Piles of Pumpkins

Isaac and I have been going on allot of walks these days. I'm trying to take full advantage of what Mother Nature has been offering us. A couple weeks ago, we ventured down to Morning Glory Farm to check out this years harvest of pumpkins. They hadn't brought everything there the day we visited, but there were PLENTY to play around with!

Isaac had a really great time trying to count all the sugar pumpkins lined up along the railing on the porch. It went something like this "one, two, three, five, seven, eight, nine, seven" Over and over and over again. Hahaha, he cracks me up.

They had started to set things up for their annual pumpkin festival, which of course we went to, I'll save that adventure for another post. . .

Annnnnd He's Off

For Isaac's birthday this year his Aunt WooWoo, my sister Caitlin, gave him his very first pair of rollerblades! Complete with all the pads and helmet that he needs to be the next fastest rollerblader!

We've taken him to the playground a few times, and let him try them out. I think he'll be zipping around on his own in no time!

Thank you Ariel Thomas Photography

Here are a few of the remarkable photographs that Arial took of the boys:

Pumpkin Patch Kids

On the last week of September, it hit me that we hadn't had any two year portraits taken of Isaac yet, and then it struck me that we hardly have any pictures of Isaac and Ian together. . . Something had to be done about this!

One of my best friends is a local photographer who speciality is taking photos of babies and kids. . . Thank you lady luck!

I had really wanted to have their photos taken in a pumpkin patch. Which would have worked really well, because there is one near to my parents house that I drive by twice a week. Of course the week we had set up to have the portraits taken, the farmers tilled up that field. Blast.

Lucky for me, one of the kids who works for that farm told me about a super secret pumpkin patch on the other side of the island! After a while of driving hopelessly through the woods, and battling a few majorly bumpy dirt roads, I found it. It was an absolutely breathtaking location. I couldn't believe it wasn't part of an elaborate movie set.

There was a large patch of pumpkins of every size and color, down a hill beyond that was a pond, followed by more roiling hills of fields. There was an old barn, and a field of very curious sheep there as well. At one point, when the sun was setting over that picturesque pond, everything was suddenly flooded with this gorgeous soft, warm, buttery yellow light. It made for some fabulous photos for sure.

Ariel took some really amazing shots of the boys, I can't wait to blow some of them up and send them to the Grandmas!

Simple but Super

For my birthday this year, Michael got me a clothes line. I had been saying that I really wanted one for a while, so I was so happy to get it! I have taken advantage of it as often as the weather allows me to.

I remember looking at old photo albums of my parents, and seeing a clothesline full of clothes in the snow, frozen horizontally, from the wind. . . . I have a feeling I won't go to THAT extreme. Not this year anyway.

Beach Days in September

I am pretty sure that September is my favorite time of year here on the Vineyard. The tourists have left, for the most part, the humidity breaks, the crowds and traffic become scarce, the older kids are back at school, it seems to just be a little bit easier to breathe around here.

We have been so lucky with such glorious weather! Michael has been working the midnight shift, which means he is resting during the day now. The annual fisherman's derby came, and I think he wanted to take every opportunity he had to take a few casts, knowing he wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time to it as he would have liked to this year.

I was having a day where I felt trapped in the house all day, so when the question came up, "what do you want to do?" Go to the beach, was my answer!

I didn't go there to tan, or even go into the ocean, I'm not a big ocean fan to begin with, and in September it is far too cold for me!

The sunset was pretty that night, and we all seemed to have a nice time. Isaac spent the time bulldozing the sand, and making bird nests in it. I got to try out some different modes on my camera, and Michael tried to catch the big one.

Ahhhh, thank you September.

Call me the dragonfly whisperer

Isaac and I were going for a walk a few weeks ago with a couple of friends of ours. We were looking for more ducks to visit, so we stopped off at a very beautiful, very quite little pond. We didn't see any ducks, but we did see a Heron, we I hadn't ever seen here before. They look just ridiculous when they're flying, I can say that much. It's almost what I imagine flamingos look like when they fly.

While we were there, tossing pebbles into the pond, a bright red dragonfly landed on my hand. I waited a little while to see if he would fly away, but he didn't. So we continued on our walk down the bike path a ways, all the while this little dragonfly stayed on my hand. He was there the whole way to the farm, the whole time we were at the farm, and I eventually coaxed him to climb onto a pumpkin stem for fear he would never leave.

You'd be amazed at how many times that's happened to me before. I don't know what it is about me that dragonflies like so much. Maybe I look like a bug or something?