Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn!

As much as I hate to admit it, I think last weekend was our last real summer-y weekend. It's always hard to let the warm, play-outside-all-the-time weather go, but we did see it off in style by having a visit from Grandma Star, Grandpa Bob and Uncle Jay (we missed you, Aunt Cyndi!!) Ryan and Jay did some mountain biking and Grandma and Grandpa did more than their fair share of babysitting, and we all went to the local Hops Festival. We all witnessed Will start to really get his feet under him, and we all agreed that he's only moments away from running. (He's already well into climbing--Ryan found him halfway up a bookshelf yesterday!) After Grandma, Grandpa and Jay left, we spent the afternoon at a park in Black Butte. The tourist season has wound down, so we had the swings, slide and sand all to ourselves. This suited the kids just fine: Will LOVES to swing and signed "more" every time I attempted to stop pushing him. (No one will be surprised to learn that his two favorite signs are "more" and "eat.") And Kate enjoyed going down and climbing up the twisty slide as it seems to be her goal to determine the best one in town. It was a really nice, peaceful way to spend one of our last summer afternoons...and shortly after we got home, Ryan asked Kate if she was excited about sledding on the hill near our house once it snowed. I'm not quite ready for snow again, but I will admit that it will be fun to have two little ones cavorting in the snow this year!