What we've been up to

We have had a pretty busy month already, so I'll try and update and post some pictures. Kurt traveled to Turkey for a week and a half, so we were very thankful to get him back. Upon his return, our family went to Breckenridge, CO for a few days to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. We had such a nice time as a family exploring the city. Kurt and I were there before kids, so this was a new adventure. It is not ski season yet, so the town was pretty quiet but that made it even better. We got to eat at some nice restaurants without any type of wait and do a little shopping. We even spent some time at a children's museum and the boys really enjoyed that.

Nathan exploring at the children's museum.

Daddy and Silas playing at the museum.




The weather here has been beautiful (although we know we are in for change soon!), so we have spent all of our spare time enjoying the different fall festivals and activities around the area. This past weekend we went to "Boo at the zoo" where the kids dress up and go trick or treating at the zoo in the evening and get to see some of the animals. We had a wonderful time and it just prepared us for Halloween around the corner. On Saturday, we went to a farm that has various animals and activities along with pumpkins. We enjoyed petting the animals and just being outdoors. Again, a great reminder why we love fall so much.

This is a festival I went to w/ a friend and her children when Kurt was gone. Here is Silas helping make apple cider.

Me, Silas, Nathan and our friend Elijah on the hay ride.

Daddy, Silas and Nathan at "Boo at the Zoo". Silas is Thomas the Tank engine this year, which he absolutely loves and Nathan is a lion.
Silas and Daddy feeding the giraffes at the zoo.



This is the farm we went to on Saturday. They had pony rides and Silas really enjoyed that.


Who can resist the barrel train rides?


Playing on the big tire wheels. (Cheap entertainment!)



Yes, they even played king of the mountain on the bales.

Poor Nathan couldn't keep up!


This is Silas being brave and going right up to the pig. That's my kind of farm boy.

Feeding the animals was a hit.


Silas found the pumpkin he wanted clear across the field and he rolled it all the way to us. Even though it has flaws.......we brought it home. It was so cute watching him roll it.


Here is Silas's way of making sure nobody gets our pumpkins!

More Fall Activities

In addition to our Happy Apple Farm experience, we did a wonderful hike in the mountains. A couple Saturdays ago, we went up to the mountains to explore a museum we have always wanted to see but never had the time. Unfortunately, but fortunately......it didn't take us too long to get through, so we got to go hiking earlier than anticipated which meant we could take a longer route than normal. The leaves were not at peak turning point yet, so the colors were not as incredible as I would have hoped or have seen before, but it was still beautiful. Silas did such an incredible job hiking and although he got tired, he was such a trooper and kept on going. We did take a break to eat our lunch and he was thrilled about that. Nathan was in the backpack and must have had a very comfortable ride, because he took a little snooze! We did come across a snake and so Daddy and Silas had fun playing with that while Mommy kept her distance. I guess that is part of having boys....right? So, here are some pictures from our mountain hike.

Silas and Daddy playing with the snake.
Yes, Silas is touching the snake. Thanks, Daddy for teaching him that!


Here you can see snow on top of the higher mountains because we did get hit with some snow. The aspens in the valley are starting to change. Unfortunately a picture doesn't portray how beautiful and majestic it is.


Daddy educating Silas on how to pee on a tree. Now that he's potty trained, you do what you have to do!


Silas "reading" the map and telling us where to go as we hiked.


Nathan on the way home from the hike! You'd think he did all of the work.

Autumn

This is our family's favorite time of the year, so we try to get out and enjoy it as much as possible. This year we went to a place called Happy Apple Farm. We heard that you can pick your own raspberries, blackberries, apples, pumpkins, etc. The best part about it is that you can eat the fruit right off the vines or trees because they don't spray them, so we took advantage of that! We had to limit Silas and have him remember to put them in our basket so we could take some home too!
Riding the tractor in order to get out to the fields.

Here we are picking the berries off of the vine.

Here's some of our full basket of berries.
Daddy picking apples while Silas was our bag holder.
The bag of apples got heavy quickly!
They had some beautiful sunflowers that we enjoyed.

Nathan was very interested in the pumpkins.

The boys in the pumpkin patch.



So I bet you are dying to know what we did with all of our berries and apples. Kurt made us some very yummy raspberry pancakes that were enjoyed by all. Sheila made some homemade apple sauce which was very flavorful. And the best thing was this raspberry and blackberry cobbler that Sheila made. We were sad to see it gone!!!!!!!!! Something to look forward to for next year!