Nesbit's

On the Saturday before Halloween, Jake and I decided that we needed to get our rear ends in gear and find some pumpkins.  It was only 2 days before Halloween and the kids were getting a little worried that we weren't going to have any this year.  Not wanting to just go to a store and buy some (what fun is there in that?) We made our way across the river to a nursery called Nesbit's which we had seen advertised at the Red Wing Farmer's Market.  We found it and spent the afternoon of exploring what they had to offer.  I can't say that I was overly impressed, but the kids had fun so I guess that is all that matters.  And the weather was nice so it was hard to be in a bad mood.  It was a little pricey and they didn't seem to have tons of stuff to do that didn't cost even more, still not sure if we will go back next year or not.  Guess we will have to see.
The kids first found an old wooden train that they crawled around on.

Ashton and Abbie found some tire swings that had been cute to look like horses that they had a ball playing on.   I couldn't get them to hold still for a picture.

While the kids were swinging Lexie found some baby animals that you could pet.  She had fun with the goats for a while.

The favorite animals were the baby bunnies....

Ashton's favorite was the hay bales

we almost couldn't get him to leave when it was time to go.

Their "pumpkin patch" left something to be desired but then again it was only a few days before Halloween but the tractor ride out to it was fun.  

Overall it was a fun family afternoon, but we still ended up going to the grocery store when we got back to town to get pumpkins that were actually big enough to carve.  Next year maybe we shouldn't wait so long.

FOUR little pumpkins

We took our kids to a pumpkin patch on Saturday, it was pretty pricey but the kids had a good time.  More pictures to come later.  While we were there we told the kids they could each pick out a pumpkin, one for each kid and this is how many pumpkins we ended up with....

FOUR PUMPKINS!!!  

We are excited to announce that we will be adding a new little pumpkin to our family next spring!!  I am due in June but if the past is any indication of how things will go,  it could be May or June when the little one makes its arrival. 

Lake Pepin

Ok, so way back in August, not long after we got to Minnesota, we took a drive around "Lake Pepin".  I still have a hard time thinking of it as a lake because really it is the Mississippi River, but really wide and really slow moving and everyone around here calls it Lake Pepin.  We went down the Minnesota side and then across the river in Wabasha and up the Wisconsin side.  It is really a beautiful drive and I wanted to tell Jake every few minutes to stop so I could take some pictures, but I mostly refrained and tried to just enjoy the ride.  We did stop just as the sun was going down at a "wayside", better know in Utah as a rest area, to better enjoy the view.  We are going to take the drive again next weekend so see the leaves changing and I am sure going to take lots of pictures then, I hope.  But here are a few I took from this trip.

The kids all climbed on the wall with me while I was taking pictures of the river, I mean lake, and I had to take a few of them cause it was so cute to see them staggered like that.  

The beautiful Mississippi River, aka Lake Pepin.

Here's one of Ashton being silly.  He kept saying he wanted to go for a swim.  

This nastiness was one thing I did make Jake stop to take a picture of.  There are marsh lands all along the sides of the river, some worse than others.  This isn't the actual side of the river, but one of the marsh lands along the edge of the river valley. After seeing all this stagnant water around it's no wonder the mosquitos are so bad here.  As beautiful and the river itself is, this part is just gross.

And now I realize why they call this the land of 10,000 lakes.  There really is water everywhere and if its a puddle they call it a lake.  Unfortunately, most of them look just like this.  No one would ever actually get in it.  Well unless you are a bug  ;)

Root Beer Floats

Last Monday, Jake was in charge of treats for FHE and at the last minute he decided on root beer floats.  My kids were so excited, even Abbie cheered along with her brother and sister then asked, "what's a root beer float?"  She knew that she should be excited because Lexie and Ashton were, but she didn't know why.  Is that sad that she had no idea what a root beer float was?  I guess it has been a while since we have had them.  Well they were certainly enjoyed.

Fall Festival

A Few weekends ago we took a quick trip down the river to Wabasha, we intended to go the eagle center there.  But traffic didn't cooperate with us and we didn't make it to the last show, but we did find that they celebrate a fun fall festival that they call "Septoberfest".  We walked around the town and found lots of fun fall decorations.  It was still a fun afternoon although not at all what we had originally planned.  Here are a few pictures from our fun day.

 pumpkin carving

 Mr and Mrs Potato Head

 angry birds

 jack

and an owl.

We also walked down by the river.

and found a cool waterfall that ended in the river.

 They have a few other activities later in October that we are going to try and make it to.

Ashton's Birthday

 Better late than never, right?  My little guy turned SIX on the 7th!  I can hardly believe it, it still seems like only yesterday I was in the hospital with him missing out on Lexie's first day of kindergarten.  But now it is him that is off to school.  He has waited so long to be able to go to school.  

This was our first birthday celebration in Minnesota and it was a little different not having tons of family around.  But still, Ashton had a great day.  We didn't do too much, he was off school because it was kindergarten transition days, but Lexie was at school and Jake had to work so the day was pretty quiet.  I made him wait until everyone was home to open his presents and he thought that was pretty mean of me.  His new thing has been legos since our trip to the lego store. So getting some new sets for his birthday was a high priority.   

And he opened them with much fanfare, in true Ashton fashion.

Jake found this cute baseball theme cake in a super small size which worked out great considering there were only five of us to eat it.

Ashton go to pick what was for dinner and he picked his favorite.  "Shrimp on a bob"  which translates to BBQ'ed shrimp kabobs.  We also had inside out cheeseburgers, which he really likes also.

I think he had a fun day, don't you.

Behind, I am so behind

So many things have happened in the last few weeks, and I haven't made the time to blog about them.  First, the first day of school was last Tuesday.  Lexie started her first day of 6th grade, she is an official middle schooler.  I'm still not sure how I feel about that, back in Utah she would have still been in elementary school for this last year and that seems easier, less scary, safer.  

And because we live too close to the school she has to ride her bike until it gets too cold for that and then, lucky me I will be driving her.  We must live right on the edge of the boundary because it is 1 1/2 miles to the school, too far to walk.  She was excited for school to start, but nervous because she doesn't know anybody.  I was hoping that she could find friends at church, but all the kids that are her age in church are home schooled or live in Wisconsin. I never thought any of my kids would ever have to be "the only member of the church in my grade"  but Lexie is.  I know that she will be fine, but this first little while is going to be hard.

Ashton's school starts later so after Lexie left it was time to get Ashton ready and off on the bus.  I was a little nervous for the little guy, but he seemed to do fine.  He looks nervous in this picture, but he never seemed nervous.  This was my first experience getting a kindergartener off on the bus for their first day of school.  I was in the hospital after just having this little guy on Lexie's first day of kindergarten.  

He climbed right on the bus without looking back and was off for his first day. 

 Abbie wanted her picture taken too, she was pretty sad that she didn't get to go to school.  We had already talked earlier this year that she would be doing a preschool co-op in Herriman with other kids her age so now that we can't do that she is feeling pretty picked on in the school department.  We bought her a lunch box "just like the big kids for school" and she insisted that she needed a lunch also for the first day.  She had so much fun eating her lunch out of her lunch box, that it was totally worth it.

First day's of school are pretty hard on kids and you expect them to come home tired, right?  How 'bout the little sister left behind?  Think she had a rough "first day of school"?

(She rarely takes naps anymore, especially not in the middle of the afternoon)

Next up, Ashton's birthday...

Mall of America

Last Saturday we drove to the Twin Cities and went to the Mall of America.  That place is HUGE!  We explored some and had lunch, at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company.  It was Ashton's choice he loves shrimp.  The restaurant is all from the movie Forrest Gump, it is kinda cheesy but the food was really good.  

 Waiting for food....

 Jake's food, we got stuff that we could share pretty easy and mostly shrimp.  All of it was really good.

 My food, it was really a appetizer platter, but we got to try more kinds of shrimp that way.

After lunch we went to the Lego store.  Ashton couldn't decide what set he wanted most. 

This set was on display in the window, all the Harry Potter stuff was really cool.

The kids found Woody and wanted a picture (well, maybe it was Mom that wanted the picture.)  Ashton was upset because he lost his boat from Bubba Gumps.  It was what his food had come in.  See Lexie's in her hand in the picture, that one didn't make it out of the mall either.

They had all of these statues made from Lego's on the top of the store, that was amazing.  

Also in the Mall of America is this amusement park.  We didn't go on any rides that day because I was thinking there were only a couple of rides and we could do them in a few minutes and be done, but when we got there it was a big park and you could spend most of day there and have a blast, so we decided to wait and plan a day when we could spend more time.

I am still shocked at how big the mall was, we didn't see even half of the mall and we were there for the better part of a day.  They also have a theater and an aquarium that we want to go back for.  Good thing it's not that far away from where we live.