Chicken Weekend

I was looking through pictures trying to decide what to post here (need to do some major catching up!) and found some from Chicken Weekend in early June. It was a while ago but the pictures are great so here they are!

You can see part of the assembly line for processing the chickens. I won't post a picture of the first two stations :).

 

 

The kids tended to stay away from the chicken business, though they had a general idea of what was happening. They were more interested in hanging out with each other.

 
Heading down to feed the pigs (veggie scraps- not the chicken!).

 

This is pretty representative of what Jack did all weekend. He loves being at the farm but being 10 1/2, he gets tuckered out very quickly from all the free roaming he gets to do. He spent the first morning sprinting around the farm with Otis, the resident doggie, then the rest of the long weekend laying around in one spot or another.

BFFs

During the last school year, my friend Hannah and I alternated being in Quinn's (and his bff Alora's) classroom on Wednesdays. We'd have each other's youngster on the off days. Nolan and Matilda became great pals. It's sweet to see them developing a bond similar to Quinn and Alora's, who have known each other since they were wee babies. Here are some pictures of Nolan and Matilda from early April.

Gold Beach

Back in late February, the boys and I went down to Gold Beach to visit my grandparents. It's a long trip but totally worth it to get some great grandparent time in for the boys. Gold Beach doesn't change much year to year. We spent time on the beach searching for hidden glass balls that were part of a promotion through the tourism office. Quinn was disappointed that we didn't find any- maybe next time!

Great Grampy warming his hands by the fire (and playing his poker game). 

It was so cold and windy on the beach! At least it wasn't raining...

 Quinn was showing Nolan how fun it is to jump in the sand. A trip to the dunes is definitely in their future!

Bang!

Mom and Nolan working on the final stage of an Easter egg project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?yv=c05ciAWGl3Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Nolan shredding up the slopes

Went skiing today and Nolan hit the slopes for the first time. Quinn wanted his skis back!










(Posted from iPhone)

Location:Mt Baker Hwy,Deming,United States

Skiing

Quinn and I have started ski lessons at Mt. Baker every Sunday for 4 weeks! He and I are going up by ourselves most weekends, with Rich and Nolan staying home for some daddy, noli time. I was a little nervous going up last Sun because there was a prediction for lots of snow and I imagined the roads snowy the entire way. Nope, all was clear! It was a gorgeous day up there; much more so than down in town!

Quinn has been on skis a few times a year since he was three but these are his first organized lessons. There are 2 other parent/child sets in our lesson- nice and small! One of the kids is a girl who was in preschool with him! Bellingham/Whatcom County can be so small sometimes.

Waiting in line for the rope tow and watching people struggle with it, I thought two things: 1) I'm very glad my parents got me and my siblings on skis early (2nd grade) and 2) I'm very glad Rich and I are doing the same with our kids! Older kids and adults just learning had a much harder time with the rope tow than the little kids.

 

The mantra for the day became "Hands on knees, looking to the trees!" It was such a good day that he didn't want to leave! I knew it was time because he was having mini breakdowns at the top of the run when he'd get frustrated, then would be fine once he got going. We ended at a good time because he keeps asking when we get to ski again :).

Nolan REALLY wants to ski too. We'll get him up a few times this season. He has been practicing walking in his ski boots :).