Pumpkin Patch

I don't know, I think we were all less than thrilled to go to the pumpkin patch this year.  We pretty much picked our pumpkins and left!  You would think cutting your own pumpkins from the vine would be exciting, but we all were in a not wanting to get dirty kind of mood.















I think Tres dinner afterwards was everyone's favorite part!

Janet's Birthday Weekend

This weekend we celebrated Janet's birthday!  We celebrated with our family and our first Sierro Oro Farm Trail Passport Weekend.

Saturday we headed to Grey Fox Vineyards, Long Creek Winery, Quilici Vineyards, Gale Vineyards, and Bertagna Son Kissed Vineyard.  The DeBarrs brought a great lunch including Pumpkin Whoopie Pies made by Brynn!  After a long day we headed home for jambalaya and cake from Tin Roof.  Their 'Toast of Chico' cake, chocolate cake filled with caramel, topped with caramel butter cream and covered with toasted almonds, heaven.

Sunday we went to New Clairvaux Vineyard, once home to the largest wine operation in the world during the late 1800's, in the tiny town of Vina.  Beautiful grounds and monastery.  Jackson met a Father Johnson, who just loved Jackson's name and then sent the other monks on golf carts to give Jackson high fives.

One of the workers told us to go into the old station building and find the old Fire Engine way back in the corner.  By far one of the greatest finds.  Dusty and dirty but old and beautiful.

Tahoe

We just got back from a short family vacation to Tahoe to celebrate the hopeful end of fire season!  Saying Jackson loved Tahoe would be the understatement of the week.  He loved it!  We had a great time, beach (although definitely not swimming weather), biking, and walking all around.





We couldn't resist the midweek deal.  $150 for 2 nights, $30 at The Beacon, 4 breakfasts, and complementary champagne and glasses.  It's almost like they were giving the rooms away!  And right on the beach too, so awesome.











One of the greatest parts of the trip was getting to see the Kokanee Salmon annual upstream swim.  Every year the fish return to their stream of origin to mate, spawn, and die.  I didn't believe Donnie at first when he said all they were doing was swimming upstream to die, but yup, he is always right.



This was just one view of the salmon.  I would think there was tens of thousands of them since this was just one of many spots in the creek this dense of salmon.



Don't Rum Runners look weird out of their normal plastic cups?

Funky Vintage Kitchen

Isn't that just the cutest name?  Last week I won a gift certificate to April's fabulous store, Funky Vintage Kitchen!   You should definitely check out her store and blog!  I seriously cannot wait for the cake plate I picked out :)

Photog Friend

Saturday, it was so nice to meet up and talk with Aimee of White Daisy Photography!  Aimee and I have 'known' each other online for a while, and have turned out to have a ton of similarities, growing up in the East Bay, going to Chico State, and of course interested in photography.  Aimee is a wonderful professional photographer specializing in weddings and her photos are gorgeous!

We met up at Upper Bidwell.  These are the first few shots of Jackson before he got a little too comfortable with the water.







Aimee and I also got to enjoy 5th Street Steakhouse and chat away about our babies and photography.  It was so great to meet in real life and have someone who understands some of the things I'm talking about!  And so nice of her to tell me tips and things she's learned.


Also, like my new logo!?!  Of course made by my wonderfully talented friend Cheryl of Studio Lovejoy.  Thank you Cheryl!  I'm not going into biz anytime soon, but wanted to be able to start marking my photos to deter away internet stealing of them.  :(

I think it fits me to a T and could not be more happy with it!

Air Show

Today we went to the Chico Air Show.  We knew Jackson would love it.  We were pretty impressed and had a ton of fun.  Definitely will be bringing our wagon again next year and remembering our higher chairs instead of our beach ones.  :)



Jackson brought his own camera.  He's obsessed with it lately and knows exactly what they're for.



And got a new toy airplane complete with noises.  I seriously think he's going to wear out the batteries within one day.







We will definitely be doing that again, fun!

Destroyer

Usually Jackson plays wonderfully with his Legos.  He loves to build.  But here is his destroyer face!

 

Rainy Day

So Jackson got to try out his new rain boots.

Where a kid...

Chuck E. Cheese mugshot.



Jackson had a ball.  Especially going in the kid's tube that is hooked to the ceiling and your parents can't get you out.  Fun.

Unfortunately, Jackson's expression shows how Donnie and I felt about Chuck E. Cheese's.  Bummer.  We gave it a shot.  I think after the 5th game of Skee Ball where a kid climbed onto our ramp, stole our balls, and started throwing them into the goal, which is only two feet away because they are standing barefoot on the ramp, we were done.  Where are these kid's parents?

Summer List

I guess summer is about officially over (even though fire season IS NOT!)  And it's about time to revisit my list.  Here are my excuses for the ones we didn't do.  :)

~Take swimming lessons again 

~Go to the zero level fountain downtown

~Bike through Bidwell (WAY to complicated right now with the bike trailer.)

~Blow bubbles

~Paint outside

~Start our garden

~Start our compost

~Date night with Donnie to his first sushi in Chico (I guess we haven't had a date night in a while.  No, I guess we did have one in Napa, just not in Chico since living here yet!)

~Have camping guests

~Discover a signature popsicle recipe for our house (one for adults and one for kids)

~Take pictures in an orchard

~Have a picnic (No excuses for this one.)

~Take a trip up to the ranch (I'm still waiting for an open-ranch day.  We did meet one of the owners, does that count?)

~Draw with chalk on our driveway

~Go to a story time at the library (Yeah, I realized Jackson is not that reliable yet as a well-behaved boy.  He is pretty well mannered now, but I'm not sure about the library.  That doesn't sound fun to me yet.)

~Walk through campus

~Finally see Avatar (We rented it and never watched it.  Really 3 hours of a movie does not sound exciting to either of us!)

~Run out to get an ice cream from the ice cream man (and have my camera charged this time!)

~Visit the winery in Chico (Nope, but we're going to do the Sierra Oro Farm Trail Passport Weekend in the beginning of October for Janet's birthday!)

~Bake a treat (or 2 or 3!)

~Learn to grill vegetables really well & try to grill pizza or a side dish (Nope, actually I totally forgot about pizza or a side dish, we were having way too much fun with the regular food!)

~Swim with cousins

~Make a craft (or 2)

~Eat lots of watermelon

~Make ice cream sandwiches

~Play bocce & Yahtzee

~Have a sleep over for Jackson 

~Host lots of guests     Yes, I would definitely say we accomplished this one.