September 2023

 Well, crap.

August flew by and now we were in September. 
And you know what September means.

It means the state fair is happening!

We spent the first day of September wandering around looking at hot tubs, air brushed t-shirts, farm animals and RV's.

The tradition is that the kids get to pick what they want to eat.

Mikey was the first customer of the day at the "Sausage Fest" booth.

He ordered the bacon wrapped hot dog with onions.

It did not disappoint.

Katie got herself a large bag of kettle corn.

While they sat and ate, I wandered and found a booth touting Italian thin-crust pizza.

Since we just HAD Italian pizza, I thought I would compare and contrast.

Eh.

It was okay for fair pizza.

Definitely NOT Italian pizza though.

I had to wait a bit for my pizza to be cooked, so I headed back to tell the kids where I was.

On the way, a guy asked me if I wanted a free book.

I knew what he was "selling". I stopped and engaged.

He asked me if I loved Jesus.

He tried to get me to see the error of my ways.

We had a good discussion, but I had to cut it short.

Pizza trumps evangelism on any day.

After we ate, we sat down to watch a stunt dog show.

The kids had a great time with my "book", pranking their dad with what they "won" at the fair.

OH SNAP!

It's not really a 1,000,000 dollar bill!

Caption the photo below.......

Katie made me take a picture of the "fluffy pigeon".

Before we left, the kids were able to pick out a special treat.

Mikey and I shared a bit of funnel cake. It was meh.
It tasted like grease with fake strawberry sauce.

Katie picked up a green apple Italian soda.

I realized that this might be the last time that I get to take both kids to the fair. 

By the time the fair is happening, Katie may be headed to or already at college next year.

I have been taking them since they were toddlers.

Sigh.

Everyone enjoyed the last official weekend of summer.

The day before school started, we headed to our local gourmet ice cream place for an end-of-summer treat.

Mikey got himself an GF DF ice cream cookie sandwich.

I didn't get a picture of Katie, but I got one of her ice cream cup.

TIME FOR SCHOOL!

The first day was Wednesday, September 6th.

We officially had a 9th grader.

And a senior. Wow.

"Have a great first day!"

The second week of school, the 9th graders headed off to camp for two days of team building.

The days consist of games and group activities.

He had the most fun rock climbing.

The rest of that second week of school was taken up by more meetings (yay meetings), doctors appointments, auditions for one-act plays (Katie wrote and was going to direct one), and training for Katie's job.

She was working at the pumpkin farm as a Front Gate Greeter again this year.

We decided to take advantage of the low crowds and great weather to visit the farm in the middle of September.

We met Katie when she clocked out at 2pm.

First up, was taking pictures in front of the "HOW TALL THIS FALL" board.

Hmmm.

Mikey is quickly catching up!

Check out the concentration. LAZER FOCUS.

One of Katie's favorite perks of working at the pumpkin farm; she had access to Italian sodas and kettle corn. 

Ah, the tire mountain.

A pumpkin farm staple.

Family photo time.

We did try to take a normal one, except Huzbend didn't get the memo.

I'm not sure what the draw is with these giant tubes.

My kids watch ALL the other kids fall over and get hurt and then they say, "I WANT TO DO THAT!"

And, so, they do.

And guess what happens?

Things look fine....

...and then boom.

It's all fun and games....

...until someone ends up with a concussion.

After they recovered from the Tubes of Enormously Sneaky Evil, we decided to attempt the corn mazes.

Mikey was the navigator through the first maze and Katie through the second.

Katie was not amused.

And was still dizzy from hitting her head on the stupid tube thing.

Striking a pose in the corn.

Instead of using the map, you could answer trivia questions throughout the maze to determine which way to go.

The mazes were dinosaur themed, so they were dino themed questions.

My guess is that Mikey had a cheeky answer to this question.

We like taking selfies on the corn maze bridges.

It wouldn't' be a pumpkin farm visit without a duck race or two.

Taking a break in the shade.

Fun with photo ops.

We spent about 20 minutes playing with hula hoops.

Seriously.

Katie was taking a beginning photography class and told me I had to sit and look off into the distance.

The last thing we do at the pumpkin farm is get pumpkins.

That evening, we made Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with the last of the summer rhubarb we get from the Vegetable Lady.

The Vegetable Lady is an old woman who sells me rhubarb and herbs from her garden.

She's so sweet and so old that I just can't say no and pay triple the market price.

She just tells me what I owe her.

She can barely make it up my driveway and has been coming for years.

The next day, Katie brought me some donuts they had leftover at closing.

Plain, apple and pumpkin spice.

Pumpkin spice was the best.

The following weekend, she brought home leftover corn.

One of Mikey's friends invited him to homecoming the following weekend.

We had to rent him a suit.

He said he felt like a Bond villain.

Katie had to submit a photo for a director bio advertising her one-act play.

She settled on this one.

The last weekend of the September, Huzbend and I flew back east to attend his grandfathers' memorial gathering.

We flew into a very rainy Boston.

We rented a car and drove down to Connecticut.

It was a LONG, SLOW drive.

Yikes.

We stopped at the halfway mark to eat some dinner at Rein's New York Style Deli.

It's the real deal.

We had some latkes.

They were delicious.

And you absolutely can't NOT eat a Rueben.

Man. A sandwich to dream about.

A slice of chocolate peanut butter pie and some weird guy in the background.

A few more hours and we were at the hotel.

Does this photo scream 70's or what?

Our hotel, was, uh.....let's say it needed updating.

The next morning, we met the immediate family for a diner breakfast before heading over to the memorial gathering.

Eating at a true diner made me realize that we just don't have diners where we live. What is up with that?

The memorial was nice.

Lots of family and memories shared of Grandpa (Great Granpop to the kids).

I was able to get a picture of Dad (and current Granpa to our kiddos) and his two sons.

An Italian cookie tray!

You know the one.

All the cookies look like they are delicious...but they are just not.

I'm not sure these exist in the PNW.

At least I have never seen one.

Meanwhile back in the PNW......

Someone was ready to go to Homecoming!

Mikey's BFF goes to another high school and invited him to attend HoCo with her.

My friend, and S's mom snapped some pics of them.

Mikey came down with a cold a few days before.

He was Covid negative.

He wasn't 100%, but wanted to give it a try.

He decided to slap on a mask and give it a shot.

Hmmmm.

How can you tell that a teen boy has gotten ready by themselves?

Check out the lopsided collar and the crooked tie.

Sigh.

A quick little hair fix, and they were off.

Mikey ended up having an "okay" time.

He danced a little.

Saw some friends that he hadn't seen in a while.

Hung out for a bit.

After a couple hours, he really wasn't feeling well and started getting a headache, so he called Katie to pick him up early.

Meanwhile, back in Connecticut.....

After the memorial, we paid a visit to my mom in the hospital.

She had had complications from a surgery to correct a hiatal hernia.

She was stuck at the hospital recovering and waiting for another opportunity to finish the surgery.

Sigh.

I was happy to have the chance to see her and give her a very gentle hug.

I also got to see my sister and nephew, who stopped in to visit my mom at the same time.

It was hard to leave. I put on a brave face in the room.

I was a mess in the parking garage.

In October, they were able to do the surgery.

There was a bit more post-surgery time in hospital and then she was able to go home to continue the long process of recovering.

That evening, we ate dinner at Pepe's Pizza.

Ever since returning from Italy, we'd been jonesing for a good Italian-style pizza.

I have to say, this was close.

Really close.

I finished off my meal with a slice of cannoli pie.

It was as good as it looked.

Yeah.

We ate all that pizza.

It woulda been a shame not to.

We spent the night at Rich's brother's house.

This is their dog, Lulu.

She's a giant fluffball.

Hi, Lulu!

(ʘ_ʘ’)

Ah, don't worry.

She was yawning in the picture above.

She's a big flop o' fur, just like Ralph.