September & October catch up

 I've actually been wanting to blog for awhile now. So many things have been on my mind. Buuuutttt, then life happens, and time goes by, and it's not useful to blog about something from 2 months ago. Which is why so many of my posts are just 'Life Latelys". I don't know what to say, other than, "oh well!"

So here is what we've been up to.

September:

The annual bookclub girls' weekend getaway! Wonderful, relaxing, over-too-soon.

Baby girl turned 3.

We went to the apple orchard and randomly saw my sister and her baby there, that was fun!

Picked apples, ate donuts and cider, came home and made 2 pies. 

My garden harvest.

Zoo date with these 2 and a girlfriend and her son.

Went to a 'touch a truck' event in the community. This one was awesome, the lines were either so short or no line at all- and lots of opportunities to talk to people about their jobs and stuff like that (ie policeman, city sweeper truck, zamboni driver)

I also read this book, and it was SO good. I lost 7# and learned a lot about how the body uses food for energy- and even as someone who is a RN, exerciser for the last 25 years, I learned a lot. 

October:

I completed this quilt for August. He'd been begging for a "big boy bed" (he's been in an antique Jenny Lind's child's bed that's in between a crib/twin mattress size) and so we got him a loft bed for his birthday. He had 2 so sweet, precious quilts that were gifts I received when he was a baby and they only fit the small bed. So I wanted to make him a new quilt to go with it. 

My first baby turned 8!

Immediately followed by Halloween.

Pumpkin carving.

Trick or treating, and I think the nicest Halloween weather we've ever had!

His old bed

The new loft bed. 

One more trip to the apple orchard before it closed for the season.

The other big thing for October was Doug & I celebrated (a week early) with 5 days in the Dominican Republic! It was such a wonderful time to getaway, relax, eat food I didn't make/clean up after, walk on the beach, sightsee, sleep in, and enjoy each other. 

We were so thankful for the chance to get away, and so thankful on how much God has blessed us these past 10 years.

Last minute before back-to-school fun

 Checked out a new nature center. They have 100 acres and more than 2 miles of trails. We will be back in the fall for some fall colors, and this time with bug spray!

Turkey feather

August won a free ticket to the ball game after a reading initiative in the spring, so he and daddy and grandpa had a fun afternoon. (most fun: eating hotdogs and getting a new stuffed animal)

Meanwhile the girls and I had lunch at Culvers and home to watch Frozen.

This happened a few days ago, elbow dislocation. Thankfully it had already fixed itself before the doctor even came in. 

I backed into a brick wall with Doug's jeep. I was thankful it wasn't another car!

The kids and I checked out another nature center where I grew up, I hadn't been there since elementary school. It was really nice. 

They had this gorgeous door into the kidscape area

We picked all these veggies from my mom's garden while she was on vacation. And the kids demolished the entire thing in one evening.

Doug and I had a date night, we saw the Twisters movie (so good!) we had the whole theatre to ourselves.

And this was actually our only day at the beach this year (!) The kids had a blast in the sand.

This was the 3rd groundhog caught this summer. Altho not before utterly decimating my zinnias, climbing beans, a lot of bush bean plants, and possibly the melon leaves too. 

And one more playground this morning

We've had a good summer overall. Lots of togetherness. Lots of squabbles. Getting excited for back-to-school, altho not the getting up early/rushed mornings. And still nervous about home-schooling 2 now, while balancing a soon-to-be-3'nager mini-tornado ball of energy. But we shall see how it goes!

so much to catch up on

 It feels like it's been a very busy season of life. No way to catch up on 2 months, so here's a bit of what's been going on:

MAY:

$6k for a new septic field. Pro- I now finally understand what a septic field is. Con- still planting grass seed and dealing with that mess

mother's day kisses!

August's first pet! A little caterpiller he named Frankie. (RIP Frankie)

Doug took down my old falling apart garden boxes and made me new ones from cedar

This boy finished 1st grade

Rollar skating end of the year party, so fun

Beautiful girl

My sis and I went on a women's exercise/Christian wife/mother retreat in NC. It was SOOO good to spend time together and fellowship with other women believers

Here we are with the woman who helped me get back into shape after pregnancy with her GlowbodyPT workouts. (we were totally fangirling!)

Had a date with this guy.

JUNE:

Grow garden grow!

Father's day

My brother and family was in town and we all went to Wisconsin for a family reunion. They sold the family (my grandparents 100 acre) farm last year so we all went one last time to say goodbye. It was bittersweet, so many memories in that barn. I miss my grandparents. 

We had a lot of fun with cousins at the waterpark resort we stayed at

Bummed my brother lives so far away, but always so fun to get together again

It was my first time at the Wisconsin Dells, this was a view from the Upper Dells boat tour

Later we hiked at Devil's Lake state park

this was after we hiked up to Balanced Rock (we got soaking wet with rain on the way down, but no one fell or was struck by lightening- WIN!)

Pretty girls by the flowers at our airbnb

We also went on a Wisconsin Duck boat tour, fun!

And toured a lavender farm

Then we went on to Minnesota to visit 2 other cousins (and get a picture for our US family travel map!)

It's been a busy couple months, but enjoying the summer.