Halloween

Time passes so quickly. It's darker now and on Saturday, we will celebrate Halloween. Surreal. We carved pumpkins with our dear friend Heather and her family on Sunday.

We also visited Heather's cousin (and our former nanny) Gen. She has a child of her own now and a really cool mini John Deere tractor that Jack loved. I think he would have liked living on a farm.

Manzanita

Ryan loves surfing so we are teaching the kids to surf. Growing up in the Northwest, this means wet suits. Getting a wetsuit on a child is like getting a wet suit on a monkey. I was very tempted to swear. Besides that inconvenience, going to the beach with the kids is great fun. We visited the amazing Cape Lookout State Park. We had to hike two miles down a steep hill with all of our gear (and up of course). The kids did really well. I was very surprised. The love surfing with Dad.

We also visited Short Sands - a lovely beach between Manzanita and Cannon Beach Oregon. We had great weather too. It was a memorable vacation.

Cape Lookout State Park

Before the big hike down

Haystack Rock

Short Sands Beach - Photo by Jack

Dad and daughter

Transitions

My kids are now both in elementary school. They are in the same place for 6 consecutive hours. What do I do with all my time, you ask? Well. I am transitioning. I had planned to use my time to work on my software. I do that. But I work alone and now I can work for 5 hour stretches. I get bored and a bit lonely. I need to figure out how to structure my time so I can pay attention. Maybe I will schedule shorter stretches of work outside my house?

That would be a better idea than what I did this past week. This week, I downloaded the first series of Outlander and watched 15 hours of TV in three days. I have not watched 15 hours of TV in the last 9 years combined. I was just looking at an Outlander fan website. Soon, I will gain 30 pounds, have an outdated hair style, start knitting and posting favorite cat pictures on Pinterest.

God help me.