Finishing Fall

Halloween weekend was also "opening weekend" for pheasant season. We headed home Friday night and spent the weekend in Holdrege. It was a really beautiful weekend, great weather for trick or treating. (I've been waiting to get more pictures from Mom's computer but I forgot to send them to me when I was home, so here's the Halloween weekend blog).

Dad had to work at the museum on Saturday afternoon so Jack and I went to visit him.

Dad gave Jack a ride on the rascal scooter and then took us on a private tour of the museum. (Un) fortunately for Dad we were the only visitors to the museum that day. It was great for us because we were given a private tour and got to see some of the "behind the scenes" areas, mostly just where the light switches were, but behind closed doors.

We headed out trick or treating pretty early so we could be home to greet other trick or treaters.
Mom had found Jack an awesome shark suit. He hadn't wanted to keep it on until he got to wear it at daycare the Friday before. He was really excited to wear it then and told everyone what a shark says, "na-nah."

We stopped at Uncle Jim and Aunt Melba's house first. We headed to Mimi Vickie and Mike's next. Jack really liked picking out candy at each house.

After Vickie's house we stopped at a couple more places and then headed to Grandpa Rod's. Rod sorted out the candy and had some elite items that were saved for special kids like Jack.

We walked Jack home from Rod and Phyllis' house in the wagon. We thought he was looking down into his candy bucket but then realized he was actually falling asleep on the ride.
Once we were home Jess and I walked an empty wagon the rest of the way around the block...yes, we looked silly! While we were gone, Jack ate a popcorn ball and then asked Grammy to "go more." They went to a few more neighbors and had a fun evening at home.

We had visitors for the Kansas State game. Mom and Dad came down for the game so we were able to visit a tailgate with Jessi. It was fun to get to see her in Lincoln.

As you can tell this is posted after Thanksgiving; I always seem to be about one holiday behind. We did have a really nice Thanksgiving weekend, but I barely took out my camera.

"I celebrated Thanksgiving in the traditional way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house; we had an enormous feast. And then I killed them and took their land." - Jon Stewart

We came home Tuesday night for the holiday. Wednesday I had a really fun day, Jess and I went to Alley Rose for lunch and then visited Kearney Floral. Wednesday evening I went to kickboxing class with my friends at the Y. After kickboxing we went to Drew's to hang out. It was really fun to spend time with the girls. Thursday we had a really yummy dinner at the Osborn's. Rod and Phyllis even let us help quite a bit while they played with Jack.

Friday we headed back to Lincoln by way of Juniata. Mom and Dad had gone to Red Oak on Thursday so we did not get everyone together but we really wanted to see Barwicks. Cori and Jack had lots of fun playing together. Cori says "my cousin, Jack" whenever she talks about him right now. Once we got home we rested and then headed to Omaha for dinner with Bill's family and Mom and Dad. Jess has chostochondritis and was not feeling well so we just stayed for dinner and a little playing.and by playing I mean sock-hop.

Yup, I barely took any pictures that whole weekend because I was too busy doing things. I'd like to think that I was studying the whole time, but I was also just playing...which is really more fun anyway.

Fall Breaks

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I had a day off in October and a couple off in November so I enjoyed two fall breaks. Jess was able to take the day off in October so we were able to have lots of family fun.
Sunday night we made sugar cookies. Jack still likes to be "helper" and is actually not bad at pouring in ingredients...maybe even less messy than Jess.

He's learning what faces go with each emotion...I think this is a sad face.

Jess helped Jack lick the beaters.

Jack was extra helpful at rolling out the cookies too. He did much better than last time we made cookies and didn't ruin many of them.

Monday morning we went out for breakfast before we went on an adventure.

Our adventure was to the Roca Berry Farm. They have so many fun things to do and is really geared to younger children along with older kids.

One really fun thing at the farm is this 50 ft. slide.

Jess took Jack to the top and I was at the bottom to catch him. The slide is at the perfect angle because the kids almost stop near the bottom...no catching necessary. Jack thought it was a lot of fun.


We then went on a hay-rack ride to the pumpkin patch. This was one of those times when he said he was having fun, but he looked like he was about to cry or fall asleep the whole time.
We picked out several pumpkins. So many that we had to use the stroller to haul one because we didn't want to use a bigger wagon.

A few days later we carved our pumpkins. Jack enjoyed helping Jess scoop out the pumpkins and playing with the seeds.

Jack helped me roast the pumpkin seeds too.

We successfully carved three pumpkins. I was getting a cold so I only did one...and our little saws broke so we didn't do a fourth pumpkin. Jess did an awesome job carving this witch!!! He was feeling very geometric when he carved his second pumpkin.

I was channeling the Beatles and did their Abbey Road cover.

On Sunday of my second fall break, Jess, Jack, and I went to the zoo in Omaha. Jack was really excited to go to the zoo and was telling us that he was really hungry when we were leaving town so we stopped to pick up hamburgers...Jack was more tired than hungry though.
He woke up when we got to the zoo and eventually finished that hamburger. We had a beautiful day at the zoo and a really fun train ride. (Notice that it was the 8th of November and we are all wearing shorts!!!)

UPDATE - if you haven't seen what's above, just keep going. If you have seen what's above, here's something new for you.

Jack and I went to Red Oak for their school's homecoming. Laura was supposed to march at the football game on Friday night so we came to Red Oak to see that and to take Jack to his first football game. He really liked seeing the Tiger.

It was cold and rainy all day so Laura's band did not march but we still went to the game. It was the first really cold weather we had all fall, so 40 degrees felt like 14.

The girls were all dressed up for the game, Anna even had on her "battle paint."
The next day we headed to Clarinda for a band festival. Laura is the drum major for the junior high band and she is AWESOME!!!! I'm not just saying this because I am her aunt, she is really, really, really good.

Natalie was also in the parade; she held the banner that went in front of the band. It was her first bus ride, so it was neat to get to hear all about that after the parade.

Jack had a lot of fun watching the bands go by. Anna slept through most of it.