The reunion that started it all was in Michigan for Heather's wedding in the fall of 2005. We all stayed with Heather that week. I'll remember that week as one of the best for the laughs and late nights we shared while counting down to The Big Day.
When Delia was born in 2007, Heather and Anna coordinated their travels to our home to meet her. Another fun week.
It's become tradition now! Last summer we reunited once again. This week in 2008, at our home once again, was full of Olympic watching, hiking in Big Trees, Starbucks, pedicures and shopping in San Fransisco.
What we've been reading is The Trumpet of the Swan. When Dave is home, it's his nightly ritual to read Ella chapters from bigger books. She totally follows the story and absorbs every word of it! It's fun to see the new vocabulary infiltrating hers (like "cygnet").
What we've been making is fall artwork. Ella is getting so good at cutting and continues to amaze us with her artistry!
What we've been eating is pomegranates. This has become a fun family time. We all sit around the table, crack one open and laboriously remove the sweet seeds while chatting and laughing. This snack was created to be time-consuming. We spend longer sitting together eating this than we do actual meals! The girls love them.
If you read this blog regularly you must know by now that I love fall and I love recipes. Here are a few favorites I especially love to pull out at this time of year. If the old adage is true, we certainly won't be needing any doctors any time soon thanks to the number of apples we've been consuming! Today we made the apple crisp and the girls were so excited to help. Ella manned and cranked the peeling/coring device and Delia snatched up and gobbled up any piece of apple that went astray. A warning comes with the caramel corn: only make this as an extreme exercise in self-discipline. It is that addictive! Thanks to Karen for sending me the healthy autumn chili recipe last year, we love it and hope you do too!
So, no go-karts, no mini-golf, no bumper boats, no corn maze. Funworks still loves us, though! They gave us passes to use on another, sunnier, day and several bags of tokens to use for some indoor fun. We love you too, Funworks! 
We had arranged to meet fellow-pastor Lloyd and his family for some Pastor Appreciation Day fun at Funworks. And even though we were confined to the indoors, we still had such a good time!
The kids loved the giant play structure with ball pits, ladders, shaky bridges, tunnels and giant twisty slides.
Ella led me though a mile-long maze of tunnels as we climbed our way to a slide that felt like it started on the ceiling. Here we are about to go screaming down.
Delia and little Kathryn climbed the smaller playgrounds together. Delia always surprises me by being pretty scared of big, colorful play things. She didn't want to get anywhere near this one. Hmmm, thought climbing was her thing.
After spending a few tokens to bop alligator heads, ride motorcycles and roll skeeballs, we used our free rides on the crazy bumper cars. The rain and wind really kept people away so we loved having this pretty much to ourselves. We played Pastor Lloyd's family vs. Pastor Dave's! Those of us entertaining little ones cheered and danced in the black lights. Going out for a pizza dinner with the Wickers topped off our afternoon of rainy-day fun.
He is jealous for me, 
The girls were thrilled to see each other. Meilani and Ella share a special bond that has them hugging, wrestling, running and giggling together within moments of reunion. Delia tried hard to keep up with big girls. Our time together began with just watching the merry-go-round and the girls found it pretty hilarious.
Taking a ride on it was even better!
We next went over to Anza Lake and hiked around the entire perimeter of it while catching up.
We can always expect a special food experience with Dorina! Last night, she and Ericlee directed us to their favorite Ethiopian restaurant. While we dug our injera bread into spicy chicken and pureed yellow peas, we heard about their plans for the future and how God is working in their lives. Delia did great with this new food; Ella not so much, though she bravely tried it.
Time with Dorina, Ericlee, Meilani and smiley little Giada is always great time. We feel so blessed to live near enough to one another to make these day trips and learning experiences happen often!
Raise your hand if you filled up several buckets of apples to take home and enjoy.
Raise your hand if you ate apples that you picked right off the tree. Raise your hand if you ate about 20 of them! (Since the orchard we U-Picked at grows nearly every single kind of apple, we were told to sample each one before we put any of them in our buckets.)
Raise your hand if you climbed around on pumpkins and hay bales today.
Raise your hand if your tummy is full of delectable apple treats. Raise your hand if you ate an apple donut, caramel apple, apple dumpling and honey stick.
Raise your hand if you played tag in an orchard after eating your lunch at a picnic table in the middle of it.
Raise your hand if you saw, petted and fed chickens, pigs, sheep, cows, goats and a giant turkey.
Raise your hand if you rode a horse today! (Delia's first pony ride, she LOVED it!)
Raise your hand if you helped pedal and steer a paddle boat.
Ella and Delia posed in the pumpkin piles.
Ella made corn angels.
Delia rolled around in the cotton seed.
Both girls jumped on the hay-bale trampoline.
Ella milked the cow.
Delia took a rest after trying to lift this heavy pumpkin on her own.
Ella stepped in to help.
Delia watched the Watusi.
Ella hauled the wagon to the checkout after helping pick out our pumpkins and gourds. 
