October...

We started out the month of October with a trip to the pumpkin patch with Josh's preschool. It was his first field trip ever and he loved it! I had fun going along too :)

Caleb joined the Cub Scouts this month...
He had a goal of selling $600.00 worth of popcorn so that he could win the coveted marshmallow shooter and some gift cards to Target. He was pretty ambitious and with Jon's help driving him around, he sold $650.00 worth! He is now the proud owner of a marshmallow shooter gun :) Can anyone say "chubby bunny?"

We took a trip to the farm and had a wonderful time.

We picked lots of apples...

Played on the rope swing...

Went to the grain elevator to deliver corn with Grandpa in his new semi...

Josh had to sit in the drivers seat too!!

We played lots of games...including thumb wrestling...

Played frisbee for the first time with Jessie...she caught it in the air and LOVED it...
I think she could have done this forever!!

Rode the 4-wheeler A LOT...

And did some hay bale jumping...

Cassidy shared her first pink 4-wheeler with the boys...

Thank you, Cassidy!

Nathan showed us some of his jumps on his 4-wheeler too...

Nathan, "WEAR A HELMET!"

Josh, Jon and I took a sunset drive on the Gator. The soybeans looked great Uncle Stacey!

We took the kids to the Outdoor Campus for a night animals Fall Festival walk...

We went to Minneapolis to see a Vikings vs. Cowboys game. It was fun but we were severely out-numbered! We lucked out and our row had about 8 Cowboys fans and 3 Vikings fans! The Cowboys unfortunately lost in the end...oh well...we still had fun :)

Jon and I went to the Avera Cancer Institute Gala with Lance Armstrong as the featured speaker...

and Gma & Gpa graciously (& bravely) came to Sioux Falls to babysit the boys and take them to the Fall Festival at Caleb's school with about 500 other kids!

I would say that earns them the "Grandparent's of the Year" award :)

We also celebrated Joe's birthday!!

We did some pumpkin carving too...

Josh wanted a BIG SCARY SPIDER on his to "scare Daddy!"

Our church also had a Harvest Festival that the boys love to go to each year...

Josh and Caleb had fun with the hula hoops!

Caleb went fishing for some candy too!

September...

September was a fun month for us and we were blessed with beautiful weather on top of it! We took the kids to Minneapolis over Labor weekend to visit the Mall of America and to see a Twins game. Our first stop was Nickelodeon Land at the Mall of America. They were so excited to see Diego!!

Caleb and Josh had a lot of fun on the Sneeky Swiper cars...boy did they go fast around those corners!

We all enjoyed the view from above on the ferris wheel!

I don't have a picture of it on my camera (we had to buy a professional one) but we all went on the Log Chute ride. 1/2 of us got soaked & 1/2 of us didn't...luckily Josh and I chose wisely by sitting in the back! Jon and Caleb had a huge wave catch them at the end and it soaked them pretty good!
You can see Caleb's shorts in this picture are pretty wet...but it was worth it :)

After that we went to the Rainforest Cafe for a delicious dinner. It was fun to eat next to a smoking volcano, hear the thunderstorms roll in and to see goofy monkeys swinging around. The kids had a hard time concentrating on their meal with so much to see!

The kids had to feed the crocodile some coins while we waited for our seats!

They had some pretty cool aquariums and tropical fish.

They next day we found a really neat park close to our hotel with all these rope walls to climb. I think we were there for 2 hours because it was so fun for the kids...and Jon!

Jon and Caleb left for the Twins game and to pass the time, Josh and I found a neat wooded path around a lake to explore behind our hotel. Jon won two VIP tickets right behind home plate earlier in the year and decided to take Caleb along. When they got back from the game Caleb came in the door with several Chinese take-out boxes full of candy! He said "mom, there was every kind of candy ever made there and I could have as much as I wanted!" No words about the actual game...just the great food.

Josh and his best buddy, Jessie. She puts up with a lot from him laying all over her (I think she secretly loves it, she just pretends to be annoyed :)

Joe & Margaret joined us for a camping trip to Newton Hills State Park. We did my favorite version of camping...Jon & they boys camped in the tent and Jessie & I camped during the day and went home to our cozy beds at night! Joe & Margaret stayed in their motor home.

Good thing we had the motor home because it rained, the tent was soaked inside and we had a warm place to prepare and eat a meal! Margaret was quite the cook! Jon and the boys were troopers. They soaked up all the water in the tent and slept in it that night!

Jon and I were grandparents for a day at Josh's preschool. It was Grandparent's Day and Grandpa & Grandma Miller were just at our house a few weeks earlier, so we filled in :)

It was Josh's turn to do the calendar for the day and they sang the Day's of the Week Song.

Then they got to make apple trees with leaf cookie cutters dipped into green paint.

Then they got to play with foam...Josh LOVED this because he loves playing in goo or anything messy!

Caleb also enjoyed a beautiful month of soccer and did quite well.

We played at the park a lot this month...

The boys also allowed mom a few cute pictures along the river :)