Pumpkin Carving

Today we carved our pumpkins for the Harvest Party Pumpkin Carving Contest. Last year, we carved to WIN! This year, we carved for fun!

They turned out great guys! The pumkins look perfect on the front steps!

Katie and Kitty

Last evening we went to friends' house to celebrate their daughter Katie's birthday. She turned 9 years old! Their new kitty was the hit of the party. She is a little runt they rescued a few weeks ago. JD, our godson, especially liked her. They were so cute together.

despite her pout-y lip, Katie is excited

it took three tries to get them all out

Happy Birthday Katie! Hope you had a wonderful day!

Caramel Apples

One of our family's favorite Halloween traditions is making caramel apples. We did it tonight, knowing that our week was going to be busy. The past few years, the boys have helped turn out these tasty little works of art.

Andy's apple

My apple

Chris' apple

Will's apple

Zack's apple

They look just as good as they taste...

Pastor Appreciation

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Yesterday, our congregation had a little cake reception after church to celebrate. They also presented us with a card and a gift card for a night out at the resturant at a nice old historic hotel in town. I think we will wait until Christmas time to use it, so we can enjoy the beautifully decorated lobby and look at the decorations in the park outside the window.

Although we know our congregation loves and appreciates us, sometimes it's nice to be told. :o)

Sickliest Catch

I have never seen Deadliest Catch, but while leaning over the edge of the boat while crabbing yesterday I wished I was dead.

A couple from church took us crabbing yesterday on their boat at the mouth of the Columbia River. The weather was beautiful, blue skies and no wind. The waves weren't bad, either. But those 5' swells were killers! If the boat was moving, it wasn't so bad. It was the pitching while we stopped to put out or bring out the traps that was horrible! Will will not a have career as a commercial fisherman, that is certain. The rest of us may have felt better if we hadn't all eaten a really big lunch just before going to check all of the traps. Andy was the only truly hardy sailor in the Leingang family.

the dock was covered in pelicans

dredging the channel

baiting the traps

over it goes!

even with the flags, they were hard to find

the lighthouse at the bar

eating lunch (big mistake!)

Will came out of the cabin to pull in his trap

checking the trap for crabs

counting and dividing the crabs

bagging the crabs to go home

We caught a total of 24 crabs before calling it a day. Each family brought home 12 crabs. If each of the boys had caught their limit, we would have brought home 36 crabs!

Every time we come out to Astoria, the weather has been pretty crummy. So, we decided this would be the perfect day to take a trip up to the Astoria column and check out the view. We were pretty bummed, because the column closed 5 minutes before we arrived. :o( But the view was still really stunning from the top of the hill!

the Astoria Column

the column is painted with scenes of Washington state history

the view of AstoriaWe learned a lot from out last crab experience. Andy took care of the halving of the crabs while Zack, Chris and I all worked on the cleaning. We also did all of the cooking out on the deck. Not only is it much easier to clean everything off using the hose, it smells much better in the house when you are done.We had all of the crab picked and in the freezer before we headed for bed at 11:00. Yes, I am really thankful we didn't all get our limit! Thanks for all the help guys! I couldn't (or wouldn't) have done it without you!