Full Fall Weekend

I had 4 photo shoots booked in Portland over the weekend, so Friday night (after photographing Lisa's BEAUTIFUL family!! :) Josh and I met up with the Coleman's for dinner and they recommended sushi. Believe it or not, this was Josh and my first time going out for sushi! I must say this is now, hands down, a favorite. Sooooo good!! We also celebrated Jude's Foods 20,000 cookie manufacturing run that happened on Friday, in our new bags, and those should be distributed in the couple of weeks. Cheers to that!! Josh related it to having a baby... basically each little step we take with Jude's Foods we just have to say a big thank you to God for leading us, and helping us to survive the crazy stages. ;) It's been a lot on our "side plate", and I'm thankful we're entering a little easier stage with it. Thank you, Lord!

Saturday, in between my shoots, Josh and I had brunch at La Provence in LO, a favorite of ours for years, and as usual it was so yummy.

We walked around town and stumbled on this cute little spot. We peeked in the window of the gate and saw a woman working in her beautiful garden. It would be fun to know plants well enough to be able to create such peaceful settings.

We also went over to my dear, precious friend Mauria's to say hi and visit with her and her beautiful family. It was water to my soul seeing them all. Again, why didn't I take a picture?!! So sad. Our time there went by too quickly. I'm already looking forward to seeing her again soon.

Sunday morning's church service was wonderful. I loved hearing the wind blowing through the trees above us during worship. We sang Rita Springer's song "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Freedom"... so beautiful.

After church we met up with Matt, Gina, Nora, Caleb, Jen, Dad and Janet and walked around the Fall Festival. The kids did spin art, made puppets, played in the puppet theater, and did little paper crafts. 

I use to run these spin art paint machines there at the Fall Festival when I was a teenager, with my brothers and cousin, so it was fun to be there all of these years later, with my kids. :) 

After the festival everyone came here and my mom stopped by to hang out with us for a bit! Then my dad came by and helped Josh, Caleb & Matt put up a play set in our backyard while we girls made dinner. It was such a treat to have everyone spontaneously here for dinner! We love having a full table!! Wish I had taken a photo!

The kids were so excited to play outside today. We originally wanted to hang a swing in the big oak tree, but randomly one night last month a huge branch broke off. You can see it laying there below in the background of this pic. It made me second guess having our kids swing there, so we opted for a swing set instead. But the large branch on the ground has become a new favorite climbing toy too. :) They call it the dragon's head, which you'll see in the second photo is due to the way the branch broke off - it looks like a fire breathing dragon head.

Ok, back to photo editing for me! Happy Monday!