Adventures in Spokane

We had such a great time in Spokane earlier this month. We hadn't been up to visit in three years, so it was really nice to visit with family. On Monday the 7th, Keith's mom Nancy invited all the relatives that live in the Spokane area to come up for dinner. We got to see everybody at once! Some people, like Keith's cousin Kylea, had grown up so much since we saw them that I barely recognized them. Anyway, thanks to all the family who came out to see us while we were there!

Most of our time was spent playing games. If you know us very well, then you know that we are game people.

Keith and his dad managed to squeeze in a few games of horseshoes.

This is the only photo I had of Kylea, and obviously Isaac doesn't look so good. But she was such a sweetie and so much fun I had to put her picture on here. She stayed up late with us playing games most nights (I won't tell you how late!), and she loved to hold Finley--she was a big help! Seriously, we would be playing a game and either Keith or I would be holding a crying baby, and Kylea, who was also playing the game, would offer to hold her. So nice!
We played games with lots of family that stopped in to visit-- Tico, Kylea, Robert, Duane, Angela, Holly, Derik, Marla, Richard, Marcie, Glen, Nancy, Gehrig--did I forget anyone? We planned our trip to coincide with Noel and Jewell's visit from Payson, Utah, and it was so great to see Sareny, Katlyn, and Isaac running around together. The kids were outside pretty much all day long, even after dinner when it was dark and really cold (not Arizona cold, I mean really cold) they would try to sneak back outside. Keith's parent's live on a farm in the country, and for the most part, the kids could just run wild outside with their parent's checking on them every so often. What a difference from Phoenix! One of the biggest attractions of the outdoors was the kittens. Katlyn picked out the orange kitty as her favorite, and Sareny was happy with any she could catch.

N0te the way the tail is pointing...

We also had fun wandering around the farm picking blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, plums, and vegetables. The kids also had fun gathering eggs and feeding the goats and emu's.

The evening before a big frost, we went out to harvest as much as we could. I had Finley snug in her sling and was picking blackberries and raspberries until it was too dark to see. I was absolutely loving the cold weather--I just don't like snow and all of the scraping and slipping that comes with it.

The Fallstroms live in an area called Greenbluff, which has a lot of farms. I love visiting in October, becaure they all celebrate Octoberfest. We spent one day driving around and visiting a couple of the different farms. My favorite was the one that featured a large sandbox filled with dried peas instead of sand. The kids had a blast playing in the peas. While taking pictures of them playing, I quickly discovered that peas roll. I'm sure I looked pretty silly.

One day Grandma Nancy made sugar cookies with her grandkids. The only one she gets to see regularly is Jese, (as Sareny likes to point out, "her's a boy." She had never met him before, so before our visit, I had to correct her a couple of times.) so she wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. And speaking of Jese, he is just a couple of months younger than Sareny and this was the first time we got to meet him or his dad Derik. Evidence that we don't get up there nearly enough. We really liked Derik and had fun playing games with him and Holly, Keith's sister and Derik's wife.

It was really sad to come home after having so much fun with family that we so rarely get to see. I think we all gained a few pounds from the yummy food and homemade peach and apple pies we ate. I think the drive home deserves a post of its own, so more on that later.