October - Halloween

Brodie was in Kentucky the evening of our ward Halloween party, which is when we usually dress up together as a couple. In the past we have been Wendy & Peter Pan, Katniss & Peeta, Thor & Jane, and Luke & Leah. Since I was riding solo at the Halloween party, I didn't put any effort into a costume. Luckily, we were able to go with Cohan and Emily to their ward party the following weekend, which was a Halloween Hoe Down.

Thanks for letting us crash your party, Cohan & Ems! 

cowboy and cowgirl

Without kids, we had little motivation to make it to the real pumpkin patch. Instead, we walked two blocks from our house to Safeway and picked out a pumpkin from the "patch". 

Brodie is a master carver and I am . . . not haha. So I scooped out the guts and he did the carving. 

Fish pumpkin 2017!

Brodie gave me a budget of $3 to decorate for Halloween - I think he was joking, but I accepted the challenge! This was as good as it got. Thank goodness for Dollar Tree!

October - National Hardscape Competition

Shovel & Thumb (the Fish family landscaping business) competed in a regional hardscape competition in August and got second place! They then proceeded to the national level in October, but this time all the way in Kentucky. 25 teams competed, and Shovel & Thumb finished overall in 6th place - extremely impressive!

Fish boys in Kentucky!

built in under 50 minutes!

 While there, they did some sight seeing and visited Churchill Downs - home of the Kentucky Derby. I was only a little bit jealous!

and while the boys were out of the town, the girls went out for dinner! 

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!!!