Happy Birthday Jacob - - - We love you!!!
Grandpa is a real trooper! Helping Grandma when ever needed. Working with the tomatoes was one of his many jobs throughout the day.
Here is a close up of the secret mixture. We combined about three different secret recipes to pull of our dish. It was good but not as good as Jessica and Grandmas chili.
While the chili was cooking the kids played strange ping pong games.
Jim and Richie were dumfounded...... the zesty chili over powered them.
Wow Rachel your hot..... I mean the chili is hot.
We invited many of our freinds to share good times and food.
We were excited to have Dan's mom Noreen come and spend some time with us. Can't beat candy corn...... defently one of my favorite candies.
Father and Son share a moment with little Jacob. Three generations of Astins enjoy the evening.
After eating about six bowls of chili we had an interesting ice cream eating contest.
Richie had a slight challenge working with Lynne. I am surprised Richie was able to pull of a 4.0 this term with the massive brain freeze he experienced!
Ok Jessica you cannot eat the ice cream you are to feed Dan. A good strategy but..... you got caught. OPPS ! Disqualified !!! You guys are so funny.
A big thanks to all who came and shared this evening with us. We hope to have another get together soon. Next time lets celebrate the cookie.
Heather went to Homecoming a few weeks ago with a young gentleman named Paul Schonfeld. Jessica helped with the makeup and cousin Stephanie came up to help with the hair. Dad said, "Heather, to bad Paul will not have a ride like this. 
After she was all ready to go it became a waiting game. Heather, Stephanie, Jessica, and Daniel sat and waited for and HOUR AND FIFTEEN minutes after he was supposed to pick her up... just waiting for this guy to come and get her. 
Now on his defense it wasn't his fault. There were four couples in their group and they took one car, one of the guys decided to sprain his ankle, and one of the girls wasn't ready. After the long wait Paul came to the door and rang the door bell, which doesn't work. Dan pretended that we where not stalking the door and that he heard the imaginary doorbell ring. 
Off they went!!
Once they got on their date, they had a wonderful night.
Last August Rachel moved out and traveled all the way down to Ephraim, Utah to go to Snow College and play volleyball. She loves her teammates and is enjoying playing with them. They come from Hawaii, Arizona, and Utah. She was recruited as a setter, but as the coach told her, she can play all positions well and that she needs to be ready to play all positions on the court. I love to watch her on the court, but I must admit that I love to watch her set the most!!! She is an amazing athlete and brings such a wonderful excitement on the court! We are so proud of her work ethic and positive approach to the game. This attitude will help her be a great coach someday.
Rachel and her team get ready to play some v-ball. Their little pow wow is very loud. I bring ear plugs to protect my precious cochlear reception. Really, I bring ear plugs. They are very loud girls. It is a good thing but when you have the kind of sensory capabilities that I have...... protection is needed.
We went to watch Rachel play Friday and Saturday this weekend. She did an awesome job. Her passing was exemplary !
Rachel and Jordan are ready to pass the ball. They both swing their arms back and forth in preparation to focus on the serve.
Rachel has played all the positions on the volleyball court. This makes her so valuable to her team. Below are some more images we took this weekend. Keep up the good work Rachel commonly known on the Snow campus as Ray Ray.
Enjoy your Volleyball and continue to stay positive and uplifting to your team!!!
Richie is still playing soccer and loving it. He is getting better and staying very aggressive and physical out there. We are very proud of how well is doing and how dedicated he is.
The girls were enjoying the park and were very excited to reunite together.
Rachel took a picture of us at the park. You very rarely see images of Lynne and I on the blog.
The next morning we went to see Snoquaimine Falls. The falls are not only a draw but the beautiful forests were fun to explore. The weather was awesome! I don't think it got above 75 degrees while we stayed in Seattle.
Check out this beautiful water fall.
Here is another image of the water fall. There is a trail that leads to the bottom of the fall if visitors are willing to walk about 1.5 miles. The walk is steep and traverses through a Ewolk ( sp) like forest.
We started the walk to the base of the falls and observed many different kinds of plants and animals along the way. The girls are skipping and talking as they go. I kind of wandered around in search of rare and interesting encounters.
As the girls continued down the trail I was focusing on this interesting fungi. This is called a bird nest fungi. The little egg-like structures are small packets of spores. Insects chew on them and release the spores into the environment. This is the best birds nest fungi I have ever seen.
I caught up with the girls and they were playing on this tree. Look closely at the tree in the image....... it is growing on top of a dead stump.
On the way to the base of the falls we had to pass through this chain linked tunnel. What movie does this image remind you of ? Come on........ it was very popular. Think big reptiles.....
Once you come to the end of the trail there is a sign that says " WARNING Proceeding any farther could cause bodily damage" (something like that). There were a few people down at the base of the falls so we decided to carefully climb down from the deck onto the rocks. We asked Heather to join us but she did not desire to negotiate the deadly rocks below.
I heard Rachel talking to Angie about Jimmy. They both had a moment of reflection while mesmerized by the sound and visual effects of the falls. The beauty of the falls made Rachel think of Jimmy.
There were some huge stumps scattered throughout the forest. This one was below the falls and created a great place for the girls to sit for a photo.