NOVEMBER - And then it was BTS. (RUN... save yourself!!) 4 of 5

November - San Jose & San Francisco, Pro-Education Demonstration
My family came up to visit for my birthday weekend bringing a John's Bakery cake in my favorite flavor too!

Then for Aaron's birthday we headed south to San Jose where we visited with Kyle and Shalyce in their new location. They were great hosts and we had fun touring the area with them! Here is a video slide show of our trip.

After the Thanksgiving holiday (our first here in Vancouver - Thanks for hosting us Mike!), I went up to Olympia, the state capitol for "Day of Action." It was interesting to see all the different demonstrators. I don't think I'm cut out for protesting, so you won't see me at the Occupy Camps anytime soon. Here are some shots of the day.

OCTOBER - And then it was BACK TO SCHOOL. (RUN... save yourself!!) 3 of 5

October...Race, Pumpkin Carving, Halloween.

Hybrid Adventure Games: My cousin Claudia joined me for the Hybrid Adventure Games on October 1. It was a hell of a race. It was held at Ski Bowl in the Mount Hood Recreation Area. This race had five parts.

1. Adventure Run: We ran up the ski hill to the top of the first lift, then up, up, up to the lift that was higher up. There were great views, but the climb slowed to a walk not only because of the crowd, but because most of us were not used to running straight up the face of a MOUNTAIN!!

Once we got to the top we had to make our way back down. Running down a mountain also has it's challenges... downhills covered in mud or loose rocks. Most people made it down without out issue, but those who know me well know I'm not like most people ;). I writhe at the mention of pregnancy and stretch marks it is sure to leave behind, but love to show off battle scars. Here are the ones I earned after sliding on a loose rock and being left with only the decision of which part of my body would take the hit.

As you can see I picked stomach over head. I also got a few stray cuts on my legs and arms.

2. Obstacle Course: Right after the run. We had a chance to grab a quick drink and then were shuffled to the starting line of the obstacle course. We jumped through tires, jumped over wooden hurdles, and under barbed hurdles. Then up a ramp, and under more barbed wire, but this time we were army crawling. Next was the slip 'n slide; keep in mind the rain was threatening to pour and the temperatures were in the 50's. Ski Bowl has many fun activities for families in the winter as well as the summer. The course made use of the bike park and we ran on different wooden obstacles, made our way arcross some wooden poles balancing as best we could. Finally we faced a wooden wall. I ran and tried to hop up on top. After two failed attemps I used one of the support pieces to lift myself high enough to get over the wall.

3. Archery Range. After we finished the obstacle course we got in line for the Archery Range. It took FOREVER! This was the first year of this race and they were still working some kinks out. Aaron finally got to check out my injuries and had to make a dash out to the car to get me some warmer clothes as the rain was starting to fall and the long wait in line was quickly cooling me off. All that waiting and not a lot to show for it. Both Claudia and I failed to hit the bullseye on our four tries.

4. Tire Flip. The line here was a bit shorter, but my muscles were not ready to get in gear again after all of that waiting at the archery shoot. We flipped huge tractor tires. Claudia kicked my butt! I did finish though.

5. Keg Toss. People were in for a scare when I showed up here!! I watched a coulple videos on YouTube to prepare for this one and let me tell you it's not as easy as it looks! I chose a spinning strategy and let go once I built up some momentum. However the keg went flying towards the crowd up people in line. Oooops! Claudia tossed the keg sans spinning sans spin and sent it flying in the right direction.

And what was Aaron doing other than taking a few pictures...

...using our post race drink tickets!

Cats vs. Vikings: On October 8th we enjoyed a beautiful day at Jeld-Wen Field watching the Cats take down the Vikings. They actually had a good lead then let the Vikings come way to close for comfort.

They had a great season this year, but didn't survive the playoffs. Later that night we enjoyed Oktoberfest at Aaron's boss' place.
Girlfriends Half-Marathon: Aaron's sisters and our nieces Paige and Brooke came out to visit mid-October. Kara and I ran the Girlfriends half-marathon and had a blast!

Carving Party: We also had our first pumpkin Carving Party this year. Ken and Jen were this year's Master Carvers. You can see our creations here: Pumpkin Carving 2011

Halloween Costumes: Aaron wanted to make these Sesame Street Yip Yip costumes last year, but we were unable to get our act together. This year we planned ahead and he was thrilled! He is so silly and enjoyed every minute refusing to break character.

SEPTEMBER - And then it was BACK TO SCHOOL. (RUN... save yourself!!) 2 of 5

September... BACK TO SCHOOL... nuff said. At least those of us that are teachers understand.  You teacher/moms are rock stars! I still do not know how you make this humanly possible. September was pretty much all back to school with one quick trip to Walla Walla for our nephew Israel's first birthday.

Birthday Boy

And then it was BACK TO SCHOOL. (RUN... save yourself!!) 1 of 5

So school hit and I disappeared. Well kind of, I've still been out and about, but the planning and grading took precidence over the documenting of our day to day. Anyway here is a synopsis of the last 4.5 months :). Part 1 of 5.

August...
Goodbye Mazatlan. We made our way back from Mazatlan. We stayed at a rental house called Casa Bonita and we're thankful for air conditioned rooms and pool! The house was located in the historic part of town just 1 block from the beach and boardwalk (malecon) and walking distance to the open air market, cathedral (aka Sauna - not air conditioned), and bus stops.  Despite reports that travel in Mexico is not advised, we went and experienced not a single dangerous hiccup. Don't do crap you wouldn't try to pull at home and you should be fine. COMMON SENSE people!! It was incredibly HOT there, but with back-to-school looming I was not ready to come back to reality. Here are some shots of the house...I'm happy to pass on contact information if you should wish to check it out in person.

Pool

Kitchen/Dining/Living Area

Entry to Casa Bonita

Cathedral

Quilting: I was interested in learning to make a quilt, so I signed up for Quilting 101 at JoAnn's. Here is my project.

And I got a sewing machine in November... so maybe in the next year I will finish a quilt and share it.

Tree Removal: Those of you that have been to our house may remember we had three large trees in the front yard. YES, I said HAD! August and September brought the removal of these trees. Why? Because we are the anti-tree huggers, hate pine needles, and want to kill the planet. RIGHT... The trees were in bad shape and constantly dropping branches... of which two caused damage to vehicles. We had an Arborist (tree scienentist) come take a look and he said they would be goners in the next 5 years or so. Aparently the tree roots were not well protected during the construction of our house and driveway. We were able to get the builder to agree to cover half the cost of removal, which was nice because our 1 year warranty on all things house was long expired. Thank you New Traditions! Sorry trees! My dad, uncle, a family friend and Aaron's cousin all came and helped in the effort.

They took down two of three trees. Then chooped away at the tree rounds which were sold as firewood. The third tree enormous tree was removed in September by a pro as the guys were a little wary of it's size and a mistake would have been VERY costly.

Timbers Soccer that is... Portland now has a major league team and it was fun to go watch them and listen to the Timbers' Army chant. They won the game!