Apple Picking at Eckert's Farm

The upside to being stuck in doors for a week because of torrential rains is that it pushes you to get things done indoors that you normally would procrastinate. I have been blogging a whopping once a month for a while now and I am woefully behind. So, here's even more catching up.

At the end of September Lynette's preschool had a field trip to Eckert's farm to go apple picking. It was a day of excitement and adventure.
It began with Lynette's first ever bus ride. Lynette has been looking forward to this for years.

I didn't realize until I took this picture that my family all matched, except me. That was SO not planned. Funny.

Lynette got to share a seat with her good friend Katie.



We got to ride in a wagon pulled by an honest-to-goodness tractor. We had to wait quite a while for the tractor, but it was well worth it.

Apples, apples everywhere! We were each given a small bag to fill up and were allowed to eat all the apples we wanted along the way.

Trevor took that as a personal challenge. He ate and ate and ate.

It took a while for us to convince him that it was more fun to eat apples that were picked off the tree, than say the rotten ones that were on the ground. Once he got the hang of it, he was hooked.

Lynette also enjoyed this.

Family picture!

Take two- could not get the kids' attention, there was just too much to see and do.

And Trev ate more apples.

Daddy and Lynette going high for the good ones.

I always used to fantasize about apple picking. Thinking about Robert Frost's poem "After Apple Picking" and going out with a wicker basket with a sweater on, picking in the crisp, cool fall air. This was not quite that experience. It was 80 degrees and humid. Lovely day, but hauling around a bag of apples gets HEAVY and I was sweating! It was fun, but I sure needed a shower afterward.

Oh yeah, Trev ate some more, too.

The farm didn't just have apple picking. We also got to see pig races.

Introducing our racing pigs: Kevin Bacon, Hamgelina Jolie, Brad Pig...

We also got to feed goats, which is easier said than done. The food dispenser was right by the goat fence and as soon as I put in the quarter and turned the nozzle the goats swarmed. I never even got to touch the food, they nudged their noses in and ate it right out of the dispenser.

Their were games to place, a "maize" to go through, tricycles to ride, miniature golf. It really was one of those picture perfect days.

Trip to Idaho

The second half of our winter trip was spent in Idaho. It was a whrilwind with lots of activities and LOTS of family. Baby shower, family pictures (the first in 4 years), homecoming...Just the way we like it.


But before I get into that, it must be noted that I worked out everyday with my sidekick Lynette. It was fun working with her, and she did a great job- but we squabbled a bit of the use of the transfirmer (the box step). Its a little difficult to share those.



The primary reason for this whole trip? To see this kid. Kyle came home to find everyone there waiting for him...eventually. As tradition, when everyone was present we all sat down one night as Kyle pulled out all of his souveniers, told stories of his mission and even gave us a demonstration of his yodeling techniques. Here he is singing "Eidleweiss" in his liederhosen. Classic.

We always love this part. We laugh a lot and cry a bit as he testified of the reality of The Savior and how his mission helped him get closer to Him. We laughed a bit more than usual with Kyle because of the interesting choice of souveniers. A wooden pipe. A collection of his alcoholic-free beer bottlecaps. A coffee pot. A beer mug. No wonder he had such a good time.

Along with everyone else going on that weekend, we had a baby shower for Melissa, who was due in just a month. Shot of all the preggos. As of today, Nicole, pictured above, is 2 days overdue. Poor thing.

Hot Mamas!

After many of my siblings left, the kids and I were left to a much quieter house. To keep them busy we took them to Monkey Buisness. Lots of thing to climb and on jump and not break (unlike Grandma's house!)

Michael got in on the action.

Brennan joined us too. Good times had by all.

Day in Salt Lake

During our visit to Idaho and Utah in January we decided to take a day to introduce our kids to Salt Lake. It was a mushy, snowy day- so it was chilly, but pretty. The kids really liked looking at the temple, the visitor's center, the temple grounds. It was a nice time.

We got to have a tour at the conference center, which the kids tolerated pretty well. They liked looking at the paintings and talking about the scripture stories each painting depicted. The couple missionaries were really sweet and accomodating for the kids. It was amazing being in the conference center again and the kids loved running up and down the isles. I'd say the highlight of the whole thing, though was probably the escalators. Kids can be so easy to please sometimes.

Visiting the spot where Michael proposed.

Happy face.

The real highlight of the day was visiting the children's section of the Art Museum. What a fun new addition! There were a lot of things to play and interact with. Lynette was fascinated with the kid computers should could play memory on.

Trev enjoyed stacking foam blocks to build a structure- with just a bit of help from dad.

There was a storyline of an LDS family in Mexico with a lot of little things to play with along the way- like this car. It had something to do with the father picking up neighbors and taking them to church.

And dress-up! There was a video demonstrating how to dance with large skirts and Lynette and I got a kick out of.

And Pose!

Lynette's room

It is high time I showed you some of the fun we've been having with our new house. I've been dreaming of decorating my own home for years now- there just seemed little point in trying to do to much before now since we kept moving apartments and couldn't ever paint...not to mention we had no income to spend on anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. So this whole process has really been as educational as it has been fun. The number one room I've been wanting to fix was the kids' rooms. As you know, beggars can't be choosers, so their room has always been a collage of anything and everything we had available to make things work. Sure I tried to spruce things up a bit every now and then, but it never looked like more than what it really was- a room full of hand-me-downs. To see just how far we've coming I'm going to show you my greatest embarassment- the room my kids stayed in while we were in Chicago. Keep in mind, our apartment was itty bitty and we were just trying to survive. So without further ado...the kids' room.

Lynette's bed, squashed between toys and book. Trev's crib. And..uh...*shudder* the closet. We had virtually no storage place in this hole of an apartment, so everything we had was shoved into the closets, under beds, behind couches...everywhere you could imagine.

After leaving this place, this room would later be split into 4 different rooms in our new house. The girl's room, the boy's room, a toy room, and a storage room. I only went in this place if I absolutely had to, it was so depressing to me. Even when clean it still felt so....dirty.

Lynette's room on the day we moved in. Cute and spacious with a color combo that Michael loved and I absolutely detested. I'm sorry, but I just can't handle pink and purple- it makes me want to barf. I think I might need psychological counseling about my unwarranted feelings about the color, but what can ya do? I know its Lynette's room and all and she would have been happy with it, but ya know what? Its my house. I clean it, I work in it...and after years of "making do" I wanted to enjoy it. So that pink had to come down.

So after looking EVERYWHERE for a decent bedspread that wasn't pink we finally settled with this one. Its brighter than my dream girl room (I was thinking maybe red, black, and white...like ladybugs, but I seriously couldn't find anything in my price range). My cousin helped out a ton on this. We painted and kinda freaked out when I saw how BRIGHT the yellow was (the picture really doesn't do it justice), but decided it was okay and we could work with it. Like the stripes? I borrowed the idea from Thrifty Decor Chick. Michael did the strips all by himself- not too bad, eh?

More stripes.

The finished product. I made some wall hangings- they're not perfect, and little too "homemade" for my taste, but they work.

Our reading nook. The blocks spell out "storytime" I kinda like them- made them myself. And that rocking chair? That used to be Michael's when he was a kid. We've painted it, and I think I'd like to repaint it red/orange to match the bedspread and make it pop. Thoughts?

The curtains- also homemade. When I was a kid my mom used to make us sew something every summer before we could buy new school clothes. I really don't enjoy sewing too much- especially when I was young- but I'm grateful to her. She kept saying "Girls, one day you're going to have to make your own curtains." She was right.

This still needs some work. Those are diaper boxes that were painted. I think I'm going to cover them with canvas one of these days. The Christ picture really doesn't go with the room- but it'll stick until I find something better. I was pretty happy with how the name turned out, though.

Cute, huh? Some of the letters were painted, others had scrapbook paper modgepodged onto it. I know they looked cramed, they're actually staggered back and forth- it looks better in person.

The closet corner.

Better shot of the flower frames.

So that's what I've got so far. What do you think? I am open to suggestions. Not too bad for my first room, though, huh? And Lynette loves it, by the way.