Rilla's Thanksgiving Art

Here is Rilla's Thanksgiving art. It has a turkey, the moon, and the sun! What more could you want for Thanksgiving! She says that it is, "a beautiful turkey" - just like the one our neighbors gave us this year which they raised.

Rilla (7)

Thanksgiving Playlist 2010

Here is a playlist set up on iPod #1 (a 60g fourth generation classic) for our Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow. After all Martha Stewart has a Thanksgiving playlist too! Click on the list below to see the version uploaded to Scribd.

Ostling Birthday Party for October, November, & December Birthdays

I don't turn 12 until December 5th but my mom's side of the family combined 3 months of birthdays together, October, November, & December, this year so I got to have an early birthday party. We held it up at our neighboring cousins, the Ostlings, house. Their dad, my uncle Ridge, works at Microsoft so they had the new Xbox Kinect set up to their flatscreen tv, which in about the size of a wall, and played it a lot of the time we were there. I got some very cool presents this year including an added up amount of $40.00, a 6-pack of Altoids, an electronic dog, a messenger bag, a Coldstone gift card, and a 5 pound bag of mini marshmallows. For desert mom & I shared a big chocolate/peanut butter cake, which was supposed to be doubled the size we made it, but it was already big enough. Much later on in the party we went a show by Tim Noah down in downtown Snohonish with some of the Ostlings and our grandma. We got home late and went straight to bed, having church in the morning we needed to get up early.

-Emma

apple picking

We all piled in to the car on October 30, 11:30 A.M and drove to Rockport. It's a little past Mount Vernon. Once we got there, the owner gave us all hot homemade apple cider, which was delicious. They also had chickens, like us! Once she told us directions and told us to eat as many as we want we set off. I found a lot of trees that had pretty ripe apples.I got a picture of them too. (picture shown obove). -Colin (10)

Brad Hanson on the Whale Trail

On November 10th, Wednesday, Dad and I took his Corolla down to the Duwamish Longhouse in west Seattle for another one of the Whale Trail's presentations, this one on "Welcome the Orcas" . The last time we went to a Whale Trail convention, we managed to take a wrong turn on the intersection on the way (an easy thing to do on that particular intersection). But this time we came prepared, with our keen eyes and Dad's Droid Motorola with built-in G.P.S., and made the turn with no mishaps this time. On arrival we went to right to work, setting up the sound system, turning on the microphones, and connecting the computer to the projector, and making very sure to deactivate the screen saver (unlike last time). The speaker was Brad Hanson who's a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and researches orcas by collecting samples of their scat, mucus, and regurgitation for analysis. His presentation was on the new findings about the resident orca's diet, complete with a power-point slide show. Brad also had placed a critter-cam on one orca in hopes that he would be able to observe its food choices and displayed it for us to see.Unfortunately the orca didn't actually go foraging, instead it went to the kelp beds and socialized with its pod.

Fall Fun DANCE Party

The Fall Fun Party at our church was different from last year. Instead of going around playing games to get candy they handed out goodie bags with silly bands and candy in them and then we all headed into the main sanctuary to first do Game Zone ( in witch at one point I got to be on the big screen walking on my hands ) and then they had a concert, Kickn' It Old School, with the Go Fish Guys, witch was why they called it the Fall Fun DANCE Party this year. Rilla went as a princess ( wearing a blue dress with yellow tights and MAKE-UP!!), Cian was a gymnast ( wearing his gym uniform) and I went as a One-Person-Piggy-Back-Ride ( shown below).

-Emma

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today, was Mom's much anticipated birthday, and children of all ages were bustling about blithely, with the pleasant thoughts of their self-bought or self made gifts, which one and all were thoroughly appetent to bestow upon our dear mother. All that is to say, except one alpine, eldest child, who had no gift to give yet.

Our disconcerted Caleb, at the moment, could see no way to purchase a gift and to still conserve its stature as a surprise, or how to make one which could still be venerated through the years.

Caleb was still pondering these things in his consciousness when Mom and the other siblings left for swimming. Unanticipatedly, vaguely around twenty minuets later, the doorbell rang. When answered the doorway greeted him with the sight of a FedEx pulling away from the front driveway. And a very big package sitting on the porch.

After bringing this bulky box into the living room, I scratched my head over who would be sending my Mom a Hoover SteamVac MaxExtract. While I was puzzling over this, a more significant notion came to mind. To wrap it. With time and rapping paper running short I barely managed to finish the job before the van pulled in.

Boy were they surprised to find a three foot high birthday present sitting by the front door! And special thanks goes to Papa Ray for sending that gift at such a convenient time.