Apple Orchard

Yeah for Fall! This past weekend we headed to Apple Jacks and had a great time picking Honey Crisp Apples (the best kind!), the fall raspberries, and picking up some amazing pumpkins! It was a super time - we love this tradition!

A family picture, they are actually rare on the blog :)

Annie and Dad going after the best apples.

Peter and Dad getting apples - Peter thought it was great fun

Annie and Dad REALLY going after the good apples...hum, never mind those perfectly good looking apples just to the left of Robert...
Okay, so I had to get in on the fun too! There were just so many that looked fabulous at the very top - it was worth it, believe me! We have overdosed a bit on apples this weekend but there are worse things, right?

And last but not least, check out these pumpkins! A couple of years ago Sarah and I discovered a place right near the orchard that has really inexpensive pumpkins. At the orchard they are 40 cents a pound (pricey!), but these babies were each $3!!! They all weighed between 45-50 pounds and are beautiful! I don't know what it is about huge pumpkins but I love them! When I was a kid we could get as big a pumpkin as we could carry...I think the pumpkins this year take the cake. We are going to have to recruit help to carve them...watch out if you come to visit around Halloween (you know who you are!)!

The Great State Fair

We love the state fair! This year the weather was beyond perfect, the once-a-year-foods did not disappoint, and we saw all the crazy things we had hoped to see. Enjoy the pics!

The aunts took the kids on the merry-go-round and of course it was a hit!

And the kids had a great time sitting on the big tractors - what is so fun about tractors? I dunno, but we love it!

And the Giant Slide - we love the giant slide!If you look closely you can spot Lisa, Grandpa, Mary, Peter, Robert, Annie and Jane (someone had to stay and take a picture - right?)

When Will had just about had enough, we plopped him in with Peter - the two had a good time!

Annie and Grandma working on some wood building project.

Annie and Peter are always up for free shoulder rides. They had a much better view that way in the barns. (I liked it too - easy to spot them and they didn't touch everything in the barn - gross!)

Peter loved the animals and was pretty fearless - he and Grandpa went in to see the baby cow. It was sort of funny that the cow happened to be named Annie
And the next one is sort of a random one. Peter recently has figured out how to cross his eyes. The picture doesn't capture it very well, but it really is funny.


Will's Dad let him get his hands on a chocolate chip cookie - he was one happy camper with that!

And last, but not least, my favorite picture from the fair!

Oh and I have a great story from the fair. We sat down for a minute at an outdoor concert. At the end of the concert Annie and I were only a few of our group who were still around. Annie looked around and saw a "real" Santa clause - you know, one of those guys with a really white, bushy beard and white flowing hair. She said, "Mom! Can we please go talk to him!" Since you and I know Santas are not on duty in August, I told her we could sit closer and look for a minute. We moved up closer, but were still quite far away to where the man was talking with his friends and she started waving excitedly. He saw her and waved back and called her over. She ran over and this is how the conversation went...

"Well, Hi there! So, what do you want for Christmas?"

"Um... I don't know" - we haven't been thinking about Christmas much lately

"Well, that's okay, I am really off duty right now anyway. Will you come back and see me in the mall in November?"

At that point he hands her a picture of himself dressed up as Santa and she is so excited she can hardly contain herself - it was really cute.

All in all the fair was a smashing success! You should all come next year...

A weekend in Mitchell

Last weekend Allison, Molly and I and our kids ventured off to Mitchell, SD to visit Amy and her kids. We missed Mackenzie (who just had a baby!) but had a great time catching up, hanging out and playing with the kids. I go way back with these girls - Molly and I were first grade buddies!

Amy did some fun posting of the events, but I had to put up a couple of pictures of my own. We had a ton of fun!
We crammed into one car for the 5 hour ride over - the kids did really well


Lots of meals around this table!

I love this picture! Peter LOVED the guitars they had to play with. I don't know much about playing one myself, but he sort of looks like a natural to me... :)

On the front porch before we left - cute kids!


And then one random picture from our ward campout (which we had a super time at!). Peter is totally obsessed with sticks and the whole time we were there, he gathered them up and said he was building a "fire". Check out his pile! If you got too close he would even warn you "you get burned! Too close!"

Random Summer Pics

We have been having a great summer! The only problem is that it is passing by way too quickly...

One of our favorite activities - running through the sprinklers (although Peter isn't convinced it is all that great yet) and then lunch outside.

Annie loves doing puzzles - She and Brianna had a good time working on this one.

Happy 4th of July! We had a great 4th - it ended with fireworks at Paul and Sarah's house

Annie loved her swimming lessons this summer - here she is on the last day, a "fun" day. I couldn't believe she wanted to go off the board - way to go!

Here is Peter at swimming lessons -he and I did a lot of hanging out and playing around during the lessons.

Hope your summer is super!

Twins Game

Robert got some Twins tickets from work and so we went as a family and brought Grandma and Grandpa - it was great!

Peter Loved his hot dog!

Annie did too! But I guess when you wait until 7:30 to eat dinner, you love anything :)

It was a lot of fun and the kids both really enjoyed it. Peter woke up this morning asking when we could go back.

She caught a BIG one!

I am constantly impressed with the fun things Robert makes out of our Tinker Toys. The kids especially like when he makes fishing poles (they even reel in!). Anyway, Annie caught a big one with her pole yesterday :)

A Great Invention

My kids love blowing bubbles - probably like most other kids. Its a fun summer activity, however, I must admit, letting Peter do it didn't always seem that fun because for as much as he wanted to do it alone, he always needed some sort of help that he didn't want and he would always walk away with sticky fingers, a sticky face, would have bubbles dripped all over his clothes and most times, the session would end when the bubble bottle spilled.

When we went camping on Memorial Day, cousin Lucy had this super cool bubble bottle (for lack of a better name) that totally stopped the mess and made it a TON easier for little kids. Aunt Jenny invested in some of these bubbles for her nieces and nephews and well - look how cool these are! They have forever taken away most of the mess of bubble blowing... And Peter is so happy cause he can blow them whenever he wants and not have to change his shirt after!


Here is how it works - the blowing wand pops out of the bottle when someone squeezes the bottle. At the same time, a small amount of bubble liquid is squeezed into an upper "chamber" so that when the child stops squeezing and the wand goes below, it lands in liquid and it ready to be popped up again. I don't know if it is making sense, but look at Peter! He squeezes, the wand pops up, and he blows! Awesome!! NO mess! No drips! No sticky fingers (mine or my kids)! We love you Jenny! Oh and another perk, when the bottle tips over, the only amount that can spill is the part that has been squeezed into that upper chamber thingy. You can even refill it


Okay - so it might be a funny thing to post about, especially when we have been lacking in posts about all of the fun going on this summer...but it's a start! I am sure it's important to Peter :)