So much rain on all the Mondays in October

Apparently October was the rainiest month ever in Seattle. We have had so much rain that I’ve started to carry an umbrella around in my car!  The other day at the grocery store I saw someone put a ziplock bag over their hair because it started to suddenly pour.  But thankfully tonight on Halloween night we got just enough of a break in the weather to get out into the neighborhood rain drop free for a little while.  I even had a record-breaking 9 kids show up at our house for trick-or-treating. NINE!

This year we went as a Pokémon family, and I was Pikachu, but I didn’t get a chance to get a family costume picture.  But again, I’m just thankful we got to wander around in our actual costumes without rain jackets, umbrellas or ziplock bags on our heads.

If you do need an umbrella in Seattle, an amazing place to find one is a store near Pike Place Market called Bella Umbrella.  They have some pretty fantastic umbrellas and I have my eye on this unusual looking umbrella just in case this rainy trend works its way into November and December.  If we’re going to have this much water coming down from the sky, this would make a fantastic present for anyone in the Pacific Northwest.  I am starting my Christmas shopping ASAP, so I’ll make sure to keep you up to date with what I’m buying and you’ll see my gift lists on Monday pretty soon.  I hate the stress of last-minute shopping, and it’s so much easier to just get a few things at a time.

I also have to remember how all the rain might affect our holiday plans.  We almost missed pumpkin patch season this year because the first two times I tried to go we ended up having huge rain storms.  We needed to buy a snow blower for the cabin last weekend and some of the guys in the store mentioned that Jubilee Farm was not too far away.  I had never heard of this pumpkin patch but I was dying to get a family pumpkin patch adventure in this year so I was willing to try anything.

And miraculously the rain stopped for a little while.

The hubby helped with a giant pumpkin slingshot.  (This was another pumpkin patch tradition I have always wanted to see.  There are a lot of farms with pumpkin slingshots in the Pacific Northwest and it is definitely out of this world to watch a giant pumpkin pelted through the air and then smash rewardingly in a field faraway.)

The boys made cider and we road a tractor through the mud to a field of pumpkins.

We got our family picture.

And we came back to basket weaving and music.  I absolutely had a blast making baskets with my kids and I hope we can learn to make more before Christmas because these would make gorgeous gifts.

I also love that Jubilee Farm is a CSA and I am thinking about joining for the summer season next year.  I noticed many people picking up produce at the farm for their CSA box and I love that they were able to pick out their own produce as well as head out to the farm to pick some produce from the fields.  I’ve seen something like this in California and I didn’t realize we had this close to home.  A CSA would also make a fantastic gift for someone in Washington!  I’m so glad we ended up at Jubilee Farm.  I do think sometimes things happened for a reason.

So please cross your fingers that things dry up a little here in the next few months or maybe we can get some rain in the snow variety this year.  Do you like rain or snow? And has it been rainy where you are?  Happy Halloween Monday!

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)