Rickey Ranch

We can tell the seasons are changing and the fall outings are picking up.  On Oct 16th we met up with our friends at a Pumpkin Patch in Granite Bay called Rickey Ranch.  Maria picked it because they had a winery. We had heard that the patch was a bit small, so our expectations were low.  However after visiting, it appears they've grown quite a bit.  In fact we were told that the parking lot is where the patch activities used to be.

Looking for the wine tasting, while the kids were waiting for the snow cone tasting.

Jimmy teaching Nate how to drive a tractor, while Nate was more focused on finishing his snow cone.

Nate the great scarecrow

Nate, Emily and Jimmy riding the pumpkin truck

Casey looking for the perfect pumpkin

Yeah, the Thompson's made it, after a few wrong turns Taryn, Frances and Paisley joined the fun.  Terry and Ethan came too, just not pictured yet.

Nate squatting on a pumpkin

Nate, Ethan and Jimmy.  

Emily, Taryn and Paisley.

We had to put Jimmy to work

They had 5 tractors there and the kids raced to each and everyone jumping and climbing on them.

Terry taking us to the gun show.

Jimmy really got a kick out of the bouncy seat on this one.

Trying to figure if the squash looks like a snake or a swan.

West Roseville Mom's club.  Tonya, Maria, Gina, Barbara & Frances

 T

Alyssa got her turn on the tractor

Move on! The boys racing from one tractor to the next.

Frances & Terry with Alyssa, Taryn and Emily in the back on the tractor.

I loved this "behind the scenes" shot of Aubrey and Gina.

Our family photo op.  Be careful the boxes aren't as sturdy as they seem.

Jimmy, Ethan, Nate, Aubry, Casey and Paisley pausing their "king of the haystack mountain" game for a photo 

After the pumpkin patch we all made our way back to our place.  I made some Moinks (Moo-Oinks) which are bacon wrapped meatballs along with some Jalapeno poppers wrapped in bacon.  We watched a little football and we joined the rest of the neighborhood kids out front playing soccer, kickball, riding scooters, bikes etc.  It was a great day.

My smoker filled to the max.

Marine Mammal Center

Nate's latest adventure is the Cub Scouts.  He is officially a Tiger Scout.  With Maria's help, she recruited a bunch of Nate's friends and their parents to join him on the adventure.  We recently had our first Den meeting and on Oct 15, they went on their first "Go See it".

This is the Class "B" uniform.  It's not required that he be in full scout gear, but recommended that he wear a scout T-shirt.  We got this bright orange one, which is the Tiger scout colors and is great to spot him a mile away, which he frequently is about as far away from us as he can get.

Ethan and Nate at the entrance to the Marine Mammal Center.  Nate got the extra special privilege of getting Ethan to ride with us to Marin and back. 

While the center is focused on healing sick mammals, they were wrapping up an exhibit where they were displaying art made from the trash that had been thrown into the ocean. 

Here's a starfish, zoom in and see how clever they were with using all the different types of trash.

This is a jelly fish, made mostly out of clear plastic water bottles.

A giant sea turtle.

One of the demonstrations was how the volunteers would help an injured baby seal found on the beach into a crate so they could be transported back to the shelter for medical help.

One person in charge of the crate, one with a large net and two boys holding wooden "shields" used to limit the direction the seal could run.

The tour guide said to get the seal into the crate and Nate pushed his shield up and onto the seal flipper, then proceeded to kick the seal into the crate.  Thank goodness it's a stuffed seal and Nate wasn't responsible for the health of a truly sick seal.  Although I have to say all the adults got a real kick out of his seal kicking.

After the tour, we headed over to Rodeo Beach on the Marin headlands, so we could enjoy a picnic lunch and fun on the beach before the scouts would go earn their "Leave No Trace" badge by picking up trash on the beach.  It's a great concept to partner that with the recently learned lesson about how all the trash was hurting the sea animals.

The boys playing a bit of tug o war with a piece of seaweed. 

Nate stopped for a little bit to eat and got close enough for photo op.

It was a little colder than we had thought.  Was supposed to be upper 70's, but with the cloud cover and breeze it felt a bit cooler. 

We had a great time and look forward to more outings like these with the scouts.  The drive was a bit long, but it was nice to see a bit of Marin that I had not seen before.  We drove through the Bunker tunnel, which was interesting.  We learned the Marine Mammal Center was privately funded, at over $30M.  The people are really friendly and dedicated to help these sick animals get back to health.

Rudy's 6th birthday

After Nate's first soccer game, he and I raced down to John and Andrea's house for Rudy's 6th birthday party.

The kids got a turn with a metal bat and pinata, Nate made reat contact, but not quite enough to break it open.

And we have a winner, candy everywhere.

Nate was next in line to hit when it broke open, so he was first to begin collecting candy, and he got quite a lot.

The kids gathered for cake and ice cream.

Rudy anxiously awaiting his sugar

Nate skipped lunch and only ate candy cake and ice cream.  Despite heavy pleading, he claimed he wasn't hungry, until we finally got in the car to and left the house, suddenly hunger got the best of him.

One boys old toy, becomes the next boys favorite.  Nate loved the hard hat, which had a mini microphone/PA so he could get his voice even louder.

John watching Nate and Rudy open gifts.

First Soccer Game

At Nate's level of soccer, we don't keep track of score, so I can't tell you that his team won 7-3.

What I can tell you is Nate likes the idea of playing goalie, because he prefers to use his hands.

Of course he gets to wear the cool goalie shirt as well.

He spent a quarter in the net, even blocked a shot or two.  He did let the other team score one goal.  At halftime he came over and said he let the other team score a goal because he wanted the other team to get one too.

Nate got a couple of shots to kick the ball

He put everything into kicking the ball as hard as he could.

But when the action was on the other end of the field he was bored.

Another free kick

He got a lot of leg into this one

He came back in the second half and wanted to play out on the field, here is one of his attempts at a goal.

I'm not entirely sure of soccer rules, but I'm pretty sure he was held here.

Now soccer at this age is best described by Brad as bunch ball.  The coaches work hard to have the kids not move in a swarm around the ball.  Which is great in concept.  However when Nate got bored and was no where near the action, his excuse was he didn't want to bunch the other kids.

Nate taking the ball after the other team scored.  Overall he enjoys it, although I think he likes the practices more, because he can play on the playground before and after practice.