November - Seahawks Game

Back in August, Brodie, Brian, and Cohan participated in the Hardscape North America Installer Competition and won second place. As part of their winnings, they got tickets to a Seahawks game! We got some extra tickets so that the rest of the Fish Fam could go.

Even though I grew up near Seattle, I had never been to a Seahawks game before. It was quite the experience! This game was against the Falcons, which was cool because Brodie's cousin, Nico, works for the Falcons as an equipment manager. We were able to watch him down on the field and even meet up with him after the game. The Hawks lost, but it was still a close, exciting game that was fun to watch!

half time - this particular game was focused on honoring veterans

October Photo Bomb

Here are the rest of the photos from October!

Brodie built a privacy fence to separate our yard from the neighbors

Didn't he do an amazing job??

Ever since getting our food dehydrator over the summer, we have been experimenting with different fruits. We have tried strawberries, bananas, grapes, and apples. 

homemade apple crumble pie for General Conference weekend :)

field trip with the fifth graders to Bonneville Dam

. . . which ended with the bus getting a flat tire. Entertaining 60 fifth graders while you wait for new tires is so fun!

literacy door decorating competition at school - we won "Best Theme" 

 and to finish off October, my class won the Fall Boxtop Competition (big deal!) 

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!