Belated Post . . . Cool Rides to the Parade of Homes

Way back in September our good friends: Sam and Meredith Harker and Neal and Tammy Bybee went with us on the funnest ever day of touring the Tri cities Parade of Homes (Dan Hatch tagged along for part of the time). We borrowed Kips Harley so we could be cool too. We rode with everyone to tour the homes, go to a fantastic dinner at P.F. Changs and hang out by the river. We laughed our heads off and got really good parking and had a really memorable Saturday. I'm not sure how Tammy and I managed to get our husbands to leave the farm for so long on a Saturday in the middle of harvest time but I was so thankful they did. I think we all look pretty cool. I wish I could have bought Cameron one of these for himself on his birthday. Maybe next year. I had fun editing today instead of cleaning . . . I would have done this post long ago but I was waiting for Tammy to send me the pictures (I brought my camera but failed to put a memory card in so I got no pictures for myself).

Cameron's Birthday Getaway

Cameron and I got to get away this weekend for his 35th birthday! On Friday we went with Kip and Gigi to Spokane. Along the way we met up with Neal and Tammy, Sam and Meredith and Adam and Kim. After checking into the Red Lion we quickly got ready for dinner. Sam wanted this to be a formal affair (I think he wanted an excuse to buy a tux). We went to dinner with the group (along with Meredith's cousin Amy and her husband, Sloan) to a place called Herbal Essences. It was just okay but I did love the birthday cake that they brought out for Cameron. Afterwards we walked over to the center of performing arts to see Phantom of the Opera. I saw it in San Francisco in high school and was amazed by the show. I liked it again but probably not as well. The SF theater I saw it in was much smaller and more ornate so I though it was more fitting for Phantom. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel and then decided we needed a midnight run for desserts. Sadly the only place that was open was Perkins for dessert and I stuffed myself with Lemon Meringue Pie. The next morning we got a late start after some slept in and others spent forever working out at the gym. After a very late breakfast (again at Perkins) we split up and the girls went shopping. I got lots of fun things at Nordstrom Rack and a few other places before we had to drive back with Neal and Tammy and Kip and Gigi.
Overall it was a great getaway weekend. I think the kids even had fun with the babysitter and said they like it when we only go away for one night. Maybe we'll have to go on more one night getaways with our good friends.

Besides Cameron's brothers these guys are his 2 best friends: Sam and Neal (this picture is dedicated to my sis Michelle because I know how much she likes pictures taken at the table).

Cameron laughing with his brother Kip.

The group after Phantom: Neal and Tammy , Sam and Meredith (the party planners), Adam and Kim , Cam and Me, Kip and Gigi, Sloan and Amy.

Cameron waiting for all the slow pokes on Saturday.

Cameron and I at the hotel. Behind us is where we went to Phantom.

My Singer!

Chelsea is always singing songs. Real ones that she knows or ones she makes up about what she is playing or parts of songs she knows to familiar tunes like primary songs or Hannah songs. She is really good at remember songs. Yesterday she came home from Kindergarten and told me she had music class. And then she sang me Yankee Doodle Dandee. I sang along for the first verse but I don't know the rest. Then she proceeded to sing the next 2 verses along with actions. Since she always gets stage fright I decided to see if I could get her to sing while I recorded it. She made it through the first 2 but then got nervous. She still looks cute singing it though. Morgan and Mia are in the video too trying to steal a bit of the attention.

Mia's accident

It was Mia's turn to have an accident this week. On Sunday I substituted in nursery again. About 2 minutes before it was time to leave Mia ran from my lap across the room and tripped. She hit her eyebrow into the table and it split open. Amazingly it didn't bleed much but opened up pretty good. I didn't want to take her to the ER after our experience with Chelsea there in May. After debating with Cameron after we got home about what to do- we decided to take her to our good friend Sam to have him fix her. He decided to just put a steri strip on it instead of stitching it. I was happy with that and she hasn't even bothered it at all. Hopefully we can go more than a month before we have another big accident again.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday I decided that we needed to take the kids to the Country Mercantile pumpkin patch. I couldn't think of another day this month we'd be able to go so I called Gigi and Meredith to see if their families could join us. Amazingly even our husbands all agreed to go. Gigi and I drove together and got their first. While we waited for everyone else I agreed to let the girls get their face painted. But as soon as they started everyone else arrived and then all the kids wanted it done. Collin was not to happy because it took another hour (it seemed) to get that done before we could head out for the very short hayride out to the pumpkin patch. We decided that this was something that would be more fun for NON farm kids because one of the things to do (besides the hayride pulled by a tractor- which we have plenty of) was to climb a straw bale stack (which we also have plenty of). So why did we pay to do these things? Who knows. Something to do to make it finally feel like Halloween is coming up. This pumpkin patch was geared to preschool aged kids and I think next year I'll have to go to the one with a corn maize that is geared to older kids so that Collin isn't soooo bored. Notice his bored look while impatiently waiting for the face painting to get done.

Morgan and Chelsea were very happy with their butterfly/flower face painting. Mia got her Princess Mia crown and makeup. Mason got batman and then proceeded to face plant in the grass when he tried to fly!

After everyone getting to pick the perfect pumpkin out of a giant patch we headed to Round Table Pizza for dinner. It was a nice memorable way to spend an October Saturday.

Afton, Taylee, Bruin and Camryn. Below is my Cameron along with his sort of name sake- Camryn Harker. Collin, Regan and Taylee took the longest to find their perfect pumpkins.

Family Pictures

We decided to have professional pictures taken for the first time since our wedding. Other than the huge group family pictures on both sides. And I'm not talking about going to JcPenney's or Picture People. I'm talking about a real photographer that does a 2 hour photo shoot and takes lots of pictures and not just five or so. We had Billie come out from KBphotography to take our pictures at the Othello farm where we will eventually be building. She didn't think the sun was just right yet so we took lots standing by the shade of the haystack and out by the railroad track that is nearby. By the time the lighting was right for the family picture Mia was done! And the mesquitos decided to come out in full force!! It was no fun and so we don't have many family ones to choose from. I'm sure I'll end up spending a small fortune anyways since I love so many of the individual ones of my kids. If you want to see the picture proofs you can go to www.kbphotography.smugmug.com then click on family and then Calaway family. The password is farm. Let me know if you have a favorite. I really loved the photographer and I highly recommend them. They also have a blog www. kblightphotos.blogspot.com Next time we'll just remember that the sun sets a bit later there than in Tri cities and to wear mesquito repellent! I was miserable with bites for days afterwards.

Business in Oregon

Cameron decided at the last minute to go on a business trip to Oregon last weekend and invited me along. Luckily, Gigi agreed to watch our kids so I could go. We drove down and stopped at 2 outlet malls in Oregon (no tax so everything to me is additional 8.3% off in my book). I found a lot of good buys and had the most fun that day. Plus we ate a late lunch at the Claim Jumper. It was so peaceful being just the 2 of us for the long drive down to Eugene, Oregon. The irrigation company that Cameron was going down to meet with put us up at the Hilton there and we had a comfy bed. While Cameron was in meetings I spent time beautifying all morning and reading in the afternoon after going to lunch with business conference with him. That night we went to dinner a few blocks down from the hotel with the company. We left the next day after another meeting and made the long drive home. Like many couples I know - we had some miscommunication on the drive home. I said I wanted to stop at Chevy's at the Clackamus mall on the way home for lunch. He said - really. I said no but somewhere there. He thought I meant I didn't want to eat lunch in Portland and drove on by!! By the time I starting paying attention (I was reading and checking blogs on my blackberry) we had long since passed that exit and I was starving. Sadly we finally stopped in Hood River at Quizno's. Not that it's bad but not what I wanted. I can go there anytime - we have plenty of Quizno's in our area. Next time I am going to be very specific about my wants so there will be no more misunderstandings.

The only pictures I took were the view from our hotel room. Very green and beautiful there although I saw very little of the city. I should have taken pictures of my purchases. My favorites are a cream sweater from the GAP and black peeptoe heels from factory brand shoes.