A Weekend in Astoria and Halloween at Home.

Our church held their annual Ladies Retreat in Astoria, Oregon this year and after much debate we decided that we would ALL go. This worked out so well for us! Andy and Sarah got to explore beautiful Astoria, I got to enjoy the fabulous speaker and friendships at the retreat, and Ezra enjoyed all the attention from 60+ ladies, not to mention Daddy and Sissy! Having Andy there to help with Ezra really was fabulous. I think if I went with just Ezra, I would have been too tired to really enjoy the speaker. The weather was SPECTACULAR all weekend. Andy and Sarah enjoyed climbing the Astoria Column, riding the Trolley, and visiting the Maritime Museum. I was able to take a few walks along the trolley trail and enjoy the company of several wonderful ladies that I don't see nearly often enough.

Let's see, here is Andy and Sarah in the Trolley. The trolley runs through Astoria along their waterfront which is inside the mouth of the Columbia River.

















And here are a few pictures from the Astoria Column. Look how beautiful it is!































We drove home via Oregon Highway 30 all the way through Scappoose and St Helens. The trees were soooooooo beautiful! It really was a spectacular drive and the perfect end to the weekend. Oh, and Ezra did great in the car, sleeping most of the way there and back!

And here is one shot of Ezra from a few weeks back. He doesn't generally take the binky, but this day he was happily sucking away and just looked so cute, I had to snap a shot. The blue blanket is an elephant that Sarah bought for him to give him when he was born.





















And here is Snow White, her Handsome Prince, and the 8th Dwarf - Hungry. They are all ready to go Trick Or Treating on Halloween Night. Sarah loved her new costume and especially loved being able to wear some of mom's lipstick. :D It was a nice warm night, no coats needed.





















Ezra is 7 weeks old today. We haven't been to the doctor recently, but I'm sure that he's gained a LOT of weight. He eats like a teenage boy and is SO HEAVY already. I bought a baby wrap called The Baby Bundler and wearing him in that seems to be his favorite thing. He loves to be snuggled in close.

We had our first parent-teacher conferences at Sarah's school last week. Sarah's teacher commended her for doing really well with her reading and math. We're very proud of Sarah and how well she's adjusted to a new school, new baby, and new routines this fall.

Andy bought ANOTHER car. It's an Audi and he's trying real hard to get out of house projects (like the baby's room) by "needing" to work on it. So you know he's happy to have another tinkering project.

I bought my first new Christmas Music for the year the other day - Chris Tomlin. I'm really enjoying that and looking forward to all the Christmas activities that we do.