Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Spencer's kindergarten class went to Fir Point Farms for a field trip last week and I got to go as a chaperone!  Since the farm was a ways away, we left first thing in the morning.  It was hard for Spencer to be out the door by 7:45 and there were a few tears even with the excitement of his first field trip.  He was good once we got to the school though.  I was in charge of a group of four little boys.  Two of their moms met at us at the farm so it wasn't bad at all.

I had never been to this farm, but it was awesome and I think we'll go back next year.  The first thing we did was take a short hay ride to the pumpkin patch. I am definitely a fan of real pumpkin patches vs. a lawn with pumpkins scattered around.  Spencer was disappointed at how small all of the pumpkins were.  I'm pretty sure they just wanted all of the kindergarteners to be able to carry their own pumpkins.

It was super foggy that morning and a lot colder than it had been.  We were warned to wear shoes that could get muddy, but I chose to ignore that advice since it hadn't rained in two weeks.  I regretted it though because the fog made everything wet and I wound up with very cold feet.

 

After the pumpkins, we got to see all of the farm animals: goats, bunnies, sheep, miniture horses and chickens.  I think the goats were everyone's favorites.  They could walk up a ramp to a platform in a tree to get food from a cup on a pulley system.  (That might not have made any sense to you, but I'll remember it when I look at the picture!)

Awesome spider web I found:

 

The favorite attraction for my group was the Noah's Ark playhouse.  It had cool paintings of animals all over it and several passageways for kids to run around.  My group stayed there for at least 30 minutes and Spencer had a small melt-down when he realized there wasn't time to go back after lunch.

Pretty trees in the fog:

It was too cold for me to enjoy lunch, but the kids didn't seem to mind too much.

After lunch, we had 5 minutes to check out the hay house.  Spencer pouted about not going back to the Ark for three of those minutes and then had a great time the other two.  He got a bunch of scratches on his forehead though.  Hay is rough!

We got back to the school at about noon, just in time for the sun to finally come out.  The kids stayed at school for the rest of the day.  I went home and sat on a heat vent to try to warm up!  Despite the cold, it was such a fun morning and I'm so glad that I'm able to do this kind of thing with Spencer right now.  I also volunteer in his classroom for an hour each week and it's neat to see how he handles himself in a school setting.  He is doing so well and I'm so proud of him!

Giant Pumpkin Regatta - Take 3

This was our 3rd year attending the Giant Pumpkin Regatta in Tualatin and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  I wasn't in shorts and a t-shirt like Spencer and Alan, but it was gorgeous fall weather. :)

Spencer's golf game for Pumpkin Golfing had improved a lot during the past year. 

Yay for a weekend with no races so Alan could come with us!

We were in a bad spot for pictures during the races, but it was still entertaining to watch.  I'm sure rowing a huge, round boat is really hard work.  The 2nd race we watched involved retrieving and getting all of each team's flags across the finish line and a lot of blocking and bumping.  It was great!

This last picture was probably Spencer's last smile of the afternoon.  He had filled up on snacks after his soccer game instead of eating lunch and got pretty grouchy.  We cut our outing short so he and Alan could go get donuts.  Now, that's a healthy lunch!  Hooray for pretty fall days, giant pumpkin boats and husbands!

Running

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about running, but I'm thrilled to say that I'm finally on the mend!!  It has taken 2.5 years; hundreds of hours of doctor's appointments and physical therapy; and thousands of dollars, but it's been worth it for me.  It turned out that my knee pain was caused by tightness all through my left leg and hip and the right physical therapist made all the difference in the end.  I still spend an hour doing physical therapy almost every night and do A LOT of stretching before and after every run.  At my PT's direction, I run on the treadmill twice a week and on the road just once a week.  That's kind of a bummer, but it's SO much better than no running at all.  Plus, it's cold and dark in the morning now so I don't mind staying someplace warm and light anyway.

I ran 6 miles around town last Saturday and it felt great!  The leaves were gorgeous and I was reminded of all of the reasons I love to run.  Running is such good therapy for me.  My perspective is always better after a good run.  It makes me feel strong and capable of handling the problems in my life.

These pics are from a 5k I ran in September.  Our stake put on a Women's Sprint Triathlon where you could choose what legs or how much you did.  I just did the 5k, but hope to do the whole thing next year.

Another Mommy and Spencer Date

I got to have another date with my best, little buddy last Saturday.  We started out by going to the Hillsboro Airport Air Fair.  It's a small airport and the fair wasn't super impressive, but it was free. :)  Since we watched the new Planes movie, Spencer has been excited about planes and he wanted his picture with these two.

One booth had these fun propeller toys for the kids.

He got to sit in a cool, little Beta helicopter.

Since we were in Hillsboro, we decided to check out a movie from their awesome library and then walk around the park behind the library for awhile.  This is definitely the best time of year for this park and it did not dissapoint.

Spencer was fascinated by all of the acorns under the oak trees and spent awhile playing "cannons" (kicking all of the acorns off the sidewalk).

We ended our date with one of Spencer's favorite dinners (scrambled eggs and toast) and then he got to watch a movie while I cut his hair.  I'm so glad that I have Spencer to keep my company while Alan is working so much.  It was a perfect date for a lovely fall day!

Bulb Day

Our local garden center has a free Kid's Bulb Day every fall.  They provide pots, soil, tulip bulbs and a pansy to go on top and you just get to show up to plant them.  This was our second year  and it was fun to teach Spencer a little about gardening.  I think he mostly liked the piece of candy he got at the end though. :)

Random things we've been doing:

Decorating our Halloween tree.  By far my favorite Halloween decoration.

Applesauce:  I already did 13 quarts and have 60 more lbs. of apples to do this week.

I haven't been able to get over the brilliant colors of fall this year.  Maybe it's because September was so rainy and gray, but October has been GORGEOUS!  We spent some time at the truck park last week and will be spending a lot more time outside this week.

2013 Family Pics

 We had these taken during the Rasmussen family reunion clear back in June, but it took awhile to get the prints from the photographer and then I just forgot to ever post them.  Their quality doesn't compare at all to the photographer we've used the last three years, but she moved so this is what we got this year.

 

 

The Oregon Marathon

Alan directed and timed the first annual Oregon Marathon/Half-Marathon the last weekend in September.  He and the rest of the Uberthons team had been preparing for this race for a year.  The amount of work that goes into a marathon is staggering.  In addition to spending hours and hours riding bikes on the course to certify it, there were shirts, medals, aid stations, volunteers, parking, buses, port-a-potties, food, music, registration, and probably a hundred more things to be arranged.  They had worked really hard and were prepared for everything, except for the heavy rain and wind that arrived just in time for the race.  

September is usually one of our nicest months of the year, so Alan wasn't concerned about serious weather problems at all.  Sadly, a huge storm rolled in on Friday evening and didn't leave until Monday.  Portland got over 6 inches of rain just that weekend!  It was crazy.  The poor Uberthons team had to be out in the pouring rain all night long to set up the course and then all day on Saturday too.  

The race went from Vernonia to Banks (about a hour away from Sherwood).  Spencer and I went out for an hour on Saturday morning, but had to hurry back home for a soccer game.  We had to stop and buy new rain boots for Spencer on the way so he wouldn't have to play soccer in wet tennis shoes.  They were prepared with a bunch of fun kid's activities at the finish line, but Spencer was the only kid who played while we were there.  It was nasty!

Uberthons has an impressive finish line set-up.  Very professional and some of the best timing equipment you can buy.

I don't know what he was carrying, but it this was one of the few glimpses we had had of Alan all week long.  

When they realized a major storm was coming, they rented a 40' x 60' tent for all of the food, medical team, medal engraving, etc.  Spencer and I hung out there and cheered on the finishers for awhile.

The biggest problem was that 30 of the aid station/course volunteers just didn't show up that morning.  That left Uberthons scrambling to fill stations, but it all wound up working out.  Alan said he felt like everything was going terribly the whole time, but there were very few complaints when it was all over.  The nearly 700 participants loved how organized everything was and they all loved the shirts and medals.  A few of Uberthon's tents got ruined from the wind, but really everything else turned out better than could have been expected in those conditions.

I'm so proud of Alan.  He works SO, SO hard these days.  He spends 30 hours/week at Farmers and then sacrifices sleep, his own running and any other recreation time he might have so he can spend probably another 40 hours/week on Uberthons.  And, it's finally starting to pay off.  Uberthons has been timing a least two races each week for the last couple of months plus putting on a few of their own races.  They are making more profit now and Alan is really hoping he can go full-time with it soon.  Spencer and I are hoping so too.  Alan does his best to be home for dinner and then play with Spencer for a little while each day, but it will be so nice to have him around more.