This and That

This is our month of October in pictures. :) Well the parts we actually took pictures of...

Brian played against a Harlem Globetrotters spinoff team, which happened to be his first time playing basketball in a while. Thankfully, he did not get de-pantsed.

Then it snowed out of no where and not only did it snow, it snowed enough for Jonah and daddy to make a snowman mound! Pretty cute actually.
We also went to Vala's pumpkin patch, where Jonah rode a pony and loved it.

What a big guy.

We also rode a train...

And rode a bike race car...

jumped on a blob...

and watched pig races.

These two are fun.

We also went trick or treating three times, two of which were at shopping areas, as seen below. Jonah was a UPS guy and Abby was a turtle. Jonah actually won "best costume" for a costume contest at one shopping center. He was very proud. :)

Then, we carved pumpkins! Here is Jonah's drawing for inspiration.

Next up, Ohio! We will be in Ohio over Thanksgiving visiting family and Brian and I will even get to have a little getaway to Niagara Falls for a few days in there. So excited!!

"Real" Family Pictures

After five years of marriage and two kids, we finally got around to having professional pictures taken. We are very happy with them! What cuties. Sorry for the overload... these are for Grandparents picking.

New Traditions

On a beautiful, early September Saturday morning Brian, the kids, and I went to Ditmar's Orchard to pick some apples. We had never gone before, but I had an itch to go apple picking, looked this place up, and off we went (without the camera... whoops!). The kids absolutely loved it. We rode a tractor, picked a couple bags of apples, ate some apple pie, and decided then that we must come back the next weekend for the Hot Air Balloon Festival.

The next Saturday night we came back for the festival (with camera!) and two new family traditions were born. One, picking apples at the orchard each September, and two, this festival! Jonah has always loved hot air balloons (I think I blogged about a year ago about Brian and him making a paper mache one to hang in his room) and of course Abby is intrigued by them as well.

We got there just in time for liftoff.

Reed, Dana, and the kids came too. I think this picture is just hilarious. Look at Elise smiling sweetly while attempting to force her brother's head. :)
We waited in line for a while to take a tethered hot air balloon ride, only to discover that Jonah was too young. Elise and Aunt Dana got to enjoy one, however.

Eating some leftover pizza. These two are fun. Seriously.
Just taking it all in.
And then they couldn't take it any longer. They had to get up... and dance. And with this bluegrass music, who could blame them. You can't resist a steel guitar.

While the balloons were off and on their way back (via truck), a chili pepper balloon was filled up to show off.

To the non-balloon fanatics, each balloon operator has their card to give out showing a picture of their balloon with stats. Jonah has two so far.

Waiting for the balloons to fill back up for the big glow.

It was definitely worth waiting for. Beautiful!

We had one of our most fun family nights together of all time and are excited to be establishing traditions that will keep adding to our young family memories. We are blessed!