Jacob Bertram Willis

And then, there were five.

Baby Jake joined our family at 1:30 am, October 25, weighing in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. and measuring some 22.5 inches. Jen did great and appears to be recovering as well and rapidly as usual. The other kids, for their part, have been showering love on their newest sibling and future partner in crime. Grant has had perhaps the easiest job of all, and feels much gratitude for such supportive parents/grandparents, other family members, and friends. (Although he did manage to compose this post using one hand -- the other occupied by a sweet, sleeping, baby boy.)

Conference Weekend

Here is a smattering of pictures from last week's General Conference weekend (which, except for Priesthood Session on Saturday night, we watched from the comfort of our family room).

These first few were taken between sessions.

This last one was taken during conference.

Indeed.

(It was, however, a wonderful conference.)

Picking for Ourselves

There was a great article last year in Slate about how, in purely economic terms, apple picking is a "wasteful scam." History has shown that we don't really care.

Seven years ago -- in our second year in the area -- we first went apple picking as a family, along with our good friends the Wilhelms. We drove to a beautiful patch in the Virginia countryside called Hartland Orchard. At Hartland, apples are sold by the bushel (and they are very liberal about what constitutes a bushel). The orchard has apparently been around for a while, and the trees are large and mature enough to climb up and in. In fact, much of the fun was seeing just how high we could scale in order to reach the really, really big apples. We continued the annual rite with the Wilhelms for as long as they were in the area (before moving to the other Washington). We also went once or twice alone and/or with my brother Tim's family.

In most ways, Hartland is the perfect apple-picking venue. The only problem is that it takes a while to get there. As our family has grown, and the kids' activities have increased, we no longer have the "luxury" of spending the better part of Saturday traveling to and from hill-country Virginia to pick apples. So now, we pick a bit closer to home. The last two seasons that we've picked (we didn't get around to it last year, a fact the children reminded us of often) we have gone to Larriland Farm in Woodbine, Maryland. It's a bit more expensive than Hartland and not quite as "out of the way," but it's a neat place nonetheless. We continued the economically irrational tradition today, after soccer games and in between rain drops, leaving with about 30 pounds of red delicious, golden delicious, gala, and empire varieties. Give me two weeks, and I'll have had my fill until next season.

Some pictures of picking throughout the years:

2002 (Abby was younger then than Ben is now). We don't have any pix from 2001.

2003

2005, with Tim, Crystal and Co. (no pix in 2004, although I know we went). Jen has occasionally made caramel dip for consumption on site.

2006 (first time at Larriland Farm)

2008 (a little earlier in the season than normal, and a little warmer/wetter)

(Pete trying not to think about getting stung by any of the inhabitants of the bee boxes to his rear)

(on-site experimentation is an essential aspect of the apple-picking experience)

Pete Rides!!

Some quick pix from our most recent two-wheel rider.

The Beautiful Game...

... no more so than when played by a bunch of pre-schoolers and first graders.

Alex and Peter are doing soccer this year. Peter is in a pre-k "instructional" program (as if my kid needs instruction!) and Alex is in a first-grade "developmental" league. Alex practices on Tuesday evenings and plays actual games on Saturday mornings. Pete's program consists of a one-hour practice/scrimmage session, also on Saturday mornings. Pete's team is called the Lions; they roar after every goal (and much of the time in between goals). They also have lots of water breaks; I guess lions get thirsty a lot. Alex's team is apparently yet-unnamed (Alex informs me they are "still thinking of one"). As his team sports green jerseys, we have offered several suggestions, ranging from the green hornets, to the green bandits, to the green apples. I'm starting to get the sense they don't really care about the name so much.

With Pete's scrum at 9 am and Alex's at 10:30 (both at the same fields) our Saturday mornings are spent camped out at games (except for last Saturday when I abandoned my almost 8-month pregnant wife with our four children so that I could go waverunning / BBQing with some friends off the southern tip of Kent Island -- did I mention I have the best wife in the world). Some pictures from an absolutely exquisite late summer Saturday morning follow.

Morning at the Zoo

On Tuesday, Jen took Peter and Ben to the zoo along with Sis-in-Law (Aunt) Jessica and nephews (cousins) Sam and Luke. Actually, Jessica technically took Jen, as Jessica is a member of FONZ (Friends of the National Zoo) and therefore gets free parking and free animal crackers for the kids (the zoo itself is free for everyone). From the kids' report of the trip, it appears they witnessed a hippopotamus take a "bath" in his outside water tank, some tigers wake up from a nap (but none of which escaped), some monkeys, um, monkeying around, and other assorted animal life. Pictures on assorted statuary below.