Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Random pictures and events from September

Here is Bryan's latest Masterpiece. Amazing isn't it? In case you're not familiar with the Northwest, it is Mt. Rainier. We climbed this beast in 2005 before moving from Seattle. No small feat, and one we're both pretty proud of.



I had to include the kids' heads so you can see the size of the painting. Rather large. It hangs on the wall across from our bed, so we can gaze at it and dream of beautiful Seattle.



Speaking of Seattle, we've had a very rainy September. It rained for about 2 weeks straight, and has only recently cleared up for a beautiful fall. After too much time trapped indoors, Colby and Ashley decided rain wasn't all that bad, and was actually pretty fun to play in. You can't see it, but it IS raining in these pictures.




Bryan and his buddy, Dale Edgerton, have been training for a canoeing-mountain biking-trail running triathlon. The big event was last Saturday. And sure enough, it was raining. I stayed home with the kids, which was too bad because nobody was there to take a picture of them covered in mud. This was at the end of the 2 weeks of rain, so you can imagine what the trails were like. Bryan said he's never been muddier. The Mud Bowl in Seattle didn't even come close. They hosed off and changed shirts before coming home, so the picture doesn't capture it. They both got flat tires and still came in 10th overall. Way to go boys!



Sienna had Spirit week at school. This was mismatch day. Too funny!



We took a trip to Memphis early in September to attend a wedding Open House of a friend from Seattle. While there we took time to visit the Memphis Zoo. It's a pretty good one! We liked all the big cats, the rhinoceros, the pandas, and a few other animals we don't have in the Nashville Zoo.



We also had to cut down a big, beautiful, dying, red maple tree in our back yard. Bryan borrowed a chain saw and mentioned it to a couple friends and they all showed up to help. They finished sawing and hauling that tree and another small one in about 3 hours. Here's the kids' last climb. Doesn't Ashley look happy?