I like summer too, but we did a lot of fun things this fall.  Loved Leed’s Farm.  It was a glorified pumpkin patch, with all sorts of activities.  A little bit of a drive from our lovely place here in Columbus, but totally worth it. 

Favorites included the zip line

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rolling tubes (do these things have official names?)  We called them the Hamster Wheel.  These were my personal favorite!

We spent a good hour in this area alone, rolling to our hearts content.  The weather kind of worked in our favor.  It was a super cold day, but when we have Stan home we go no matter what.  Turns out, not many other people are fond being outside in teh bitter cold.  It was nice though b/c we never had to wait for any of the activities.

Like a slide

And this itty bitty train ride

 

 

 

 

 

Check out how far into his chest, Stan’s knees are in these pictures, hence the reason I opted out!

We also participated in the usual October activities of carving pumpkins and Trick-or-Treating

This was the first year that we let Garrett cut his pumpkin (We usually just have the kids paint them), but he wasn’t too into it.  Would still rather paint.  He did not want to touch the pumpkin guts, but being the kind parents that we are we made him, it goes with the territory, he was definitely not a fan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logan enjoyed painting any surface within reach and also eating the pumpkin.  We would cut out pieces and he and Eli would go to town on them, they loved raw pumpkin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logan was quite interested in the pumpkin guts

And Eli just liked to eat

Say Cheese

Let the Trick-or-Treating begin

The boys with the neighborhood kids before we all parted ways

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He we have A Construction Worker, A Surgeon, and a Pirate

I love the little shoes covers and scrub cap that Stan made for Eli, totally completes the outfit.  What was even more impressive was that Eli kept the hat on the entire night.

Here is Garrett and our next door neighbor Meredith.  Garrett has come to love Meredith

He liked her a lot before Halloween, but especially once her saw her balloon fired up.  He knew that she flew them, but she won him over with the balloon display that night.  Her and her friends set up shop at the end of the street and hand out candy from their baskets, very cool.

Eli caught on quickly to trick-or-treating and had himself a grand ol’ time.

Calling it quits

Enjoying the treasures

 

We love these little guys, they help us to remember to keep smiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So while most people are blogging about what they did for Memorial Day, we are going to blog about October.  I tried downloading our pictures from our vacation to Seattle and our camera was dead and I can’t find our battery charger.  So….while I’m thinking about it, October is better than nothing (right?).

The first weekend in October, happenned to be Stan’s first Saturday off since starting residency in July.  He was post call Friday (meaning he worked a 30 hour shift starting Thursday morning and ending Friday around noon) so we decided to try our luck at camping.  We headed up to Alum Creek State Park because they were having their Halloween festivities that weekend.  Well Alum Creek was packed so we stayed at the lovely RV camp site across the street.   Lovely!

It ended up being pretty chilly and rained on us all night, but we LOVED it and are excited for our next camping adventure.  Nothing beats cold Little Ceasar Pizza, roasted marshmallows, hot chocolate and waking up to a fire, pancakes and eggs!  Love, love, love it!

We helped ourselves to the many FREE activities at Alum Creek like Fishing

I was the only one to catch a fish, can you see it?

Here Logan is showing it off nicely for me

We also went on a pontoon boat ride around the lake

and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, loved all the leaves changing colors (did I mention it was a little cold?)

Stan found the face painting booth and rather than wait in line for them to paint it, he volunteered his own services in designing our children’s faces.

I love camping, I’m so glad that my children not only tolerate but enjoy my “adventures” that I plan for them.  I’m grateful for boys who sleep anywhere and a husband who deals with my oftentimes crazy and whimsical ideas.  I’m not so much a fan of squatting at night in the rain and hoping the neighboring campers aren’t awake at the same time.  Good times!

On Saturday, since we were “in the area” we decided to make a quick stop at Jack’s Landing over at the zoo and take advantage of their season ending prices.  Garrett has always loved this type of a ride and he has now convinced Logan of its greatness.

The truth of the matter, he says it tickles his weiner (sorry folks, its true).

Don’t you love all that we get to pack into Stan’s precious Saturdays off!  We look forward to them, although they don’t happen near enough.  If he has it off, he usually has to round during the morning or he’s post call so he works half-day.

October had quite a few warm weather days so we made sure to enjoy them all outdoors: 

Garrett finished up soccer

We took another trip to the zoo, can you have too many zoo days?

The petting zoo and the statues always seem to be favorites

We played in ALL of the leaves that the “forest” behind our house drops on us

Looking back we have so many adventures, I’m grateful we can do these things with our children.  I’m grateful for the small things, like playing in leaves, that seem like adventures to our children.  How blessed and lucky am I to be able to enjoy these days with the boys.  I know I don’t feel this way at the end of each and every day, but looking back, these days are precious.  I will try harder to remember that and blog more often to remind myself of that!  Be back soon with the remaining bits of October!