Calico

Today was the first day that fall seemed to descend on us.....it was drizzly, gray and a little bone chilling. So we did the natural NW thing and headed to the beach! The girls have never seen the Ocean before and they jumped right in, despite the cold. We didn't take pictures, but it is safe to say that we were one very dirty, cold, and wet family when we left. I got in an hour or two of pretty decent surfing. Now that it is kind of cold, the families have seemed to dissapear from Westhaven State Park and only the young, carefree and often scruffy looking surfers are left. They look at us a bit like we are aliens when we haul our family of six around - or maybe it is we make so much noise they just can't look away.
We got another possible new addition to our family...a lovely, skinny and frightened calico kitty wandered into our yard this morning. I think we might be keeping her - the kids are very excited and I have started calling her Tess. We will see if she doesn't run away in the next few days. I think we need to put the kibosh on new inhabitants...we are up to four kids, two parents, two dogs, a cat, a fish, and a preying mantis in a 1400 sq. ft. house - that doesn't even include the grandparents living in our (remodeled) garage. I worry that it is getting a bit ridiculous to have this many living things under one roof.
Finally, I have spent my fair share of time reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert this weekend. I highly recommend it and have gotten very absorbed in her story -even if I was hesitant to read the book at first.