It's official: Autumn has arrived and Halloween is coming! Yeah for candy corn, cozy sweaters, caramel apples, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hot cider, crunchy and colorful leaves, little drops of rain, blustery days, darkness early at night and late in the morning, the dainty mist that makes this city glisten - and the monster mash. It is a fabulous time of the year!

This Halloween we are no longer in a Single Adult ward at church (where they always throw a big Halloween Party), and our dear friend Cindy has moved out of state (also known for throwing a big Halloween Party) - so I think this year we may dress up and go wander around the UW's gothic campus and listen to the sounds of their Haunted Organ Concert. Anyone want to join us?

A Dental Reminder...

1000 post cards will be printed this week for a local Seattle dentist (see above) featuring the wonderful smile of Tysha Carter! Yes, my wife is going to be famous. I wonder if this is the first step in the beginning of a bright new career? During the past month I've been working on some freelance work for Theron Baker, a local dentist. He asked me to design him some post cards and with no budget for photography I decided to use some of my own photographic resources. I actually showed him a couple of options and he said Tysha's smile makes for good dental advertising. Wouldn't you want to visit Theron's dental office if Tysha was smiling at you when you opened the mail box?

Here's the picture that I started with. What a cute wife I have!

On the Job

This is my current "project" at work. In nanny language, she is my newest "charge". Her name is Kaitlyn, and she is 7 months old. She also happens to be a great subject for practicing my amateur photography skills. This week she has been working on breaking through 3 new teeth as well as learning to crawl and pulling herself up to standing for the first time. We have been attending an early literacy program at the library and I think she is by far the best and most vocal "reader". The best part about my job is when I get her to giggle. There is nothing like the belly laugh of a small child! What a great little buddy! We hang out during the day and then when 3pm rolls around, we join forces with her mom and taxi the other 3-5 older kids home from school and off to soccer, dance, piano lessons etc. Truly, it couldn't get better than this - getting paid for doing something I love!

Labor Day Weekend in Portland

We had an exciting and relaxing Labor Day Weekend meeting up with my parents and youngest sister, Jamie. We drove down Friday night and Saturday morning started of the weekend right - with a hike! As we were driving along the Columbia River to our hike at Eagle Creek, we got word that our sister and her husband had become brand-new parents! Welcome to the world, Jackson Rife! And congrats to the proud parents, Jared and Rachel!

We hiked close to 12 miles at Eagle Creek. It is gorgeous - so many waterfalls!

Jacob and Jamie decided a little cliff-jumping was in order. The pictures are blurry but here is Jacob on his descent.

And Jamie! I have to admit they are more brave than I am when it comes to cliff-jumping!

That evening for dinner we headed to one of my favorite restaurants in Portland - le bistro montage. It's pretty much soul-food set in a funky, very PDX atmosphere. Love it! Dad, Jacob, & Jamie tried the fried frog legs, Mom joined them with Jambalaya, and I had my fave Mac N Cheese.

Another great thing about the Montage - the artistic way they wrap your leftover food to go! We ended up with a long-stemmed rose, a scorpion, a cat, and a little mouse. After dinner, we saw "The Nanny Diaries" (how can you be a nanny and not?). Sunday we went to church and relaxed, took a walk around the Portland Temple grounds, and then played a game of Hearts. Dad's still champ!

Monday, we headed to OMSI and saw an I-MAX film about The Alps. Of course we also explored the museum and had fun with the various experiments there. Check out this one my dad did on Jacob - static electricity well demonstrated!

We had a great time - thanks Mom and thanks Dad and thanks Jamie!