September Photo Bomb

September: back to school, Coldplay concert (!!!!), and making grape juice

Time has seriously flown by! This year is my fifth year teaching, which seems totally unbelievable! My first year I taught fourth grade at Reagan Academy in Springville, UT. Since then, I have been teaching fifth grade at Dorothy Fox Elementary in Camas, WA. 

year 5!

Like I mentioned in the previous post, there were fires in the Columbia River Gorge during the first week of school. This meant that nearby areas were filled with ash and smoke. Some homes were even ordered to be evacuated! As a precaution, our school had to keep all outdoor exits closed and students were not allowed out for recess. That made for a pretty crazy first week! Students were more hyper and restless than ever. You also saw crazy people like me wearing masks when outside to protect against smoke inhalation. 

Brodie made fun of me for this haha

 Near the end of the month we went to Seattle to visit my parents and go with them to the Coldplay concert. This was Brodie's first Coldplay experience, and even though it wasn't the first for me, it was still mind blowing. Nothing can compare!

Seattle at night

waiting for the concert to start

Thank you so much Mom & Dad for taking us! It was definitely one of the highlights of our year! 

Before leaving Seattle, we helped my parents pick grapes in their backyard. We didn't realize how many grapes there were until we started picking. We picked over 100 pounds of grapes, which we then turned into grape juice!

Brodie stood on the ladder and stuck his head way up into the vines to get the good grapes :) 

some bunches were as big as my face!

buckets and buckets of grapes - both green and purple ones

we filled 4 bags, each weighing about 25 pounds

 we then washed the grapes . . . 

. . . heated them on the stove in a juicer 

. . . and turned them into juice!

Thanks Mom and Dad Fish for teaching us how to make juice!

August Photo Bomb

And here are all the other photos leftover from August. Clearly it was a very busy month!!

At the end of the month, and before school started, we took a weekend trip to the beach! We hit up some garage sales, met up with the Vom Baurs, and played at the beach. 

our first baby purchase! $2 at a garage sale

We also bought a food dehydrator for just a few dollars and tested it out with apples and bananas!

flying a kite at the beach

 When we returned from the beach we found ash covering EVERYTHING! We thought we missed the memo and Mt. St. Helens had erupted again. In reality, all the ash was from forest fires in the Columbia River Gorge. These fires lasted for over a week and smoke/ash filled nearby areas. It was bad enough the students weren't allowed outside for recess once school started. 

When the fires ended, we enjoyed a clear day down at Washougal River. 

To celebrate the end of a successful summer, Shovel & Thumb treated the fam to a fancy dinner at a Brazilian restaurant followed by dessert!

August - Landscaping

The Fish boys did a lot of landscaping this summer! Every summer, Brodie has 3 months off of school and works for his dad and brother who own the landscaping company Shovel & Thumb LLC. Even though it's the hottest part of the year, Brodie absolutely loves working with his two brothers (Cohan and Durant) and his dad every day. Not only do they work contracted job, but on weekends they work together on family projects and even participated in the Hardscape North America regional competition! 

One weekend project included installing a french drain - which essentially meant digging a trench around the entire Fish farm house. This was dug to redirect water away from the basement, which had been previously flooding every wet season. 

laying fabric before installing the pipes - if you look closely you can see little Danner! 

cute brothers

Last year Shovel & Thumb competed in the regional HNA competition and placed third. Brodie acted as the "coach" while Brian and Cohan were the ones physically laying pavers. This year, Brodie and Brian swapped roles, and Brodie worked hard in the heat to cut and lay pavers. This competition consisted of 10 teams from the Northwest region and took place in Lacey, WA.

packed up and ready to hit the road!

at the competition - this is a patio (and wall) they constructed in only 45 minutes!

In round 2, they had 90 minutes to design their own patio, which you can see below with a wall and fire pit. Overall, they got second place!!!

August - Solar Eclipse

The big event of this summer was the solar eclipse! People have been talking about this eclipse for months. Brodie & I were not planning on going anywhere special . . . where we live in Camas was already in the 97% totality zone. We were going to just watch the eclipse from home. However, last minute, we decided to travel the extra hour to get to the "path of totality". Originally, we didn't want to deal with the traffic and crowds, but we figured it would be lame to stay home when we are so close! Luckily Brodie's grandparents thought ahead and had reserved a camp site near Salem, OR. Brodie and I drove down late at 9pm the night before, and we didn't hit any traffic! We spent the night on the floor of Grandma and Grandpa Heppler's motor home and then left the next evening. Short and sweet but "totality" worth it! Get it? :)

all set up and ready to go

the whole crew

the sun before the eclipse

what it looked like through the eclipse glasses

here's a neat shot taken with Brodie's phone that shows a reflection of the eclipse

within minutes, our view went from this. . . 

 . . . to this!! When the moon covered the sun, the temperature dropped and it looked like dusk

completely covered by the moon

After the eclipse was over, we stayed around for the day to avoid the traffic. We played lawn games, went out for ice cream, played cards, and then left after dinner. Thank you for letting us crash the party, Grandma and Grandpa!

August - Clark County Fair

Every year we go with the Fish Fam to the Clark County Fair! The fair is full of animals, the rodeo, rides, yummy foods, and fun shows. 

accidentally matching

there's a baby in there! 12 weeks pregnant at this point

watching bull riding at the rodeo

virtual reality game

 my favorite was the llamas - these llamas were "singing" and making all sorts of noise

cute cows who were only a few days old!

This was the funniest game of all - I didn't participate because of my pregnancy, but we all had a laugh watching Brodie and Durant do it! Each person was attached to a bungee and ran as far as they could before getting pulled back. Whoever could attach their bean bag the farthest on the center velcro track was the winner.