animals are behind fences, but many of them are rescued from show business and are somewhat tame. The wandering animals are fearless and will walk straight up to your window looking for food. It can be a little intimidating at times when the animals surround your vehicle, and I did squeal like a little girl once or twice, but we all had a great time. We finished the afternoon with a yummy lunch at The 3 Crabs where we enjoyed local seafood and a grumpy waitress :).

A few weeks ago, Brian and I were able to take a trip up to Vancouver, BC with just Heidi. She is the first of our kids to travel internationally. Benjamin and Lacey enjoyed the weekend staying at Grandma and Grandpa Jorgenson's and visiting the Puyallup Fair. Our time share was in the downtown area, so we were able to have a good Vancouver experience. We walked around a lot, shopped a little, visited a park and conservatory, ate at different places, and relaxed. We didn't really do anything exciting, but we were both content enjoying the peace of only one child. Heidi was a perfect little angel.



As you can tell from his expression, Brian really enjoyed the conservatory



We attempted a trip to the pool, but I should have known better since she hates baths



I even got my first bee sting while there...bummer.



Dolly's Destruction

I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids to the park today since the sun decided to come out. For some reason neither of the kids were interested in playing on the play structure and just wandered around. I was a bit distracted dealing with Heidi and talking on the phone and was only half paying attention. I noticed that they had found their way to a large puddle. I figured "oh well, so they'll have soggy feet and pants". Little did I know they would drown Lacey's doll. By the time I noticed what was happening, the damage was done. We are trying to wash her, but I have a feeling this dolly will never be the same. Below you can see just how nasty she got compared to her other dolly, which is not exactly new either. Poor Sweet Pea.

First Day of School

It's hard to believe, but we have officially entered the school years. Gone are the days where I could plan my day however I wanted. I now have to work around my little boys class schedule. Although he's already 5, we decided to put him in pre-k this year in order to give him the best chance of success in school. If he had gone full term, he technically wouldn't be in kindergarten until next year anyway.

Below are a few pictures of him at his school. It was an interesting first day. Because he is attending a private school, his class size is pretty small. When the teacher walked them out it was just him and 4 other girls. He said some kids didn't make it today, so I'm hoping at least one other boy will be in his class. If not, he will get some good practice talking to girls. He had a blast and his teacher said he was very eager to help.

It was a challenge trying to squeeze some naps in for the girls since he is in the afternoon class. Heidi absolutely refused to nap. I finally just let her fuss on her play mat so I could get some things done. After a while she got quiet and when I checked on her she had fallen asleep. Poor girl got so tuckered out she fell asleep on the floor. Hopefully we can get used to the new schedule quickly.

P90X

90 days ago we embarked on an exercise journey called P90X.  Essentially, the program is an hour a day of intense working out, rotating between weight lifting and cardio. We stuck with it for the most part, but life got in the way every now and then, especially with three children and a busy summer! We exercised at night after putting the kids to bed. Even though the workouts were grueling at times, we both enjoyed pushing ourselves and spending the quality time together. We took some Day 1 and Day 90 photos (posted boldly below for the world to see). We're both happy with our results but plan on starting a second round soon to try to get in even better shape.

Our Personal Testimonials
Jessica - I started P90X 4 weeks after Heidi was born.  Initially I was only going along with it to try to motivate Brian and had no intention of doing the full program.  After the first week, however, I found it wasn't as hard to motivate myself as I had thought it would be and became excited with the prospect of getting back in shape or possibly better shape than I was pre-pregnancy.

I had some challenges for at least the first 4 to 6 weeks as my body was still healing from Heidi's delivery.  I had to modify or stop short in order to not do damage and wasn't even able to attempt the ab workout until the second phase.  I also didn't diet in any way because I didn't want to affect my milk supply.  I think I would have had better results if I would have allowed more healing time, but I'm still happy with the outcome.

I wish I would have taken measurements and done the pre-test, but I figured since I was in post pregnancy shape they wouldn't really be true results anyway.  Sadly, I don't have any before and after stats to compare other than weight.  I started at 134 and am now 122, but I was always more focused on my shape rather than weight.  I'm the size I want to be and look forward to toning up even more.

Brian - I was motivated to get back in shape shortly after Heidi was born. Pregnant Jessica = more take out meals and more home-baked goodies around the house, so it's easy for me to pack on extra pounds during those 9 months. I didn't go "hard core" and restrict my diet or load up on supplements, but I still got halfway decent results:

• Total weight loss of 12 lbs which puts me down to 170 (I had to buy a new belt I lost so many inches on my waist!) - as we start the next round, I'll be focusing more on bulking up so I'm not that concerned with my actual weight number.
• Obviously, you get stronger over the course of the 90 days. I started the program barely able to do an unassisted pull-up, but now I can knock out double digit reps on the spot.
• I'm not very flexible but I noticed large improvements in my flexibility, probably due to all those downward dogs in yoga. 
• We didn't take any pictures of my legs, but I gained a significant amount of muscle in my quads.
• Getting a 6-pack is my main goal for our next round!!

A night and a day in Seattle

It was another date weekend for me and Brian. On Friday night we went to see Barcelona at the Triple Door in Seattle. It's another unique concert venue located under the Wild Ginger restaurant. Everyone is seated in tables and booths with full dinner and drink service the entire time. It was an awesome concert. It also so happens that Barcelona is made up of three guys from SPU. They were a grade or two below Brian, but we were still able to look them up. If you went to SPU, grab your SPUD and look up Brian Fennell, Chris Bristol, and Rhett Stonelake. Pretty cool.

On Saturday we ventured back to Seattle for The Amazing Ring Race, a scavenger hunt sponsored by EE Robbins with a $15,000 ring as the grand prize. We ran and walked all over downtown following clues texted to our phones and texting back answers to the riddles to get the next clue. Each answered riddle earned points. We probably walked and ran at least 6 miles and earned a total of 34 points. We talked to a few people at the end who had earned points in the teens. We thought we had a small chance until we talked to a pair (riding bikes) who had 74 points. Yikes! Once we knew we had no chance to win, we skipped the award party and went home with nothing but a great experience and some free shirts. It was exhausting, but lots of fun. If they have it next year we are definitely using scooters or bikes.

Too Cute