Too funny for words!

Sorry I don't know how to crop the photos after I scan them in...

These precious photos were taken Christmas Eve, at Grandma Mary's community center. The best part of the photos is.... look close.... who is Santa? Can you guess? John and Josie didn't have a clue - that is what makes this picture with Josie so fun!

Here is John chillin with Santa...

New Year, New Start, New Goals...

As New Year's approaches I always look at the things I did this year, as I prepare my goals for next year.

Wow what a year we have had....

-- Reuniting with my brother after 21 years.... How do I top that?

-- First cruise taken last Feb/ first real vacation in 7 years!

-- Started training for triathlon, completed first triathlon! woo hoo.

-- Trained (over 200 miles ran in training) and ran in first 1/2 marathon - and finished!

-- Worked out nearly everyday since July! ( little boasting here!)

-- Watched Josie start talking in 3 word sentences.

-- Watched John Isaac develop the best sense of humor!

-- Watched Detrix lifting weights and bulk up (look out future bodybuilder here)

-- Witnessed Derrick fall victim to a stroke in our own home, watched as he fought for life, and then was privileged to see him miraculously healed.

Wow what a year. I am still fine tuning my physical goals for next year.... But I know I have atleast 2 traithlons I want to train and compete in, and it looks like I am going to do another 1/2 marathon... (raising money for stroke awareness and prevention) I think I am a little crazy! But I am more than happy to push my self to do things I didn't think were possible a year ago!


Family life in rewind....
03 John born - has seizure at 30 days old.
04 Derrick loses job
04 house burns to ground
04 daughter born with 2 tumors
05 - fairly "normal" - no huge issues just rebuilding house and moving 5 times!
06 - stroke/miracle
07? Nothing but happiness! In Jesus name!!

Bless you all - - Hope you have enjoyed reading the good the bad and the ugly that comes from life. I am a person that always says what is on my mind, so if anyone is still reading this.... Thanks! Have a wonderful New Year.

Remember - "For I know the plans I have for you."... " plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11-13

If you have had a not so great year - put your eyes on the above scripture - that is for you. Just a word of thought, for you as you plan for the new year.

MV Fire Department Christmas Party!

We went to the MV Fire Department Christmas Party this year. Here are are two cuties all dressed up and ready to have fun!




Here is John with Santa, Josie well still won't go near Santa - John however was more than happy to sit on his lap and tell him all about the toys he wants this year.

The theme this year for the MVFD party was exotic animals. They had lots of animals for the kids to look at and to pet. Here is a kangaroo. They loved that the kangaroo was wearing a diaper!

I don't remember the exact name, but here is a pic of a deer....
Here is a iguana... they are huge. What is funny is Josie wouldn't go near Santa, but she would pet the iguana! go figure.

Here is dad with his sweet little girl. All dressed up! "bootiful" as John would say she looks "bootiful"!

Oh to have power again!

Our power went off Thursday night about midnight. We had our gas fireplace going in our bedroom so we would have some heat if/when the power went out. Well due to the fact we live in the boonies, the power went out. No trees hit the house - Thank God! We had a couple 10 feet from the house but none hit, again thank God! Not sure if I could've handled a tree through the house!

So Friday day we went to Grandma Mary's they had a generator so they had a tv and VCR, and a little more room than us. Our heated room was our bedroom, yes we have a large master but when there is nothing to do in it but stare at one another it becomes small quickly! So we got to watch videos at Grandma Mary's and Grandpa Lou's. Thank you to them for taking us in, we had lots of fun there - and went to a near by park. Brrrr. cold outside though at 40'.

Friday night Derrick and John got to ride the fire engine with Santa to pick up canned food for the local food bank! We weren't sure if they were going to have the ride along due to all the power out, but we finally got a hold of the fire station and off they went for some fun! John was in awe that he got to sit across from Santa the whole night. He would look at dad and whisper "it's Santa"

Let's see Sat - hung out at Grandma Priscilla's and Grandpa John's they still don't have power - but they have a wood burning stove and room to run, so Sat was there turn with the Grandkids. After Fri and Sat with no nap Josie was pure joy! Our bedroom was nice and warm, but the rest of the house was 38'!! brrrr

Sunday we went to church and then hung out over at Angela and Cory's. They never lost power! By Sunday our kids were so tired and exhausted they could barley see straight! But they did pretty good, they had a blast paying with Aundie and Nathan. Thanks to Cory and Angela we got to watch survivor finale. What a treat! We came home and power was on! when one more night of all of us sleeping in the same room and we would've all been insane! lol

happy to have power back .... and room to run and play!

that is our Wind Storm 2006 story!!

Ode to the toilet

Not the best post to follow up the last one - but that is life!!

For those of you with kids this post may ring a bell. Especially if you have a boy!

John Isaac will be 4 in March. He is growing like mad and busy all day long. John has a few quirks... His buttons have to be all buttoned up to the top. He was once shopping with Grandma and had her stop the shopping cart, he got out and then straightened all the wheels to the cart! He has to have all the doors closed if we are in one room. OK, so maybe the way to describe it is obsessive compulsive... his newest addition is the ends of the toilet paper rolls. When the toilet paper is getting low down to the end he has to take all the paper off.... well you can probably see where this is going. I had just changed the roll, John went in and well the whole roll of paper went into the toilet! Oh the joys of parenthood. After 3 days and finally getting a toilet snake... The toilet is fixed. Yeah!

Thought I would share our fun times with you all!!

Faith

Since Derrick had the stroke, we both don't sleep that well. I think it's due to many factors. But each night as I lay my head down and pray for some sleep my mind just races. It is amazing to me how I still can't really wrap my brain around what has happened in our lives. Almost everynight I replay something in my mind and I can't seem to stop it. Well last night my mind got to racing and I started thinking about a scripture. My favorite verse really. It is what I like to call my life verse. You know the scripture that you kind of live by... Your mantra. Well I remember very clearly why I chose this verse. Way back in the day when I was dating Derrick and we were going to this church where they had a bookstore... Yes some of you know the one! Anyway I went into the bookstore and I saw this little card with a pin attached to it. The verse is ;

Matthew 17:20 You don't have enough faith, Jesus told them. I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it would move. Nothing would be impossible NLT.

was written on it. I remember thinking how could you not have faith the size of a mustard seed? That is silly. So it became my favorite verse in the bible. Many many years later I would be tested and then tested again. These first few tests well, I failed. I didn't have nearly the faith the size of a mustard seed. When Derrick went through the cancer scare, I was terrified. I wanted to run away - no faith. When Josie was born with two tumors - no faith, In factI remember just be so angry and yelling at God. Good thing I have a relationship with Him... Fast forward 2 years. With everything we had been through slowly my faith had grown. When Derrick was in the hospital in the ICU and still in coma. My faith wasn't the size of a mustard seed, no it was the size of the hospital room. This time in the trial something had clicked with me. I wasn't going to let things just happen anymore. I was going to stand on my belief and take a stand no matter the cost. Isaid out loud at one point, I will not stop serving God. No matter the outcome of this. I stood my ground in all areas. With the hospital, Derrick, friends and family. I was determined to stay positive, and know that the outcome could be nothing but good. After all, All things are possible with God. So I learned on a 10 year journey of Faith that faith comes by hearing the word of God, and trusting God in all areas.

Little thought for you all~

Christmas Mama!

We decorated for Christmas the other night. John was so cute from the moment we started he kept saying it's Christmas Mama! He would say it so excited that you couldn't help but be excited too.


We decorated everywhere upstairs - the windows too. I realized I had the window stickers since before Derrick and I met! I had never opened them

One of the best decorations to put up this year was the nativity set. We don't have a real big one - but as I took out each person I explained to John and Josie who they were and why we celebrate Christmas. When I took out baby Jesus I told John how this was Jesus and he healed daddy! After all Santa is fun but you have to remember the Real reason for Christmas!

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John put a stocking on his head - how I don't know he has a big head - Josie wanted a stocking to - ear muffs were as close as we could get for her!

Since high school I have collected snow bunnies - it is fun to take them out every year and remember who gave them to me!

When I was little I started collecting penguins. I have so many now that I don't even know where to put them all - so all over the upstairs we have penguins. The tree is almost all penguins as well.

I couldn't get John and Josie to stand in front of the tree together so here is John!

Gingerbread house

Grandma Mary came over this weekend, she brought with her a gingerbread house! So we all put together a fun gingerbread house. This year it is a little bit more special for Christmas - as John is understanding this year for the first time more of what is happening. He is getting into the Christmas Spirit... and actually "gets" that Santa is going to come!

Finish line photos

Here I finally got some pics to load. Here is me at the finish line!
I think I am going to fall down now!!

Odds and Ends

A couple of things for you all....

Derrick recently did an interview with a local Seattle radio station, 94.1 KMPS country, regarding his healing. If you would like to hear it is on my myspace and Derrick's. The link is to the left.

Also - - I can't get the pics to post on the blog for some reason of the 1/2 marathon... don't know why... so if you really want to see them they are on my myspace. The link is to the left, just click.


Here are the kids during the last snow.... they wanted to go outside so I pushed them up to the park to play. This was the day after the "big storm" so some of the snow had already melted.

Back Ground

Let me give you a little back ground on my athletic accomplishments. (or lack there of) So that you may understand why it is a big deal to me to go and compete in sports. I use the term compete loosely as it did take me twice as long to finish the 1/2 marathon as the winner of the over all full marathon!

You see I was not the avid athlete growing up. Yes I played sports. I played on the softball team, basket ball (at a young age) and soccer. Basketball I quickly stopped playing before junior high I was awful at it (never really liked it -still don't) Soccer, well I loved playing soccer, I played up into high school. I thought I was pretty good at it. Until my Senior year **sniff sniff bring out the tissues** when I didn't make the varsity team. Yes this was a big slap in the face, don't you automatically make Varsity just because you are a senior? Apparently not. Now I will tell you this. I believe the 4 years I was in high school our Soccer team went to state each year. We had a lot of great players... was I really not good enough to make it? Well the coach thought so. So my senior year I quit playing soccer and most sports all together... I mentioned I played softball too **sniff sniff again** you can guess what happened during the spring practices... yes it was pretty humiliating for me. Anyway.....

Skip forward 15 or so years... am I dating myself here?

I wanted to bring a new challenge into my life and do something that I didn't think was possible for me to do. After all I had witnessed a miracle take place with my husband being able to walk so why not do something extraordinary in my life? That is when I trained for the triathlon, and then the 1/2 marathon. So if you were ever wondering why is it such a big deal to her to finish something.... well there you have it all the gritty, ugly embarrassing details of my life in high school. Did I mention I didn't care for high school? lol I didn't *oh poor me!* College years? you ask? well that was a different story! Thank God. I love the University of Washington it was great!

So now you know why me taking on an athletic endeavors is such a big deal to me.

Seattle Marathon and 1/2 Marathon!!!

I can't get pictures to post - but believe me - I will as soon as I can!!

I did it! 1/2 marathon!

Wow I am so excited that I completed my goal!

I woke up at 4:00 am on Sunday to it snowing! All that I could think was this is Seattle it doesn't snow here - not today! Went and picked up Liz, took some fun pre - 1/2marathon photos in her living room I was so excited and nervous I could hardly stand it. Ate a peanut butter sandwich and we then headed to Seattle.

We arrived and parked at 6:30am all excited to get out and stretch and take in the fun. We got out and went to the stadium only to return to the car a few minutes later for warmth! It was freezing out there! I thought my ears were going to fall off. Sat in the car warming up and talking myself into this (I can do this!) Finally a little before the race got back out and checked our bags, and went to the starting line to watch the walkers for the full marathon take off. A couple of hundred people left out of the finish line. Pretty cool to see. There were over 10,000 people I believe in the race.

Then we lined up. I thought we were towards the back of the line, we soon found out we were in the beginning of the middle pack.... First mile was great I got warmed up and thought - yes I can so do this I feel great I am doing great. I was a little faster then my normal time (but still really slow considering that people were passing me like I was standing still) but I didn't care - I was actually doing this. Liz and I had planned to run together, but she runs faster than me and in the excitement of the race - I told her to go ahead and I would see her at the finish line! So she was off! About 1.5 miles into it, I saw my mom and dad on the sidelines, that gave me a great boost until about mile 4! At mile 4 my friend Angela ran up beside me so I ran with her for a while, not sure how long. I then needed a bit of a break so I walked for a few minutes but I kept Angela in my sights until somewhere around mile 8. At that point my hip started to hurt. But I was determined to keep going. "Pain is temporary" I kept telling myself I can do this. When I needed a rest I walked for 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile - depending on where I was on the course - if I was on a hill I typically would walk up the hill then run again (it was a very hilly course - I quickly found out that I was not prepared as well as I thought for such monster long hills!) but I kept going. My goal was not to run the whole thing, but my goal was to finish and have ran about 3/4 of it. I don't think I ran quite 3/4 of it but I think I was close! I know I ran over half so I am very happy with that! Miles 8 -9- 10 were all a struggle for me mentally. Fatigue and hunger set in and I was going pretty slow so I started to get cold not good when it is cold outside - it actually snowed for a few minutes! At this point I decided that at each water stop I would drink the gatarade because it had exactly what I needed to keep going (hey what ever works, right!) and the trick worked and with each water stop I drank Gaterade and felt immediately refueled! Mile 11 or so I got quite the fun surprise - the male winner of the marathon passed me! That's right I hadn't finished the 1/2 marathon and this guy came flying by with a police escort. Wow you might think I would be angry, but now it was awe inspiring to me! My body was saying a "screw you" with 3 miles to go and this guy was on mile 23! wow I wanted to yell "way to go" but, well I needed the energy! As I came over I-5 and saw the space needle I began to pick up pace a tad - then at about 3/4 mile way to the finish they had a Gatorade stop again! woo hoo. I stopped and drank the gaterade then stretched a tad and off I went I was running to the finish! There is a small hill as you come up Mercer street into the stadium, I ran all the way up and rounded the corner and could see the stadium entrance and I hit a bit of a wall. I didn't realize it but I stopped right in front of Liz she was on the sideline (she was done about a half hour before me) I stopped then I heard her say " You can do it Em just 100 yds till the grass of the stadium", well I began to ran immediately, it gave me the motivation to continue! I ran across the finish line! Liz had ran down the sideline and when I saw her after I crossed she gave me a big hug and well I got all emotional and cried! I had done it! We had done it! As soon as I stopped running it was like my body just said " I am done" and walking seemed difficult. But we managed to walk and get our bags then go the recovery area, where we saw lots of people and got some food and more importantly warmth!

I ran into Angela, Jodi and Shaun in the recovery area - we got some good photos together.

I do not know what Shaun's time was but I think Jodi was around 2:13 ! Talk about fast! Liz was 3:03 minutes - Angela I think was around 3:15 and they both ran all the way (go girls) You guys are all an inspiration to me - setting a goal and then meeting it! I am proud of us all!
I am so happy I accomplished my goal. My time was 3:33 which averages a 16:16 mile. Not a speed demon but hey it beats sitting on the couch! The point is that I got out there and did it. I pushed myself and did what I never imagined I could have done , well 6 months ago!

what is next? I am not sure but I know that when you put your mind to something you can accomplish anything. I have many things going through my head - pretty excited to start training for something..... we'll see.
I used to think the real challenge was to be really thin, but I now think the real challenge is to be active and fit and be in the best shape I can possibly be in for me and my family!

That is it for now! woo hoo!!

Thanksgiving

We had lots of fun this year at Thanksgiving. We spent this Thanksgiving over in Sequim with Derrick's sister and family.


This is LaVyonne Derrick's sister... hanging out and just chit-chatting. We don't get to do that all that often so that was great!

Her e is Josie looking like a little pirate! She enjoyed playing with a train set they had.

John learned how to ride his bike a little better, while we were there. We don't have any pavement by us so it is hard for him to ride... but they live on a quite street so all was well with him riding. Dad was out there for a long time walking and running along side of him. Dad saved John from some serious road burn a couple of times.

John and his cousin Brian rode the ATV, Detrix and and John got to do that together too. I just don't have a picture of Detrix and John on it.

The family also enjoys playing board games. What is weird is that Grandma Mary oves to play board games and is always playing someone, but in this picture she is missing - she went to take a nap with Josie - so it is kind of funny I don't have her in the photo because she is the avid board game player.

Then things got wild!
Derrick took John and Detrix to the Olympic game farm, where the bears are just a few feet away! You also get to feed buffalo right from your car! I will post some more of the photos of Game farm - they are really good!

Just about 1 week left!

Yes well you can say I am freaking out now! Just a little over a week left before the 1/2 marathon. I was feeling pretty good until I just looked over the course map... it looks so long! I am very excitted but a lot freaked out too. I have done a total of 10 miles, not the actual 13.1. It took me quite a while to do the 10 miles, so no I am not thinking I will break any records. However I think the butterflies I feel are pretty cool. I haven't been this nervous and excitted,scared in a while - all in a good way! lol the funny kicker here is that my friend Kalei is the one that originally wanted to do the 1/2 marathon, and I don't think she is acutally signed up! Then well ofcourse there are other crazy friends that keep me motivated. Angela, Liz and Jodi thanks ladies for "making" me do this! Yes Liz I will be picking you up on the way to the race - just so you don't get lost!! Smiles to you all - pray for no rain.

Veterans Day

I have always wanted to take the kids each year to a Veterans Day parade so today we got to do that. They have pretty big parade in a town near us so we went out to honor those that have served in our armed forces. I have always been a supporter of our Armed Forces, but even more so after the 9/11 attacks. It is something that gets me emotional just thinking about the men and women that have fought for our freedom. I only know a few people that were in the military, and my hat goes off to them for sacrficing for our country. I think what makes me in awe of the men and women that have fought for this great country is that most did so on their own free will (Vietnam excluded, some were drafted) Even those that were drafted, and did go and serve well what a great tribute we owe them. I may not think we should be over in Iraq, or other areas but I support the men and women non the less that are there. Political agenda's aside our country is a free country because of the brave men and women who have fought to keep it that way.

We saw soldiers from WWII,Vietnam, Desert Storm and Operation Freedom. The group of people that brought a tear to my eye as they passed were the POW's . Prisoner of War. They had a hand full of men on a float, I can only imagine what they might have gone through as a prisoner. Perhaps I don't want to know what they went through, but the sacrificed an awful lot.

Derrick and I told John and Josie how we honor those that served in the military by standing as they walk by, by taking off our hats and clapping for them. This shows the men and woman that we respect what they have done.(We sat down when others went by mostly marching bands.) I can only pray that John and Josie grow up to understand that our Freedom has come with a high price. That men and woman have died, standing up for those that have been wronged. No matter the war or clnflict we might be in, I honor those that have served. I am happy to have taken part in a time honored tradition.


I also saw a gentleman standing on the side of the parade route who I wanted to hug. He was elderly man all dressed up in his military attire, he had a jacket on and on the back was a big patch stating that he was a Pearl Harbor survivor. Wow - What an honor for me to see someone that survived Pear Harbor, I wanted to go hug him. I just said Thank you instead.

Rivers and Floods

Well as anyone knows that has seen the news is that the PNW has been hit by a major storm in the beginning of the week. On Mon I came home to a river running down our driveway. We have a main water run off that comes off of the highway down through our property. Bless his heart the person that owned the property before us didn't quite fix the problem the way it should have been done. So when I came home I found that there was so much water running through the pipes that the pipes couldn't hold it all. I went out to redirect some of the water, while I was out redirecting the water I heard a rumble come down the pipe.... then a boom... well we have a cement guard on top of the pipe to catch any splashes of water, that came crashing down about 3 ft from where it was! ( Derrick can dead lift this, but it is difficult for him, I can't lift it by myself at all) At this point I thought, this is not good! I went in and called the city (after all it is there water technically) they had a local church flooding but they would get to me as soon as possible they said. Oh great. I called Liz to tell her of our newest fun story, she said she would grab a shovel and come over to help. The city actually didn't take too long to come out. Ofcourse they informed me that it is really not there issue but would try to help anyway. They said the person that did the pipe was told not to do it this way, and there would be a problem. Ofcourse that really helps me now doesn't it.... Turns out when I heard the rumble, it was a boulder coming loose off the hill, and it went and blocked the pipe. So after getting soaking wet trying to move the boulder the poor city guy, I felt bad for him we were both soaking wet but he filled part of his boot! Let's just say I am not sure where the storm water comes from, but it doesn't smell pleasant! Anyway as soon as we got the boulder out of the way, the water stopped pooring over the side. It had already created 6" ruts in the driveway - all in about a 1/2 hour. Pretty amazing the power of water. The city guy said that was all they could do, and left. Then Liz showed up after that and helped me lift the cement gaurd back up and replace the boulders around it. All is well now and it has held over the past few days. Got to love the North West weather!

I wish I would have taken pics... maybe I will take some of the lake out back! The field next to us fills up like a lake - pretty impressive!

Wow - What a Halloween and Fall we have had! Mom needs to rest now!

Our Halloween started on Sunday this year, our church had a Halloween party! Yes they actually called it a Halloween party. No offense to other churches out there - but it has always bugged me that we can't call something what it really is for fear of something being not politically correct. Anyway - the kids had lots of fun. John was batman and Josie, Tigger !















Then came a party at the local highschool. This John was Spiderman and Josie was Cinderella!












Halloween day we went to go visit Great Grandma Candy (Derrick's Grandma) I asked John what he wanted to dress up as, and he said Seahawk. So here is the newest Seahawk John Young and the newest Seagal Josephine!

And finally we actually got to Halloween night!! We trick or treated at Grandma & Grandpa Cotton's and around there neighborhood. We then went to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Lou's community Halloween party.

Here Here is John dressed as a policeman, with Squeeky the clown. Josie was back to Tigger.... however was a little cautious of the clown. She did warm up but not close enough for a pic. Squeeky hasn't made an appearance in a while, can you guess who it is?

For those of you wondering, yes John loves to dress up. He was batman for almost the whole last year straight!

Pony rides!

We went to a different pumpkin patch on Sat evening. They didn't have too much for the kids to do that was open. So we rode the ponies and then looked in the barns.


Josie was shaking when we first put her on the horse, but she pretty quickly stopped shaking and had a great ride!


John had lots of fun on the ponies! He would have stayed on all day if we let him.

We made cookies!

I thought it would be fun on Friday to make cookies. So I made the first batch of the no bake cookies then moved on to the sugar cookies. I hadn't made sugar cookies in so long that I forgot the batter had to go into the fridge for a while, or overnight. So on Sat Grandma Mary was over and helped us finish the sugar cookies!





Josies had lots of fun, smearing the flour all over the counter. I gave her, her own pile of dough and she had lots of fun.





John did a great job of rolling out the dough. He would then push the cookie cutters to make the shapes.



Grandma or Grammy as Josie now says was a big help keeping the cookes going! Mom got tired of cookies half way through, so Grandma stepped up and decorated them for us!

Kudos to the fire department!

I posted this on myspace, but I thought I should put it here as well.

I have wanted to say thank you to many people, for all the help they gave us, it is hard to find the words to say thanks. Friends and family are some of the people that I still need to thank for helping Derrick and I through our hardship this summer. But I felt a big thanks should go tot he fire dept.
This is the letter that has taken me months to write, everytime I sat down to write it I just couldn't it was such a hard time for us, that it is hard to relive the pain. I know the outcome was awesome, but the pain of it is still very much real to me. To almost lose someone, well words can't describe how that feels. That is why I haven't written personal thank you's that are so well deserved and so over due to all the other people that helped us. However after months I finally penned a letter to the heroes who brought Derrick back to life.

Editor, the Voice:

On June 24th my husband, Derrick Young, was airlifted from our home in ??????? to Harborview Medical Center. At the age of 33 he had a stroke.

I wanted to write and say thank you to the men and women of the Black ???? Fire department. At some point in transit my husband literally died, and the paramedics and firefighters brought him back to life. Words can't describe how grateful I am to the men and woman who saved his life.

Derrick is a volunteer Chaplain for the ??????? Fire department, I wanted to also say how much we appreciated the outpouring from the ??????? Fire Fighters as well. Derrick found out what it is like to have a real Firefighter family. Thank you all for helping us in our time of need. Derrick is typically the one that helps others in their times of need, so this meant a lot to us to know that there were many people out there looking out for us.

Thank you again to all of the Firefighters, for everything that you do. Derrick is now back at work, and has made a full recovery.

Emily Young
I realized I had to block out the cities, so I took the names out and replaced them with ??? hope that makes sense!! Those of you who know us, well you know the community!!

Remlinger Farm

Grandma Pris took us to Remlinger Farms! They were doing guided tours during the weekdays(we went on Wed.), so we hopped on to a tour with other little ones, and away we went!


They had a big huge area filled lots of hay - and called it a hay jump, so the kids got to jump and jump in tons of hay, here is John in action! Next door to the hay jump was a hay maze. It was great to watch all the kids go through it.

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Here is Grandma and the kids on the train ride. They actually have tracks train going around the property. I think it was a steam engine. It was not a regular sized train, but very big none the less! Lots of fun. We got to see Emu, Alpaca, and horses from the train.

Do you know how hard it is to get two kids to look at the camera at the same time in one of these cut outs! Very difficult.

At the Puyallup Fair Josie wouldn't even go into a barn, so we have made much progress in a months time. She actually was near the animals, and didn't freak out. I think she even stuck her hand out to a rabbit.

John and Josie got to see pot bellied pigs!

Not your ordinary pumpkin patch!

Grandma Mary took us to the pumpkin patch. It was out off of Hwy 410 for those of you in the area... I had no idea pumpkin patches had so much to do! Hay rides, haunted house, sling shots, bouncy house, corn maze and monster truck rides! Yes I said it monster truck rides! Let me tell you us hick folks know how to have some fun in the mud with the monster trucks.
Yes, this is not a wonderful picture of me - however you can see how much fun I am having!

This is the monster truck! Full of mud, we did donuts in the mud bog. There was chunks of mud flying up over the sides, the were big balls of mud!







The corn maze....
I have never been in a corn maze before... and I think I would still be in the corn maze today if I wasn't with Derrick and everyone! In the middle of the maze they have a pirate ship... so the kids got to play on it, it over looked the whole corn maze. Pretty cool.

Picking pumpkins! John was so excitted to pick out a pumpkin! We scoured the big field and finally found the perfect pumpkin!

Here is little Josie on a tractor! Too cute.