Goodbye Subie, It's Been Nice...

Well, we really said goodbye to the Subaru this past Tuesday. We gave it to a family at church who really needed a vehicle. It was great to have such a simple exchange, without worrying about 'if someone will buy it before we go'.

I bought my Sube when I was 19. The only car I've ever owned. I put 108,000 miles on it over 8.5 years. It's broken down on us three times, but two of those were within the last year. Lots of buttons were falling off, lots more rattles were starting, and there were two new oil leaks. It was time to be DONE. Sorry, Sube. We appreciate you holding on for so long; we only asked you to last through grad school, but you held on for a year and a half beyond it! :)

It was still a little sad to say goodbye. I brought 2 babies home from the hospital in this car. But boy, this made us really appreciate our NEW car!

The Last One!

Sawyer's last soccer game was on Saturday the 24th. He scored 7 out of the 9 goals! He sure LOVES soccer, and is so driven and focused! He's really hoping they'll have a soccer team in Nevada! :)

Here is his team of eight:

Sawyer, Miles, Sam, Grant, Reed, Carl, Ethan, & Carter (and Coach Gillen)

The New Baby!

Joe is almost 30, yet this is the very first car he's ever bought. But what a way to start!

We are absolutely thrilled about our new car!!! I've been admiring Pilots for years, so this is seriously a dream come true!

It's a 2006 Honda Pilot EX-L, silver with dark gray leather interior (these are the actual pictures). It's FABULOUS! The interior is in near perfect condition, and just a few scratches to be found on the exterior. We got an amazing value, waaaay below blue book (I'm guessing it's thanks to the poor economy?) I'm SO NERVOUS driving it!!! Is that going to fade soon??

Hillcrest Farm!

On Saturday we headed up into the mountains to Hillcrest Farm with our friends the Smiths. We had a great time, and I couldn't believe how WARM it still was (around 80*)!

The PIG RACES! So funny. They asked for three adult volunteers, and Joe was chosen. Then they had those three 'volunteers' do a race around the pig track on stick horses. Did he win? Check it out!

Acres & acres of apple orchards, all varieties.

And of course a petting zoo. Probably the best petting zoo we've ever been to. BABY CHICKS!

Around the House...

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in posting the 'stuff we do', that I forget some of the basic every day occurences.

1) Hunter desperately needing to wear Sawyer's Peter Pan costume for most of Friday night.

2) Hunter somehow popping open a bag of chocolate chips in the car and eating 1/5 of the bag before I smelled the sugar in the air & turned around. We were on the way home from grocery shopping & he HAD to hold the chocolate chips. I didn't think he could really get that thick waxy plastic bag open!

3) Sawyer's favorite friend, Sierra, spent all day Tuesday at our house. They painted for a long time!

4) Hunter brought me Sawyer's bike helmet & Joe's sunglasses, asking for me to put them on him. Then he mounted the tricycle to cruise around with his brother on the deck. In his pajamas.

Centennial Olympic Park

If you haven't noticed, I LOVE this city. On Thursday we went down to Centennial Park downtown (with our friends Sierra & Mr. Joe) to watch the 12:30 fountain/music show, hear some live music (musicians are on the stage at noon), and let the kiddos play on the playground.

I love the city skyline, and all the neat water features in this park! The boys had a great time!

It was (only) 72* & windy, so we weren't planning on the kids playing in the fountain...

...but they couldn't resist trying to catch the sprays a little bit (and hence, Hunter went home nearly soaked). FUN DAY!

One Night Camping!

When you've got toddlers, one night camping is all you can do before you worry about your neighbors yelling at you. BUT we had a GREAT time with our friends Britt & Tommy (and baby T) camping at Carters Lake Friday night! We had a beautiful site with lake views surrounding us, and the kiddos actually all went to bed fairly easily. It was still toasty hot in the 80*s during the day, and got down in the 50*s at night. No one froze, yay!

Tin foil dinners & s'mores were all we wanted out of our camping experience. We got 'em, and they were DELICIOUS!

Big thanks to my mom & dad for getting us that awesome three room tent for Chrismas several years ago. I thought I might be crazy attemping taking the pack 'n play for Hunter to sleep in, but it fit in one of the 'wings' PERFECTLY. Hunter had an uninterrupted night's sleep, since it was so much like home! :)

MINDEN?!

Where's Minden?! That's what I've been figuring out...

Minden is a tiny town in Nevada with a population of about 3,100 people. It's about an hour south of Reno, 30 minutes east of Lake Tahoe, and 30 minutes from the California border. There are plenty of mountains, and a very mild winter.

We'll probably be packing up to move there the first week of November. I'll keep you updated!

This is the GE Energy building in Minden. It looks HUGE! Joe says they employ about a quarter of the city! I'm curious what dynamic that might bring to the town... hoping it's a good thing.

As you can probably imagine, I can't find a whole lot of pictures of Minden online. But this main park in town seems to be a common picture I do find. It looks promising!

But this picture doesn't. *ulgh*.... snow. I was really dreaming that I was done with that. At least it's very mild compared to the Midwest winters I know. I talked with an apartment manager on the phone, and when she heard we were coming from Atlanta, she got all somber and said "ohhhh well we have winter here...", warning me. I told her I'd read it was a fairly mild winter, though. She responded, "WELL, last year we had an entire week where it snowed every day! But all the other snowfalls were just dustings." OooOoooo ScArY!!! Hehe :) I can handle that kind of winter. Let's hope the snow week is during Christmas this year, since we're not going anywhere anyway. Flights are too expensive anywhere nearby. I'll sure miss the Atlanta Airport, offering such cheap flights everywhere.

Don't get me started on what else I'll miss about Atlanta. Just send out good vibes into the Universe, willing us to come back next summer, permanently. I will be.