Halloween / Dia de los muertes

I’m fortunate that Sidney still wants me at her holiday parties at school. Today, despite the mountain of work piled high on my desk, I kept my promise to her (and the room parents) and made my way to school for the fall harvest party. We had a good time and I spent most of the afternoon snapping pictures and chatting with parents/teachers while helping with crafts and activities.

After school, with only her in tow, Sidney and I decided we needed a special after school snack. There’s a new restaurant in town; and this place has been packed since opening day. So packed that they literally ran out of food and had to close last weekend! Her and I dined on appetizers and strawberry lemonade while discussing the party. I mentioned to her that this may have been the last harvest party as the school is deciding whether to continue. After commenting about cost and religion as factors, we decided to look up the history of Halloween (so I may somehow help her understand the religion aspect). Pretty interesting stuff. I explained it to her by relating to the movie Coco (side note: if you haven’t seen it, go watch it. And expect tears, like crocodile tears). The movie is all about Dia de los muertos, ie: Halloween. Where if we remember those that have died, setting up a shrine on that special day, their spirit will come visit us. 

We wrapped up our day-date and headed to the evening festivities of trick or treating. 

This year, we opted to go door to door with some friends that live nearby. They took us to streets and houses I’d never been to before but right in my own neighborhood. We were having a good time, when suddenly a cute dog comes bouncing out of a house wanting to play. The owner comes dashing out after him calling: Leo! Come back here Leo!

I stopped in my tracks, smiled up to the night sky knowing I hadn’t forgotten, and neither has my dad. Love ya dad! Thanks for the visit. 

Enjoying a Minnesota Fall

We seemed to land in a massive hustle and bustle this fall. But despite all of the running, we have found time to slow down and enjoy the beautiful Minnesota fall colors. 

Regan signed up for the school cross country team again and I felt like I spent more time racing across town each week to watch her run than I did doing anything else. 

But I love watching her run, and I love seeing her shave seconds off her time each meet. 

She was all smiles coming in 3rd place and earning herself a ribbon at the second to last meet. 

I'm so proud of her for taking on cross country (and in the midst of playing ball and hours upon hours of dance lessons each week). 

We raked and raked, and raked some more.
Lincoln and Sidney set up the iPad one afternoon and created videos of them jumping into leaf piles.
Love when technology meets play time :) 

Regan cashed in on her 12th birthday gift and we went ziplining! 

Somehow we managed to reserve a weekend where the fall colors were in amazing!
It was an incredible day spent together high above the tree tops. 

Hyland ski hill offers chair lift rides to the top of the hill each fall. Another opportunity to see the Minnesota fall colors. Regan opted out of this event (apparently it's not as cool as in previous years). Lincoln adores running all the way down to the bottom, all the while I'm hoping he doesn't fall and land in geese poo. 

And fall is not complete without a stop to MN Largest Candy Store! We spend far too much money at this candy store each time we make a visit. Chocolate, suckers, pop, chips, caramel apples, you name it, we try it :) 

Happy Fall everyone!

Jay Cooke State Park

For as many times as we drove up 35W, we have never made a stop at Jay Cooke State Park. The opportunity presented itself recently and we had an afternoon to explore en route to our final destination. 

With some recent rains, the waters were moving pretty quickly, which made me panic slightly whenever Lincoln got too close to the edge. 

The beauty of the swinging footbridge is heavenly. Sadly it's tough to get a good picture because of the amount of people. I settled for a picture of Regan with the river behind her.

Sure is peaceful out there. 

These rocks were a lot of fun to climb around (plus I was very happy to see some calmer waters one one side). 

 At the top of the rocks there is a very smooth rock to lay on and perch over the river. It's scary and exciting and peaceful all at the same time! Lincoln loved perching up there, I would've been more at peace if he was in a lifejacket. 

This scene warms my heart, because as everyday life happens, they bicker and fight like two sisters do. I hope and pray that they will end up best of friends as they grow old. 

Apple orchard fun

We picked a chilly weekend day early in October and headed to an apple orchard, fall festival event. We raced around from activity to activity while trying to stay warm. Lincoln was in his glory being able to run all over the place, the kid has one speed: FAST! And he never turns off. 

They didn’t last terribly long on the jumping pillow without their shoes providing some warmth. Regan showed off  some  of her dance moves to us. I didn't catch a picture of Sidney, but she had a heck of a time just getting up onto the top...something about her slipper socks and being so scrawny she could not pull herself up. Even the staff was getting a good laugh :) 

The girls and I went apple picking, one of Sidney’s favorite things to do...it’s an apple orchard of course! It was muddy but we enjoyed finding some of the most delicious apples in the orchard! 

I do think Lincoln would've lasted much longer than the girls. He's at the prime age for these types of things, and the girls....well, they have fun for a while! 

Someone broke her Braces Code of Conduct and maybe taste tested a tiny apple just to be sure it was good ;)  

Sadly I didn't get a picture of all of us, you'll have to trust that Ryan was there too :)