It ain't so much a patch as it is a mud utopia.

October in Oregon. It means two things - rain and pumpkin patches. Now I'm sure other pumpkin patches in other parts of the world are equally as commercial - a low-budg carnival affair minus the puke-inducing rides and a few less "Carnies". But Oregon adds it own twist to the grand old tradition - mud. Mud so thick and aromatic that that at one point I think it tapped me on the shoulder and asked to see my ticket.

Anyway, the pumpkin patches of Oregon do nothing to hide this unsightly soaked soil from it's patrons, instead they sort of wear it on their collective sleeve. And the kids, well let's face it, kids love mud. So while we did our level best to keep our kid as un-mudded as possible, mud eventually found him and it was love at first sight. So the camera caught as much as possible before the mud took over.

A bad day at the park beats a good day inside.

It was an overcast, cool and damp fall Saturday here in Portland when we decided we'd do Mother Nature one better and get out in it. So off to the park we went. But we soon discovered that, along with our fur, evolution removed our ability to frolic joyfully in these conditions. We tried to make the best of it, but it was a matter of minutes before we were crying uncle and went scurrying off to the comfort of the climate controlled cockpit of Tara's Ford.







What we as a species lack in body hair, we more than make up for in the ole smarts department.

Piles of Smiles

Dad spends the afternoon raking leaves in the backyard so Anders can practice his triple-lindy dive squarely into them, undoing in a matter of minutes what took the better part of an afternoon to amass. But while we were short on chores completed, we were plentiful on smiles attained.

A lot of catching up to do

It's been a while since we've put some pictures up on the old blog. To those frequent visitors, my apologies. In my younger, more ambitious days I fancied myself a man about the internet. Today, I stand before you humbled by the awesome power of the web that is worldwide.

Anyway, enough about me. After all, you don't come to this blog of ours to hear about me, did you? Nope you came to bask in the utter cuteness of Anders and who am I to disappoint?

Now before we get started, I should note that a large gap of time has passed since the we last posted pictures on the blog here. I am skipping over the family vacation to Bitterroot, MT as there is an exhaustive volume of pictures available on Shutterfly. The locale of these pictures has been predetermined and if you are one of the lucky ones who knows how to access them (I am not) consider yourself up to date on that little slice of our family's history. And if you're not one of the selected few, you and I have no idea what we're missing out on. But they say ignorance is bliss and we shall steam ahead blissful and oblivious.

So on we go.