Happy Halloween!

It's been a crazy busy, but beautiful fall.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous.  One of our favorite things to do in the fall is to check out the Minnesota Zoo's Hallow-ZOO-een.  The kids get dressed up and go trick or treating throughout the zoo, and the animals all have pumpkins and other special treats to chew on in their exhibits.

For actual Halloween, Chris and Em joined us and helped take the boys trick-or-treating and hand out candy.  It was so fun to have them around for all the festivities.

Back to School!

The boys headed back to daycare full time, and Parker is starting preschool (sniff, sniff.... how is my little guy already in preschool?!)!  He goes two days a week, just for the afternoon, to Wee Tigers preschool at Riverview Elementary school.  I love that his program is at Riverview, since that is where he will be going to kindergarten- hopefully it will be less overwhelming next year for him.  His teacher is Mrs. Mary, and she is the sweetest lady ever.  He absolutely LOVES it!

It's like we think we're 18 again...

So, now that we had this fun new boat, we of course had to try it out the first weekend we had it.  Win went online, ordered a wake surf board and we headed out the following weekend.  Chris and Em met us at mom's and we loaded up the boat.  It's a little bit of a process to wake surf.  The boat has these things called "fat sacs" that you use a pump to fill up with water from the lake.  The sacs then weigh the boat down creating this big wake for you to surf on.

Chris and Win were up first.  They'd spent all week watching youtube videos and kept telling us all how easy it was.  "Let the boat do the work", "tie the rope here", "put your feet there".  Well after a couple hours of them trying and failing, I was up.  (This is where the story gets good).  I try once, and fall instantly.  Tell them they are doing it wrong, the rope goes in a different location, and they need to plant their feet differently.  Second time- I'm up and surfing!  Jen- 1, Guys- 0 :)

Of course, then both guys were itching to try it again, and both were able to get up pretty easily.  We spent the rest of the day out surfing, and by that night could barely lift our arms over our heads.  It didn't bother us, though, we went out again the following day!  We are loving it and can't wait for next summer!

 

You let mom and dad go on one little road trip and....

...we come back with a boat!

A little back story- for about 2 years now Win and I have been doing a little boat shopping, nothing serious, just keeping our eyes open in case the perfect dream boat were to come along.  Parker's getting to the age where he wants to tube and wake board, and Logan's getting to the age where he can actually be out on the boat and enjoy it.  So, when this little dream boat came along we had to snatch it up.  On Labor Day, Win and I trekked down to Waterloo, IA to check it out.  I'll be honest with you.... our trip down there was a lot like when you go to a pet store to "look" for a new pet.  Yea right, "look",  as long as the thing didn't sink-it was ours!

So, after 2 tanks of gas and 8 hours in the car, we came home with this beauty!  :) :) :)

Minnesota State Fair

We took our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair!  We've pretty much gotten it down to a science now that we go to the fair with kids.  We park in the same spot, walk the same route once inside the fair, and eat pretty much all the same food.  (We tried venturing into new foods last year and were extremely disappointed.)  It's pretty safe to say that both boys liked Sweet Martha's Cookies the best.

Vikings Training Camp

Parker and I headed down to Mankato to visit Auntie Steph and Uncle Mike and to check out the Vikings Training Camp. The first day we were there the weather wasn't great, so they moved practice indoors.  There is a limited number of seats indoors, but lucky for us we were one of the last ones inside!  The benefit of being indoors is you are SUPER close to the players.  Parker was most excited about watching "#5, Teddy Bridgewater!", and was amazed at the size of the lineman.  I will agree with him on that one,  it was a little intimidating walking so close to the players- they are HUGE!

The weather cleared up for the afternoon practice, so we headed back to see what else we missed.  Parker loved the kids training camp areas where he got to run a real football drill.  During the afternoon practice he just sat looking through the roster picking out which players he thinks should make the team.

              

 

Jayce and Lucy came to visit!  The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins.  We spent almost the whole day outside playing in the water and enjoying the sunshine!  It wasn't easy, or perfect, but we managed to get a photo of Nana with all her grandkids.  Our boys are so lucky to get to grow up with cousins their age.  Now we just have to work on making the visits more frequent.  :)