U-Pick Farm Fun

This past week was a looong one for us. Perry was in Spokane for work the entire week, which made bedtime a struggle for the boys, and the boys had Thursday and Friday off of school. Luckily Nanny and Papa came over for the long weekend, just as I was starting to go a bit crazy... With a few extra days free, the 6 of us (me+kids+my parents) crammed into my car and headed to Spokane to visit Aunt Kile (and Daddy!)

Hunter was missing his dad a lot so he was super anxious to see him. Earlier in the week, Hunter wrote him a letter that said "I miss you! *heart* hunter" all by himself. I then turned the paper over and wrote what he told me. When we were done with his letter, he folded it up and we sent it to the hotel he was staying at in Spokane....but it turns out he was staying in Spokane Valley. Kind of a big difference. Hopefully they "return to sender" it so at least Perry can see it, even though it'll be late. 

Anyways, we left Thursday afternoon, and spent the evening at Kile's house. Perry and I went to dinner at Red Lobster and then he came over for a little bit as well. The boys were SO excited to see him after four long days!

On Friday, we headed to Greenbluffs to check out some U-Pick farms. The first one we stopped at was Walter's. We had only planned on stopping here to pick out pumpkins and then pick apples. Kile and I read that there were pony rides as well, but IF she came it wouldn't be until much later in the morning. 

Just look at all those pumpkins we had to choose from! 

 We quickly grabbed a cart and set to work on finding the perfect pumpkins. 

 Hunter did a lot of wandering around aimlessly before he spotted his. JP did a lot of pouting because we decided not to go pet the sheep. He perked up a bit once I found him a green pumpkin. 

 Gotta love little Casey's expressions. Just didn't want to smile for Aunt Sadie...

 You would think the big orange one was Hunter's, but he actually picked out a relatively small one. Charlotte's is the massive one :)

 They had a cute little store there where you could buy apples, if you didn't want to pick them yourself. The boys convinced Papa Craig to buy them chocolate covered pretzels instead.

 The next place we went was Siemer's. A very kid friendly place. So kid friendly that there were I believe 8 buses of kids there...plus people like us. It looked like it would have been a lot of fun if we planned to spend the whole day there. There was a bounce house, corn maze, massive slide, and train rides. Probably a few other things too. Instead of purchasing wristbands for everyone, we bought a set of tickets to ride the train and called it good. 

Nanny and Papa attempted to get a picture with all their grandkids, but this is how they turned out. Gah. Hunter put your hands down!

 Before the boys became too whiney about riding the train again, we drove a short distance away to Eleven Acres and went apple picking instead. Much more enjoyable! And we were practically the only ones there! Double bonus!

 JP loved doing this! Isn't he just a cutie?!

 Hunter had fun picking apples too. But though he said he enjoyed it, he also made a point to tell me he didn't want to do it again. We'll see about that...

 And I know Papa Craig enjoyed it as well, even though he wanted to stay in the car. :)

 Nanny helping JP pick the apples way up high!

And my little cutie pie slept through most of it. *Insert fingers in mouth and sleep* 

Don't forget about Aunt Bobby! Although we drastically interrupted her study time, she enjoyed every minute spent with her niece and nephews! 

Missoula Maze

If you haven't been yet, you need to go! This year the Missoula Maze has a Western / outlaw theme to it. I'm glad we were actually able to go because as October flies by, our chances to go have been diminishing pretty quickly. We all took naps yesterday, which was much needed, and then ran out the door right after dinner to make it before dark. Although it would have been fun in the dark too...

 Very rarely am I ever in pictures with my kids...usually I'm the one behind the camera. This is actually one of the very few (5?) pictures I have with Charli.

 As soon as we arrived, the boys ran right for the hay bale maze. 

 They made it maybe a quarter of the way through before Hunter cheated and jumped over a bale. After he jumped back over, they turned around and came out. 

 Look at those cute little faces! I was behind holding JP up.

 To start the maze, you had to choose one of the 3 entrances: Jail, Bank, or Hotel. The boys chose the jail entrance. Not the right one, as it had its own exit.

 When we did pick the right entrance, we promptly found our way through the hay bales into the corn. The boys loved it! It probably took us half an hour to complete.

 Afterwards we checked out the pumpkin patch. Initially the boys would pick up pumpkins and throw them...which we promptly stopped. Then they walked around and stood up just about all the pumpkins that were tipped over. 

 Gotta love goofball JP!

Do you know how nice it is *right now* that she sucks on her fingers instead of a binkie? So much easier!

Look at how little the boys were last year!

Backyard Camping in October

We went camping the other night. Sort of. Except we slept in the house. 

 We've been promising the boys all summer that we would have a campfire, but with all the fires going on, there were restrictions in place that we didn't dare break. So the other night, we made it happen. 

 They were so excited to roast hot dogs over the fire! 

 And they cleaned up there plates just in time to have S'mores!

 Love this kid!

 These boys were super excited to roast marshmallows.

 And even more excited to eat them! I almost teared up when after dinner Hunter, without prompting, volunteered to start taking stuff inside to get ready to make S'mores, and then JP jumped up to help too! They sure know how to melt my heart!

Charli and I warmed up by the fire for a bit, but for the most part, the "camping" was done by Perry and the boys. Poor little Charli and momma are recovering from a bout of thrush, and weren't completely feeling up to being outside. 

Family Time in Whitefish

As many know, Perry's dad passed away last month after a long hard battle with cancer. This past weekend was his memorial in Whitefish, where family from all over the country gathered to celebrate his life. Despite the circumstances for the gathering, it was so nice to see all of my "other" family again!

 

  Although my little peanut is still a peanut, I was able to snag this little guy away for some Aunt Sadie-Baby Steven bonding. 

 What a handsome little nephew I have!

 Here goes Hunter again with his baby fascination.  

 And my oh my does this guy love his little sister! It's so sweet to watch him interact with her! Look how big she's getting! She started rolling over a month ago, but over the weekend, she mastered the skill and would roll over as soon as she was laid down! She's growing up!

 Clearly the spider prank didn't scar him too bad...

It was such a treat to meet Uncle Bob too! He had a lot of fun playing with Charlotte. So glad I was able to finally meet him! Hopefully I won't be too long before we meet again!

And this little princess named Hannah, who is a few months older than Hunter, helped to keep him and JP busy. Just like last year at Aunt Em's wedding :)

Check out who got his groove on Saturday night....Perry...wearing slippers out to the bar because his dress shoes were too fancy. And that's who I married. 

Happy Birthday Kady!

Remember how we attended a birthday party earlier this year for the kid we didn't know? We still don't know him, but in the meantime we attended another birthday. This time for someone we knew! Our friends, Wayne & Pam, had a birthday party for their little girl, Kady, who just turned 2. Since we were already in their neck of the woods for the memorial, we were able to attend her party this year! We'll always know how old she is because they missed our wedding to have her (I don't blame them!). And my goodness, she is a cutie pie!

This was an especially fun party as everyone decorated sugar cookies.

Hunter was quick to jump in on all the fun.

JP was a little more hesitant, probably because he was afraid of Wayne's beard. I could tell JP always had his eye on him, to make sure it didn't show up out of nowhere and scare him?

 Like I said, little Kady is a cutie! 

 

 She was so much fun to watch, though I'm glad we weren't the ones having to put her to bed later! This girl loves her sugar!

And so does this one! She was licking it off the table! 

Here's Wayne and Perry making their cookies. Perry had to make an extra one because he ate the first one he frosted before Pam was able to take a picture of it. Ah shucks.  

 

I have to admit, Hunter has skills. He was able to convince Pam to push him around in the car...like he can't do it himself. What a stinker! I guess it's no fun when you have to do all the work!

We had to leave before Kady opened all her presents, but I can only imagine she had fun! Hopefully she'll enjoy the puzzle the boys picked out for her and the noises that it makes won't drive mom and dad crazy!