Friday at my Sister's

Martin and I went to dinner at my sister's house on Friday. It was an added treat because we got to visit with my nephew Paul, his wife Lisa, and my great niece Ann. Ann is going to spend a week with my sister her grandma, so Paul and Lisa can get some heavy duty chores done at home. Ann is a dynamo, here you can see her racing around the yard. She told me that she was having so much fun, that "I could do this until evening!"

She was happy to pose for Martin, and showed us some of the moves that she has learned in dance class.

I think I will check in periodically this week, just to see how Maxine's energy level is doing...

Yet More Holiday

We got together tonight to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the clan who weren't able to make it over on Christmas Eve. Martin's sister Sally came up from Roseberg (that is her with the Santa cookie jar); his nephew Casey who is going to graduate school in South Carolina; his niece April who is staying with her Dad here in Vancouver ( April is the pastry chef, who baked the cookies pictured.) Both the girls were here with their spouses and the grand kids. Needless to say, no get together would be complete without a small tantrum - guess who didn't get her nap today...

Hood River Harvest Festival

Today we hit the road and headed to Hood River to their annual Harvest Festival with Molly, Rob, Brandon and Anna. We drove up the Washington side and it was beautiful with all the leaves turning colors. The view from Cape Horn was even more beautiful with all the fall colors surrounding the Columbia River. Unfortunately, it was really too crowded for us to stop and take a picture. The festival was great, not as crowded as last year. We were able to shop for the apples, pears and cider, as well have an opportunity to go through the arts and craft tents. The quality of the things for sale was excellant. I regret that I didn't come prepared to Christmas shop! We did buy some more apples. The tasting we did last weekend enabled us to buy some more of our favorite varieties for as low as .59 a pound. We also found some unpastuerized cider, which is basically fresh liquid apples, so GOOD. Back at the house, we bored Molly and Rob with DVD of our vacation while the kids enjoyed their new color books and crayons we keep at the house for them to play with when they visit. Pictures are of Molly, Rob and Brandon shopping and Anna getting ready to munch on some elephant ear.