Long Beach
In September we flew to Washington to be part of the Reid family
reunion at Long Beach. I was told how nice and sunny the beach
would be that time of year. Well, I was told wrong. The first
couple of days at Long Beach it was freezing outside - foggy and
windy.
The cold and wind didn't stop the boys. They stripped down to
their bathing suits. We bought some cheap kites and flew them
as well. In this picture, Jackson is either smiling or his teeth
are chattering.
There were a lot of people at the family reunion. Lisa and the
boys have relatives they didn't even know about. One day we went
hiking to a Lewis and Clark museum with Jackson and Zachary's
cousin Lucas.
If you kept hiking up the trail to the Lewis and Clark museum (which
was under renovation and rather disappointing) you came to a lighthouse
overlooking the entrance to the Columbia River. There were a
couple of people working in the lighthouse, spotting ships
I believe. I had to remind the boys not to bother the lighthouse
workers.
The last day at Long Beach the sun came out and Jackson headed
for the water. I don't know what the temperature was, probably
50 degrees or so. A surprising number of people were in the
water swimming.
Jackson likes to make sandcastles on the beach and here he, Lucas,
and some other boy they met on the beach are building a castle
using the "drip" technique.
Halloween 2003
When the end of October rolls around, it's time to carve
pumpkins. After selecting nice big, round ones at Target, the
boys took them home and carved them. They went with a
traditional pumpkin faces this year. Only in Arizona can
you walk around on October 30 in your underwear.
In this picture the boys and I are getting ready to go trick-or-treating.
Jackson and Zachary are different versions of Yugi, a character
on the Yu-gi-oh cartoon. I am Captain Thunderbolt, a character
from a book Zachary was reading at the time. My costume was really
uncomfortable. The latex swim cap I wore was really hot. My goggles
were safety glasses covered with aluminum foil with a slit in the
foil so I could see. They gave me a headache when I walked around.
My costume only lasted a few minutes before I took it off.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving dinner was at our house. Actually, we had another
one at Lisa's mom's house the next day. Jackson and I wandered
the neighborhood looking for colored leaves to decorate our
table. There aren't a lot of maple or oak trees in Arizona.
We did the best we could and in this picture Jackson is standing
in front of our presentation.
Bananas
The monkey in this picture is Bananas. Every day one of the students
in Zachary's class gets to take Bananas home. The kids then write
about their adventures with Bananas in a journal that they present
to the class the following day. It's a very big honor to take Bananas
home, but based on how Zachary treats Bananas, I'm surprised the monkey
has lasted this long. He gets thrown around alot.
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