Fall Fun!

Fall has arrived and we had a great fall weekend to enjoy family time, the cooler fall weather, and the beautiful changing leaves.  I'm still getting used to having almost every weekend off...its wonderful!  Check out our weekend adventures...

First up was dinner at Nanny and Grandpa's on Friday night to celebrate the 10/2 birthdays, my little sister Michelle and my big brother Kevin.  They were born on the same day 7 years apart (oh, and my birthday in the middle is a flip of theirs...so in order of birth our b-days are 10/2, 2/10, 10/2)!

Austin wanted to blow out the candles too, so Nanny lit them up again and he got to try it.

Of course, Austin was shortly back to his typical antics...tackling Sarah.

Here, I can just imagine Sarah thinking, "Mom, do I really have to put up with this?"

Sarah is now really good at pulling up, standing, and cruising.  I'm sure she'll be walking soon.

On Saturday, we went to Sever's Corn Maze and Fall Festival here in Shakopee.  It was GREAT!  We had a blast!

Austin checking out the pumpkin patch out front.

This year they are celebrating the 50th season of the Minnesota Vikings.

Here is Austin posing like the big blown up Viking by the entrance.

Pumpkin patch!

Get both kids looking at the camera (and maybe even smiling) at the same time?  Good luck!

This is what the corn maze looks like from the air this year.

Austin on Daddy's shoulders posing under the huge Viking.

Austin at the entrance sign.  

He was pretty excited...but little did he know just how much fun awaited inside!

Time for the corn maze!  Austin had a great time running around and finding the "letters" in the maze. (There were 26 spots to find, each marked with a letter.  If you found the 6 letters that had a Vikings picture on it, you got to enter a drawing for Vikings tickets).

Daddy navigated and told us where to go to find the next letter.  Austin is really good a left vs. right, so he would actually go the correct way when Steve told him to go right or left.

Sarah and I walking through the maze. Sarah was cozy in her Baby Bjorn and actually did really well the whole morning just watching what was going on.  She even missed her morning nap, but didn't really fuss at all.

So excited to find the letter signs along the way!

Then it was on to the exotic petting zoo.  They had tons of cool animals...antelopes, spider monkeys, ostrich, baby deer, camels, kangaroos, llamas, and even an albino wallaby!  Austin got to feed the animals and had lots of fun!

The ostrich had to be fed with a big plastic spoon so they don't bite little kid fingers off!

The albino wallaby.

Kangaroos!  The kangaroos were what Austin was looking forward to the most.  Steve found out they are very soft.  Austin got to pet them and feed them.

Lllama llama.

Feeding the camel

And then on to camel rides!

Austin then explored the hay bale maze.  He was running around the maze at first, but then saw other kids climbing on top of it, so he did too.  Here he is mid-air, jumping from one part of the maze to another.

Then the corn pool.  They basically make a pool with hay bales as the sides and pour a bunch of corn in there.  Austin had a blast climbing and jumping in the corn!

This picture is when he discovered that corn got in the back of his pants.  When we got home, we got him stripped down in the mudroom and he had corn coming out of everywhere (pockets, socks, coat hood, pants, and yes...even a piece in his underpants).

Then on to the huge slide...

Getting on his gunny sack...ready to go.

Big smiles all the way down

The food there smelled amazing...so we stayed for lunch. I had a really good roasted corn on the cob and a chicken quesadilla, Steve got a bratwurst and cheese curds, and Austin had fun chowing down on a corn dog.  Then we shared a little bag of mini donuts.  Not the healthiest lunch ever, but very yummy!

Me and my babies

On the way out, there was a big red tractor for Austin to climb up on and "drive".  He patiently waited his turn and then climbed on up.  Here he is waving to mommy.

We stopped at the pumpkin patch on the way out and got a few cute photos of the kiddos with the pumpkins.

My little pumpkin hanging out on the pumpkins!

Then trying to figure out what is going on and what she is sitting on...

My attempt to get a photo of both kids with the pumpkins...

It was a beautiful fall day and we had lots of fun!

A few other recent photos...

While Austin is at school, Sarah likes to learn too.

She has lots of fun looking at (and chewing on) her books.

She finds the strawberry in her letters book and tries to eat it.

My cutie Austin striking a pose while he ate lunch.

That's what we've been up to lately.  I've also been staying up late trying to get in some study time for my boards coming up.  Only a couple weeks left and I'll be done with boards (and hopefully board certified!).  Yay!  I hope you all are having a wonderful fall and taking time to enjoy time with family and friends.