Pumpkin Time

Yup it's that time of year again. Amy's favorite
time of year actually. Except this year, it hasn't
lived up to her expectations. Not even close,
because life just has a way of getting to be too
much sometimes and not letting us have the time
or energy to put into our favorite things. We all
seem to be going through our own issues right
now, and even though the girls and I made time
for one another to gather pumpkins, it's just not
the same as it used to be, at least the fun and the
excitement of it all. And for Amy, this is a big
disappointment, and I wish there were more time
to get a big party together or a spooky house all
done up, but there just isn't. So we will have to
just accept it for what it is, but be thankful that at least we
did have this brief time of togetherness and outside fresh air,
with the sun shinning down, instead of the rain like today.

We went down a few blocks from home fo Rondriso Farms
which was offering a hayride and pumpkin picking from the
fields or you could just pick ones that they had already gathered, which is the option we chose.

They had quite the selection of pumpkins, the girls both choosing traditional looking ones, but I was tempted to get
one like these, all wart covered, like a witches nose, but still,
my heart was set on another, one I had seen many times
as we drove past the farm on our way home.





Asking Jordyn to pose for a photo amongst the pumpkins was not a hard thing to do, but finding just the right ones to
pose with, that took a bit, but I do love the large skinny like
pumpkins she finally decided to sit with.















My choice is among this group of pumpkins, can
you figure out which one it may be??? you will
discover it in a few minutes.












I love how the people at the farm made it as
festive as they could and I took advantage by
capturing as much as I could on "film", fall is
my favorite time of year, all those glorious rich
colors just waiting to be showcased.









Even the old tractor got spruced up for the
arrival of the pumpkin harvest.













Once we had eaten dinner, I made us hot caramel apple cider with whipped cream and caramel
drizzle to help us through the ordeal of pumpkin
gutting and to get our creative juices flowing for
the creation of our jack o lanterns.















Scooping out the guts of the biggest pumpking of
the bunch, but she was keeping her craving idea
a secret, not be be known until she was all done.












My pumpkin, did you pick the right kind off of the skid earlier? Tim and I had went to a
geocaching event last weekend, so I used the
cute monster off of the sticker we got as my
muse for this creation, then I used my cricuit
to spell out Geomonster and sliced tiny slits in the
top of my pumpkin to slide the letters into.






All the jack o lanterns lite outside, Amy's is the
Mario one, which is awesome, Jordyn's is the
Taylor Swift one, in honor of the concert we saw
in Sept, along with music notes....and mine is
the cutes monster ever.

So even though it may not have been the most exciting day and we may have all had other stuff on our minds, the one thing we did get was time together, hours actually, and for that, it was well worth it.

Geomonster Ball - Lynden WA

Tim signed us up for this event a while back, and we were so excited when the day finally arrived. Lately, the only sane part of our lives have been when we have been out caching, away from everything, enjoying some nature, some searching, and the joy of the find. This event was quite a big one, and it was estimated that around 2000 cachers would be joining in the fun. There were a few levels to this event, and it ranged from free participation to the highest fee of $35 which included some free items and perks...which is the level we choose. Besides a small issue at the border, don't get me started on the jerk of a US customs official who made me cry, the day was so much fun. We met so many fellow cachers, and it was nice to be able to put faces to names we are so familiar with. At the beginning, there were lots of cachers at each cache so there wasn't much searching, but more sociallizing as we made our way from cache find to cache find. After about the first hour, the crowds at each cache dwindled down, so for most of the day, we were the only ones finding and rehiding, which was much more of a challenge. Occasionally throughout the day, we would happen upon a small group so more chatting would be done, then a wave goodbye until the next. The cache organizers did an amazing job, since it was all volunteer, and the caches themselves were fun and some amusing as well. Each cache was hidden well, but still able to be a quick park and grab, which allowed us to total out the day with 59 finds, our highest daily cache find ever. :) I've included quite a few photos with this blog post, but the photos say so much about the cache even, I couldn't resist, enjoy!


They had faux street signs made for the event.


Our caching names on landyards so we could be easily identified by other cachers.

When we first got to the event, around 9am, it was pouring rain, but luckily, about an hour later, the clouds parted and we enjoyed a almost rain free day.

When we headed back to the truck to head out to find caches, we noticed lots and lots of the car travel bugs on vehicles, so we walked around taking photos of them so we could log the finds when we got home. We found 22 of them on seperate vehicles. Only a an event like this is it okay to walk around photographing other people's cars...lol.

This cache was so realistic, I had to take a photo of it, even the texture and the wrinkles in the toes was eerily real.

This cache took us a bit to find, we were searching all around the ground, in bushes, and it was literally sitting in a branch right above my head, I look up and had a duh moment.

Hands and feet were the theme of a lot of the caches hidden for this event. Funny thing is, this one was hidden right at the entrance to a shotgun club...only in America.

The other theme was food, lots of caches either looked like food, like this loaf of bread, or had plastic food glued to the container lid.

Good thing I'm not scared of spiders, because this is one big ass spider.

Very realistic looking catapillar, it was about a foot long though.

This cache was appropriately called "thump thump"

Each cacher that paid for the event had a cache hidden in honor of their team. Ours was called "French Fries" and when we found it, this is how it looked.

My hubby the cheese head, lol.

This cache was called "Brainiac".

This cache we are searching for in the photo was the final to the event, in which we had to walk around the Museum where the dinner was held, gather clues to get the coordinates and then go off and find it. We were there about 15 minutes without finding it, then more and more cars arrived, and by the time it was finally found, there were about 10 vehicles, 30 people, and the only way we eventually found it was by the phone a friend option..the coordinated were off by about 120 feet.

After finally signing the log book on this one, we headed back down towards Bellingham, found a couple more caches, stopped at Fred Meyer, a must for me while down in the states, then finally crossed back into Canada around 10:30 pm..a long fun day.

Balancing Work and Play

Lately, work has become a chore, yup, a chore. Now don't

get me wrong, we know we have to work, provide for our

family and pay for all of life's necessities and "toys", but lately,

work has become frustrating, unrewarding, and just plain

boring and not a place either of us want to be. It's not always

like this for me, but lately, especially with the last 4 houses

we've done, that it's just the same old same old, same style,

same moldings, same everything, not because Tim is boring,

but because the builder want's it that way, and it is boring.

We could do it all in our sleep, and each day it's like, yawn,

let's do it all over again. So today, like other days, we look

for things to keep us from the monotony of it all, silly things

usually, playful in nature, just to break out a smile here and

there...today, it was just pointing out the obvious....lol

Tim doesn't follow directions very well...lol

But one of the good things about being self employed, and

working side by side with your hubby, is that when you feel

like playing hookie from work, either by taking a whole day

or even a few hours to just escape, you can. And our escape

lately has been geocaching, and lots of it, we had taken a year off

from caching, and this summer have gotten back into it with even

more gusto then before. So it's not unusual to find us in the truck,

GPS or Iphone leading us to another fun find, or as of late, a list

of puzzle caches that Tim has been solving online, to get the

coordinates revealed so we can go and locate the physical

cache, so now also accompaning us is a list, with pages

of caches to be found.

Without this pastime, I think both of us may have

succumbed to the pressure and stress of our work

day and no release of this may be a bad thing,

for both our relationship and our health.