Cider mash

Lucas and Leah go  a-pickin'

Back to Methow this fall for cider making. This tradition has become something we all look forward to all year and the year was no exception. Some things were the same, some new.

Tradition is good.

Same as last year: 

Great weather
Same beautiful Methow
Picked one day, pressed one day
All grandparents, siblings, and cousins there

The girls, Jessica, Christina and Shiori, take a spin on Stubby

New this year: 

Crop late, used neighbor's apples
New apple types, better cider!!
More family! Leah's finance Michael and his children. Lucas and Christina, came for the first time.

jessica shows the love

Now we have a freezer full of cider and a heart full of good memories.

Kiss a prince...wait, that's a toad?

Tadpole, in the beginning

We made a quick trip to Corvallis in late September, at the end of the Birthday Hell Week. We wanted to see Kristin settled into her new place with Dustin, in her new town (after four years in Portland!!)

They have a great place, a good-sized Victorian they share with a roommate. Kristin was just getting ready to start class at the time. This is her 'gap year' in between finishing her bachelor's and getting into a master's program. She's still taking classes but not full time. She got a job at a local cafe/coffee place and another writing for the OSU newspaper, the Daily Barometer. Dustin is in his third year at vet school and swamped with school work.

They have quite a menagerie at the house, including this toad -- which, as it turned out, was the very same tadpole Dustin captured when he and Kristin visited last summer. I was amazed he was able to raise a wild tadpole into a full-grown frog...maybe he should work with animals?!

Tadpole no more