Autumn fun!

We took our annual trip to the apple orchard last weekend. The weather was perfect (it happened to be a Colts game that day, which is why we're all decked out!)

We went a bit later in the year than we usually go so many of the apple tree varieties were done for the year. The one's that were left were mostly at the tops of the trees so Nick had to serve as cherry picker (or apple picker in this instance!)

Here is Andrew trying to carry the FULL bag of apples! He thinks he's very mighty.

The Golden Delicious were right in season and plentiful so the boys were able to pick lots of them.

After all our hard picking we took a rest while taking a ride around the orchard.

Alex was off school on Wednesday (parent-teacher conferences) so we joined my MOPS group for a trip to Stony Creek Farm. We took a great hayride to the pumpkin patch. Don't they look cute!?

Here is one of my famous attempts at a fun fall photo of the boys together. Yeah, not so much.

On the hayride home one of my MOPS friends snapped a rare photo of me with the boys.

Here are they boys on the hay mountain.

Here is our Andrew J. pretending to be a scary pumpkin. He cracks me up!

And Alex was a scarecrow--I think I'll miss him most of all. :)

Purdue Football Game!

This Saturday we made the piligrimage to West Lafayette to see Nick's beloved Boilermakers play some football! Here are the boys heading into the stadium:
















The stadium is full of all sorts of Purdue icons...here's the little train that leads the team onto the field:














...and Purdue Pete (although he kind of looks like he's picking a wedgie in this picture!)















Here's the marching band with The Worlds Largest Drum in the middle (it has an American flag drapped over it).













Then the team came onto the field with much fanfare. The boys really liked this part!

We only made it to the second quarter because the game was pretty dull and the boys got bored but they did get to see the Boilers score a touchdown and have the college football experience. Good times!

First Grade Here Alex Comes!

This morning our Alex headed off to first grade! (His first year going all day) He had some first day jitters but I know he'll do great!

3, 6 and 38

Yesterday we had a picnic to the IMA and took our traditional picture of the boys by the number that is their current age. And this year, Nick got to participate because the 3 and the 8 happen to be next to each other!

Michigan!

This past weekend we took a three-day weekend up to Saugatuck and Holland Michigan for a some family time together. Our first stop was Saguatuck State Park where we took a trail through these gorgeous woods to a lovely deserted beach on Lake Michigan.
















Here is Alex climbing the last sand dune and getting his first glimpse of Lake Michigan.


















Everyone was so excited to finally reach our destination! The shoreline is so pretty with age-old oaks and pine that lead right up to the sand dunes that rim the eastern shore of the lake.
















Here are my boys so excited to be on the beach! If you look behind them you can see we had the place completely to ourselves--heaven!




















The waves are surprisingly high considering this isn't the ocean. They had just had a bunch of storms come through and I think that really stirred the water up. The boys had never seen waves like that so they were so excited and kept charging toward the waves!













Eventually it was obvious that trying to keep them dry was a fruitless endevour so we stripped them down to their underwear and let them get into the water. There was no one for miles down the beach so I figured it didn't really matter and, after all, they are only boys! (Sorry Michigan residents, if the sight of my son's Diego underpants offended you, I apologize! :)















The next morning unfortunately dawned with heavy rain that lasted until about 11:00. We finally got the Oval Beach (sight of our engagement 11 years ago!) around noon and although it was very overcast, we still managed to have a splendid time making sandcastles and body surfing in the waves. Here is Nick and Andrew's masterpiece:



















The boys spent a long time looking for rocks, shells and sticks to protect their castle and they did a pretty good job! Here is the final result:















That afternoon we headed back to Holland for some dinner and then afterward headed to a go-kart track for some racing fun. (I know it looks like Alex is choking Andrew in this picture but he really wasn't!) They had really great go-karts that were two-seaters so Nick and I drove and each took a boy with us. We raced twice and Team Amy won each time! Woo hoo!














Sunday morning we packed up the van and headed down the highway in search of a blueberry farm to pick heaps of berries. It is currently the height of the blueberry season up there and they are delicious! None of us had ever picked blueberries before so it was a great adventure for all of us.

















Here is what they look like on the bush, for those that have never been. Gorgeous, huh?!
















Each time they picked one, they had to show it to us and we had to proclaim that they were master berry-pickers!















Here they are with the "fruits" of our labor. Haha.