Pumpkin Carving!

We have finally carved the 71 pounds of pumpkins.

Here is how they started:


Brian's pumpkin #1, carve time = 2 hours:


Kate's one and only pumpkin carve time ~30 minutes:

Brian's pumpkin #2, carve time < 10 minutes:

The complete family of carved pumpkins:

The Christmas Tree Hunt was successful!

Today we traveled all the way to Wisconsin to St. Croix Valley Trees, LLC to find the 'perfect' Christmas tree for us. We headed out with Pops, Sandy, and Aunt Shelley to the tree farm to pick out four trees - everyone but us picked a Fraser Fir we ended up with a Balsam Fir. I'm quite happy with our decision. It was a great day with lots of laughs and many stories...

Pops, Shelley and Sandy - pictured with Sandy's magnificient Fraser

Brian and Me - Pictured with our wonderful Balsam Fir.
Sandy and Me - I took this picture while walking....

Fall and Winter Collide

I took this photo out our front window. I believe it truly expresses how crazy fall in Minnesota can be - especially this year.

Pumpkin Patch

On what was probably the coldest weekend this fall we decided to visit Apple Jacks Orchard (and pumpkin patch) in Delano. The weather was in the 30s and boy was it cold! We did however manage to go through their 5 acre corn maze, eat some great apple dumplings and we loaded up on around 100 pounds of pumpkins....oddly Brian and I came home with around 70 pounds worth - even though we only purchased 3 pumpkins.

SoDak

Day 1:
- Wake up 4 am - leave Oakdale 5:15 am
- Drove threw pouring rain
- Stopped in Mitchell Sd to see the oh so a-maize-ing Corn Palace
- Also in Mitchell we drove on a road that wasn't a road - GPS's do lie sometimes
- Stopped at Al's Oasis - guys got Buffalo burgers, I ordered Potato Soup and half turkey sandwich which became half turkey sandwich and turkey soup and then came the offer of hot dish - then pudding which I accepted but then later was told they were out of and then was finally given hot dish and chow mein noodles
- Wall Drug
- Dinosaur Park
- Pizza with Jeremiah's brother and then camping in the Black Hills in 24 degree weather


Day 2:
- Mt. Rushmore
- A drive by of Crazy Horse
- Arby's with Sonic Limeades!
- Reptile gardens (they have more reptiles than any where else)
- Custer State Park
- Camping in the Badlands




Day 3:
- I woke everyone up at 5:00 am, with a pre-wake up 7 minutes to 5
- We then packed up all our gear and headed out to watch the sun rise
- Drove back to Sioux Falls and ate at Granite City for Tom's Birthday
- Arrived home around 8 pm

Dave's 40th!

I neglected to blog about my brother's 40th birthday party!

It was a great time, the food was great and the crowd was even better! We had a great time and I am always impressed by how Ella can managed to send us all home feeling stuffed to the gills!

It seemed like it had been a while since I took a picture with me and my dad so here is the latest from the party:


You would think getting a few girls to smile for a camera would be easy...well, it's not. Here's the best picture I got and it makes me absolutely smile:

TC is kind of a show off

I woke up Wednesday morning absolutely freezing, so I decided it might be time to admit it is going to be winter soon and to prepare the thermostat for 'winter' weather instead of summer. While doing so at 5 am TC decided he'd find a new place to play. Seriously, this cat will always amaze me.

Then later on Wednesday I came home to find TC winking at me constantly. So today him and I took a trip to the vet to find out he does not have a scratched eye - but he does need some ointment put in his eye 3 times a day for 5-7 days. Needless to say - he does NOT like it.