October 2022- Crater Lake

 The kids look forward to general conference because they get to do their general conference packets in their pajamas, Brent makes coffee cake, and hopefully because they can soak up some of the peace it brings! Although after a session they kind of start to lose it and fight...

Audrey did swimming class for 5 Saturdays. I wanted to help her stay comfortable with the water and the progress she made this summer with putting her head in. I couldn't get Coen into a class, so it was just Audrey's special swimming time. 

Audrey got invited to a friend's birthday party- a new friend from preschool called Aberdeen. It was Audrey's first party to be invited to, and I think it made an impression on her. She is now obsessed with "Ba-ba-deen." It was so warm this day at the park! We squished this in between sessions of general conference.

Audrey got sick with a fever that night, and for a few days had no energy or appetite. It was a yucky cough! On Monday she laid on the couch like this and watched TV while I worked, poor thing!

On Wednesday she felt better to go to preschool so we tried it and she was so excited to go. These flowers are awesome at her preschool!

I sit and help Ava practice the piano. If I don't sit by her and help keep her on track, she'll either play interesting notes together and see how they sound and never practice her songs, or she'll practice only the ones she likes for about 5 minutes and say she's done. Usually about 10 minutes through our practicing she gets frustrated and in a bad mood. 

Audrey started feeling better and doing a lot of Let it Go singing: 

On Thursday night we thought Audrey was on the mend, when she woke up screaming in pain about her ear. She is usually tough about getting hurt, but with this, she couldn't be comforted. She couldn't sit still long enough for me to hold her- she was screaming and throwing herself around the bed. It was a little after 9pm and all the urgent cares in town were closed, ugh! I decided to go to Walmart to get some ear drops and popsicles for her. Brent decided he and Audrey should come too- and I said, really, take this screaming child?? But as soon as we buckled her in her car seat, she fell asleep since sitting upright helped with the pain. Brent carried her in the house in her car seat and she started to feel better with ibuprofen, a popsicle, and Elsa. Brent had to be to school early the next morning, so Audrey and I slept on the couches downstairs with our supply of meds. 

The next morning after I got the older kids off to school, Audrey and I went to urgent care. She had so much wax in her ear that they couldn't see in to tell if it was infected! They asked if they could squirt the wax out with water. I held Audrey in my lap and she cried while they did it, saying "all done." Poor Audrey! She got an antibiotic and we decided we would still go on our trip we had planned for that weekend- Crater Lake. 

Crater Lake has been on our bucket list for a lot of years, but the roads are only open during the warmer summer months since it snows so much there, and we're always gone in the summer. I thought we may have missed our window, but on about Thursday of that week, I saw that the north entrance to the park was not closing until the following Monday. When I saw the forecast for Saturday was about 70 degrees at Crater Lake, I told Brent, it's now or never! 

There were a lot of reasons why I thought maybe we shouldn't go. Audrey's ear infection. Brent's applications. Never-ending chores at home. And a massive wildfire that we had to drive past. Luckily we took a chance and it turned out to be such a wonderful getaway! 

The wildfire had previously blocked the highway, but I researched and saw the highway had opened now. Eugene had been covered in smoke for the past month, but as we drove on this highway, the smoke got REALLY thick. To the point that it felt like we were driving into an inferno and Brent said, "Are you SURE this road is open all the way?" It's hard to see from this picture, but it's broad daylight, and the smoke was so thick that it turned dark, and we couldn't see too much in front of us. 

Luckily the road was open, and when we were nearly to our hotel, it was like we breached the wall of smoke and all of a sudden the skies were blue again. The hotel was almost 2 hours from our house and was very much a hunting lodge. We went to dinner at the restaurant next door (there were two restaurants to choose from in this town). 

The kids watched TV in bed and Audrey started to cry that she wanted to go home. I was hoping she wasn't going to cry all night from her ear infection with all five of us in that hotel room, but she slept pretty good and just woke up once for more tylenol. 

The next morning we had a surprisingly good breakfast from our hotel, and then we drove the 30 minutes or so to Crater Lake. I had seen pictures of Crater Lake, but it is a different experience to see it in person. When I got out of the car and I took my first look at the lake, my eyes thought for a second that I was just seeing fog against the mountains, but then I realized that was the lake. It was SO blue and SO still. 

The sky was just a little hazy from the nearby wildfire.

The lake is in the top of a volcano that blew off its top, and there are no rivers that enter the lake. The only way it receives its water is through rainfall. And then between evaporation and the water seeping out through the walls of the volcano,  the water level remains more or less consistent. 

The signs boasted that this is one of the cleanest lakes in the world, and the deepest lake in the US. That gives it its beautiful deep blue color.

You can drive around the entire rim of the volcano and see the lake from above (about 30 miles), and there are lots of viewpoints. There's only one place where you can hike down to the water (and swim if you dare to), but our friends had told us that it's super steep and strenuous to hike back up. But, if you go anywhere with Brent, you will see everything and get the full experience! I'm glad we did, because it was amazing to see the water up close and see just how clear it was. 

We saw people diving off the rocks into the water, which is COLD. 

We scrambled across the rocks to touch the cold water, away from people, although it wasn't very crowded at the national park in the first place. 

Brent and the kids were upset I hadn't brought our swimming suits, but it was October and I did not think anyone would actually get in the water! Brent had to get in. So he got down to his garments and jumped in! He stayed in for about 5 or 6 minutes.

Video of Brent swimming in Crater Lake:

Just putting my toes in was enough for me. It made my skin turn red from the cold.

Hiking the mile up and out of the crater wasn't TOO bad. Ava and I just took lots of breaks. Brent carried Audrey and helped Coen a little bit, but he did most the hike himself!

Around on the other side of the lake, we saw volcanic formations, and then went on a hike to a waterfall.  My phone says we walked 5.5 miles this day. 

The kids liked this baby Christmas tree.

We finished our loop around the lake at 5 pm and then had a two and a half hour drive home. It was a beautiful day!

Coen wanted me to take his picture, so how could I resist? 

A few friends from the ward with three year olds got together at a pumpkin patch here in town. Audrey loved the big slide into the straw!

Cute kids petting goats.

Audrey told me, "I'm petting his ear!" The goat did not seem to mind his little ear massage. 

Little friends:

A video of Coen's fluffy hair:

Tammy comes to read to the kids each week and Audrey has gotten very comfortable with her- sitting on her lap, giving her hugs, and talking up a storm. 

It was walk or roll to school day. Coen was super excited to ride his bike! 

And Ava rode her scooter:

Audrey went to her first day of babysitting at my friend's house- I started back to work after my month off (although I still worked like 12 hours those week while Audrey was at preschool). These friends live about 8 houses away on our street and have a 2 year old named Olivia. Audrey walked her baby to Olivia's house so they could both have baby dolls to play with. 

My friend sent me this video of the little friends jumping on the couch:

We had such nice weather the first part of October- so warm! I took Coen and Audrey to the park while we waited for Ava in drama class. These two loved playing together! 

Remember how our washer hose leaked while we were in Utah? We didn't like the carpet samples that the contractor brought to us, so we went to a flooring store in downtown Eugene. Audrey was a good girl and colored the whole time while we chose our carpet. 

Swimming class- Audrey put her face in the water and blew bubbles as she kicked and swam around with the help of her teacher. After she would finish her turn she would look up at me with a big smile as I gave her a thumbs up.

The kids looked cute for their program. This was Audrey's last year being in nursery. 

Videos from the program (I only am including their singing solos, but they each gave mini talks too): 

I invited Ava's friend, Carrie, over for a playdate and they played hard! Ava has been so excited to have this friend this year.

We ordered a bow and arrow for Coen's costume and the packaging made us laugh. It says "Do not arbitrarily change the non-factory to provide the use of the projectile." 

I got called to serve as an activity days leader. We decorated pumpkins for the ward Halloween party.

A picture to remember how smoky Eugene was for most of the month of October! It was so warm and I usually love the warm, but every day I looked at the forecast wondering, can't it rain just one day? 

I took Audrey to the story time at the library and it was so fun to go again, since I used to go with Coen. We invited a friend along and her boys loved it too. Audrey particularly liked the song, "zoom zoom zoom, we're going to the moon." Ahh I love toddlerhood. 

Video of Audrey hiding under blanket:

I took Ava to the orthodontist and they recommend braces, but we have no insurance coverage for that and I'm hesitant to start something and then maybe move....so for now we wait. Ava seemed pretty excited about the idea of braces though, so we gotta do it soon while it's still a cool thing to do!

Playing at the park while Ava is at drama. This park overlooks the river and is so beautiful. Coen is making a funny face because he just saw a really big orange fuzzy spider! 

Pig tails at preschool:

ESPN came to do a game day for the U of O's football game, which apparently is a big deal. Brent watched out his window as crews set up a stage and did all sorts of preparations for the media to descend on Eugene. 

The kids had the day off school but Audrey still had preschool, so the kids read, colored, played etc while I cleaned the kitchen as I listened to a CPE class. Since they were good and got their flu shots, I promised them they could get McDonalds for lunch. They were so excited about their trick or treating buckets that was the Happy Meal toy.

On Saturday we hosted a Halloween party and invited a little over a dozen people over (4 families). We made a few kinds of soups and bread, and it turned out really fun!

We had Elsa, Legolas, and Luna Lovegood.

I took Audrey to her friend's birthday party and we both had fun:

Vampire Audrey!

I took Audrey to have her speech evaluated. The evaluator had a book with pictures and as Audrey pronounced each word, she would get a puzzle piece to put on her puzzle. Then Audrey and I played with a toy kitchen and the lady took notes on how Audrey pronounced things. At the end of our session, the lady told me that Audrey definitely qualified for speech therapy and they'll come to her preschool once a week to work with her. Yay! She told me that Audrey seems to carry the same consonant throughout a word, which makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. For instance, Audrey says happy birthday with all b's, "boppy bah-bay."

I walk to meet the kids as they're walking home from school. It's a straight shot to our house, and we meet somewhere on the path next to the park. This day, Coen walked up to me and gave me a tiny yellow flower with his sweet smile.  

We got "Boo'd" and never figured out who gave us the cookies and little goodies! We boo'd our friends with some rice krispie treats and a Halloween book.

I had a yoga partner for about 4 seconds until she got bored and tried to climb on me during my yoga session. 

Park time! The time hadn't changed yet, so it was still light at 4:30-5:45 when Ava is in class. 

I studied and took a test for work to be certified at an advanced level for doing 401k audits. The class to help me study was so BORING. It sounded like Siri was reading, and it was a whole bunch of technical jargon. This lasted about 25-30 hours, spread out over a couple weeks. And the test was so hard! This is how I felt about it. 

A picture from the babysitter of Audrey having lots of fun finger painting!

I went with a group of ladies to see the new Julia Roberts movie, Ticket to Paradise. I liked it! 

Our ward had a trunk or treat with a chili cook off. The kids love this ward party!

Two Harry Potter friends:

I made a green chicken chili for the dinner (mainly so that I could have something I could eat!). There were probably 25 or 30 chilis there and the four missionaries in our ward were tasked with trying a little  of all of them to vote on the winner.  You should have seen Brent's face when the Bishop announced me the winner of the chili cook off! Jaw to the ground. 

The groundbreaking for the Eugene temple happened on Saturday October 29. We were able to watch a broadcast of it, since only a select few got seats to it, but then everyone was invited to walk around the temple grounds and turn the soil with the golden shovels. It was very special to watch the groundbreaking, and I loved that the sun was shining on Eugene this day. The next week was forecasted rain every day, but not this day. 

I was worried it was going to be so crowded, so we got to the temple grounds right at the beginning of the window and discovered it was not so crowded yet. We all got to hold the golden shovels, even Audrey!

The temple location is so beautiful- there are hills right behind the lot that have evergreens on them, which makes it look so Oregonian to me.

Afterwards, we went to IHOP to get free pancakes and dinner. Coen was so excited about his "scary" pancakes!

On Monday, Halloween, Audrey had a trunk or treat at her school. I'm glad that my work is so flexible and I can go to all these types of things!

Halloween evening- ready to trick or treat!  As Audrey would go up to each door, she would say "Trick or Treating!"

We went to the Kohler's house with a few other families for appetizers and then we all trick or treated together, in the pouring rain! We got so soaked!  

And that concludes October!