trick-or-treat

Headed out on a gorgeous evening to find some treats!
HUGE pumpkins that Gramps bought at the Schaake Pumpkin Patch in Lawrence
Happy Halloween!!

carving pumpkins

We had friends over this evening for pizza, ice cream, and some pumpkin carving! Scooping out the seeds...

The kids LOVED the tools... which scared the adults... ;)

The finished products!

Looking forward to trick-or-treating tomorrow night!

happy halloween week!

*Just a public disclosure, Carter does not like taking pictures*

With that said, Carter is a chimpanzee and Grayson is a gorilla.
He pounded on all the pumpkins...

Grayson doesn't mind having his pic taken ;)

The story of my life: the oldest is trying to balance a pumpkin on his head while the youngest tries to bail out of the wagon. How's that for Mom of the Year??

Happy Halloween!

Applejack Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, we went to Applejack Pumpkin Patch with our Sunday School class. What fun!

Bouncing on the big trampoline

The boys making their way through a maze of milo

Jerry and Carter (left) race Grayson (right) down the big slide!

Shooting the ducks across the water

My two favorite pumpkins ;)

On the hayrack ride to the field to pick out our pumpkins

Grayson found his!

Carter wants more than one... of course!

We finished our afternoon with a ride on the train... the boys are in the first car

Carter is checking out Brooklyn, who's behind him. What a fun (HOT!) fall day!

touch-a-truck

Last weekend, we attended "Touch-a-Truck" at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. There were LOTS of trucks that you could climb all over, honk their horns, turn on sirens, and pretend that you were driving. The boys had a ball!
up in the cab of the cement mixer

Grayson instructing Carter on how to drive the firetruck

checking out a snow plow

Carter taking it all in while sitting on the side of an industrial-sized mower

One of Grayson's favorites -- the recycle truck!

Driving a real Gator!

on a Zamboni

Grayson drives the bulldozer while Jerry and Carter supervise :)

Jerry's Half-Marathon~10.10.10

This morning, Jerry ran in Wichita's Prairie Fire Half-Marathon. It was his first time to run a "half" and he did great! The race took the runners all through different neighborhoods in Wichita, so we tried to cheer him on at the 3, 7, and 9 mile markers, before greeting him at the finish. Here he comes in the red shirt that says "Rock Chalk" -- we sat with some friends and all the kids slapped the runners a high five as they ran by
Here he comes... this is mile 7

Here he comes to the FINISH! Yea!! (He's in the back, right)

His goal was to run in under 2 hours, and he made it in about 1:50! Yahoo!

We're so proud of our runner!! :)

Pittsburgh {Part 2}

Early Saturday morning, we got up, put on comfy clothes, and headed out to eat at DeLuca's. It's in the Strip District and has been featured on the Food Network! We waited in line about 30 minutes, and then we were seated.
It had lots of yummy breakfast items on the menu: eggs, bacon, omelets, pancakes, waffles, etc.

This beautiful plate of food was MINE!! It was called the Almond Joy: two chocolate/coconut pancakes, topped with french vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate and caramel sauces, and finished with nuts. It was so good... but the boys had to help me finish it off. ;)

After feeling overly stuffed from breakfast, we walked around the Strip District a little. Here's an amazing cheese market. The smell was... not so amazing.

And the fish/meat market -- lots of fresh fish, lobster, and we even saw fresh rabbit. Ugh.

After being thoroughly disgusted with the outcome of the KU v. Baylor game, we all went for a drive. Here we are at a beautiful scenic outlook of downtown Pittsburgh.

The four of us...

Feeling a bit underdressed as we were surrounded by a wedding party and lots of Homecoming couples!

Looking downtown -- the other way! You can see two stadiums... one of which where Pitt was playing at the time, and the Steelers game would be held on Sunday.

With my sweet sister-in-law! I wished they lived closer...

One last pic from Sunday afternoon... we were walking around IKEA and I saw a small version of a farmhouse sink. I am totally obsessed with these right now! So Dave posed with it...

Thanks, Dave and Kristen for such a fabulous weekend!!

A visit with Kristen and Dave

We had a wonderful time this past weekend hanging out with David and Kristen in Pittsburgh. Neither Jerry nor I had ever been to Pennsylvania, so this was a treat for us. Mom and Dad were so kind and kept the boys, so we could have an adults-only weekend. Yay for late dinners and sleeping in!! A scenic view of Pittsburgh... it is known for all the bridges!
Friday afternoon, David took us to a cute little place called "The Milkshake Factory" for shakes! Dave had chocolate, I had chocolate banana, and Jerry tried the apple pie. A yummy treat! We made stops at H&M, a cute bookstore, and then to REI for the guys, and then headed back to meet Kristen at their house.

That evening, Dave and Kristen took us to one of their favorite dinner spots, "Avenue B." They treated us to a delicious dinner to celebrate our 10th anniversary, the four of us toasted each other to a fun weekend, and we all had fabulous conversations and enjoyed just catching up on life.

Avenue B is known for their amazing meatloaf -- Jerry got it and it was de-lish!!

I had the roasted chicken with creamed spinach and a risotto cake... equally as good! A great way to celebrate our first night in Pittsburgh!