Down at the Tree Farm

As mentioned earlier we went with most of my family to pick out my parents Christmas tree. We have been going to St. Croix Valley Trees north of Somerset, WI for nearly 20 years. They have beautiful trees and have expanded so much it would be easy to make a day out of your visit.

1: Getting the grandkiddos in my parents suburban for the quick trip.

2: ATTACK UNCLE JAMES!!!

3: "We wanna help! Can we help cut the tree?? Can we? Can we? Huh?"

4: Hauling the tree out of there.

Visiting Grandma & Grandpa Davis

It was cold while we visited but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying all the great outside things to do at my parents house.

1: Saying "hi" to the chickens.

2: Lydia's at the wheel. Yee-haw.

3: Enjoying the sand volleyball court turned giant sand box.

Cousins

For Thanksgiving we took a little jaunt to MN/WI to visit our families over the four-day holiday weekend. Between the five of us over the four days we managed to eat dinner on Thanksgiving twice, see the majority of our families, laugh a lot, cut my parents Christmas tree, watch a movie, cuddle with aunts and uncles, go to church just Nathan and I (we heard an entire sermon!!), play with chickens, check out the pig barn, slide on a new slide, explore a fort made of haybales, ride a tractor, visit a farm, have a cousins slumber party, and have an entirely wonderful time. We're just glad that from the day we left till the day we go back is only a month's time. Yeah for family!

This picture is of our kids with their cousins, Joey and Jesse, my sisiter's boys. Cousins are much cool. :)

Making Turkey Projects

All three of our kids love "projects." Almost anything qualifies as a project if it's slightly creative and involves any art supplies. This week we made a project that took three separate work times on three separate days. Here are the pictures of day one. The painting was done in the heated garage, with the kids in as little clothes as possible, and was followed immediately by a trip to the bathtub. I'm relatively certain only crazy parents attempt these things. It was an adventure to say the least. :)

Hiking in the Skyline Wilderness Area

Right through the middle of Rapid City there is a huge hill that splits the city. It has been developed in some places along the sides but the top of it is Skyline Wilderness Area. It's amazing. Living in the Black Hills we're spoiled with hiking everywhere and this is one of the major spoilers. Two weekends back we had a Saturday in the low 70s and sun-filled skies. We headed up to the Skyline Wilderness Area for some hiking and geocaching. To get there you don't even have to leave Rapid but are actually right in the middle of town. We did meet some other hikers with boys who played with our kids. There are also often mountain bikers in the area as we saw lots of tracks. It might not be as remote as most of the Black Hills but for being in the middle of a town of 62,000, it's pretty great. :)

pic #1: Nate and the kids hiking down with Rapid City's east side in the distance.

pic #2: Evan and Hans climbing on what some local kids call "Castle Rock." (Notice shorts in November! Yeah!)

WWII Memorial in Pierre

The first weekend in November we took a road trip east to Watertown, SD. Nathan is on the Board for Great Plains LHS and needed to attend a meeting there. The kids and I tagged along to visit the Maertzes. It was a busy, fast, and fun weekend. Like most visits with friends, it passed too quickly. We look forward to making another trip over sometime in the spring.

On the way back home we came through Pierre and took the opportunity to stop at the WWII Memorial. It is a relativly recent addition and one of interest to both Nathan and I. The kids were just happy to get out of the van and have the chance to throw rocks in the water. It's a neat memorial to some real heros. If you're ever in the neighborhood take a few minutes to stop.

1: The kids overlooking the fountain It is supposed to flame because some flamable liquid is mixed with the water but it wasn't "on" that day.

2: A man or woman dressed in their battle uniforms represents each branch of the military. They are slightly larger than life because, in the words of our governor, "those men and women were larger than life."

3: The flags and wall which bears the names of those from SD who fought in WWII.

Rodeo Harvest Fest

As long as we've been a family we have had a family theme for our Harvest Fest costumes. This years theme was inspired by our favorite August activity, the rodeo.

Photo 1: Steer Wrestler Hans (aka: A Cowboy who has a lasso who rides a horse.)

Photo 2: Buckin' Horse Rider Evan (showing off his balloon mouse.)

Photo 3: Barrel Racer/Rodeo Princess Lydia (collecting her winnings after dropping a bean bag in the clown nose.)

Photo 4: The Coyboys and Cowgirl posing with the rodeo clowns who followed them around all night (aka: the prize winners!)

We're more than a little crazy but we have a lot of fun!

Jack-O-Lanterns

A few posts ago we shared pictures of our pumpkin crop. Here are those nine pumpkins all carved and glowing. Hans' is the one with a "rectangle mouth, triangle nose, and circle eyes" and Evan's has "square eyes, a moon nose like a cresent, and a snaggle-tooth mouth." Lydia just was happy to play with any "punky." I stole an idea from Martha and created a jack-o-man for mine. We'll see what grows in the garden next year. :)

Early Interest in Theater

This past Sunday when I was starting to pull together our costumes for Halloween I dug out the face paint. Evan asked to have his face "all painted like a clown." This is what we came up with for the afternoon. He sported the look for a few hours much to the confusion of his little sister. I've always thought he was a clown. :)