If you can read Seth's hat, you know his current location. And when Daddy's away, I always like to post as many pictures as possible so he can put them on his computer. He was here for most of these pictures, but that doesn't mean he has these pictures, so have fun, Love.
About a month after we got done dodging raindrops at Ft. Flagler, we finally fulfilled one of Seth's persistent ambitions and got our whole family down to Mt. Angel's Oktoberfest. Of course, Boo Boo was happy just to be back on the farm again, but Seth and I were excited for the festival.
Mt. Angel, Oregon, the town where Seth grew up, was founded by immigrants from Angelburg, Germany, and the town has maintained close connections with its roots. Angelburg Cathedral fostered the Mt. Angel Abbey, one of the few active abbey's in the US. Most of the buildings and businesses have Bavarian architecture. And once a year, the town really goes Bavarian for Oktoberfest. So many people come in for Oktoberfest that this town of 3,000 swells to 10,000 for one weekend (or so they say). Every Knights of Columbus organization in western Oregon comes in to sell sausage. The police cadets are called out to direct traffic. Men don their leiderhosen; women their patterned skirts and peasant tops; even teenagers get into Bavarian costume. It's a big toodoo. 
Mt. Angel, Oregon, the town where Seth grew up, was founded by immigrants from Angelburg, Germany, and the town has maintained close connections with its roots. Angelburg Cathedral fostered the Mt. Angel Abbey, one of the few active abbey's in the US. Most of the buildings and businesses have Bavarian architecture. And once a year, the town really goes Bavarian for Oktoberfest. So many people come in for Oktoberfest that this town of 3,000 swells to 10,000 for one weekend (or so they say). Every Knights of Columbus organization in western Oregon comes in to sell sausage. The police cadets are called out to direct traffic. Men don their leiderhosen; women their patterned skirts and peasant tops; even teenagers get into Bavarian costume. It's a big toodoo. Of course, one of the main attractions at Oktoberfest (for us anyway) was Seth's uncle Arthur and his magic show. Arthur proudly boasts that he is the only Atsma boy who has never owned a cow. Instead he performs, both in magic and in music (http://www.atsmagic.com/). We love Uncle Arthur's shows, and he's always at Oktoberfest. They fly him in from Georgia. So we had to go see Uncle Arthur. This is one of Uncle Arthur's tricks. 
This is Boo Boo, enthralled with whatever trick Uncle Arthur is doing. 
Oktoberfest also has tons of booths where people can find the Bavarian spirit people never knew they had. I'm not Bavarian. I'm not even German. But I found that I just had to have a head wreath. I don't like to do a lot of shopping at carnivals because they tend to cost more money than stores, but there are some things you can only find at a streetfair. 
Boo Boo doesn't like to shop at carnivals period, especially not if she's expected to wear her cow leash. Such a sad face! Back into the stroller, I guess.
Being third generation in the dairy business, Lydia and Alice end up serving ice cream to Oktoberfesters every year. This year, Alice is the Marion County Dairy Princess (Last year, it was Lydia.), so we just had to stop and get our picture taken with the aunties.
All in all, I can highly recommend Oktoberfest. Come check it out sometime. 
Here is Boo Boo picking her first apple. (I gave her the one in her hand.) 
She started out enjoying herself, but after about an hour of trying to walk on squishy, roly poly apples while wearing galoshes, she decided that she'd had enough. In that time, we managed to gather about twenty gallons of apples.
This is Boo Boo, enthralled with whatever trick Uncle Arthur is doing. Oktoberfest also has tons of booths where people can find the Bavarian spirit people never knew they had. I'm not Bavarian. I'm not even German. But I found that I just had to have a head wreath. I don't like to do a lot of shopping at carnivals because they tend to cost more money than stores, but there are some things you can only find at a streetfair. Boo Boo doesn't like to shop at carnivals period, especially not if she's expected to wear her cow leash. Such a sad face! Back into the stroller, I guess. 
Being third generation in the dairy business, Lydia and Alice end up serving ice cream to Oktoberfesters every year. This year, Alice is the Marion County Dairy Princess (Last year, it was Lydia.), so we just had to stop and get our picture taken with the aunties.
All in all, I can highly recommend Oktoberfest. Come check it out sometime.This past week, we took a trip to see my folks in eastern Washington. There were no town festivals waiting for us there (which I think is a pity. If you can't celebrate apple harvest, what can you celebrate?), but there were lots of apples. Sunnyside was expecting an early frost, so the orchardists were more than willing to have us come out and glean a few boxes of apples that otherwise would have gone to waste. For those who don't know, gleaning is going through a crop after it has been harvested to pick up whatever happens to be lying around. Most apple orchards get picked twice through by professional pickers to catch the apples that ripen early and the apples that ripen late. Because of the frost, they had only had a chance to get one picking in, so we found lots of apples.
These pictures are off my cell phone, so please pardon the focus. Here is Boo Boo with Grandpa eating apples in the orchard.
Here is Boo Boo picking her first apple. (I gave her the one in her hand.) She started out enjoying herself, but after about an hour of trying to walk on squishy, roly poly apples while wearing galoshes, she decided that she'd had enough. In that time, we managed to gather about twenty gallons of apples. Boo Boo also discovered rocking chairs while she was at Grandpa and Grandma's. She sat in this chair for fifteen minutes at a time singing, "rock, rock, rock, rock." Ain't she cute? 
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