Good-Bye October

Wow, in a way it seems like October has been a LONG month (okay, it really has been a long month). But yet I can't believe it is over already! Seems like we were busy every single weekend in October, but a good busy. :) We wrapped up October with some fun things!

Pumpkin Carving!

Yes, Jeremiah is leaning as far away as humanly possible! It took him awhile to warm up to the idea of sticking his hands into the yucky pumpkin insides. But, he did eventually get into it (Here's the video to prove it)!

The finished products...

Go Hawkeyes!

I think this shows how all Hawkeye fans felt after yesterday's poor performance...

Adam and I made treats for Jeremiah to share with his daycare buddies:
Ghost cookies!

Yesterday Adam mowed the lawn one final time before winter hits, and of course Jeremiah HAD to be right out there mowing, too!


And yesterday was a big day for Adam-- he finally got to cash in a Groupon I had bought for his birthday last December. He got to do a 5-lap ride-along in a NASCAR car at the Iowa Speedway!
Checking out Daddy's helmet...


Of course, when Daddy had his helmet on, Jeremiah wanted nothing to do with him! So here's a picture of Mommy and J (and some guy's leg) enjoying the race cars.




Adam is in this car. It is going very fast.


Watching for Daddy's car to enter pit row.


And tonight was the big night for trick-or-treating. Yes, I know it is not actually Halloween yet. Out here in the Des Moines area, most cities do "Beggar's Night" before Halloween. I Googled it trying to figure out WHY in the world they do this, and apparently we are not even the only ones! They do it in Ohio and also New Hampshire. How's that for random? Anyway, I guess it originally started to try to decrease crime and vandalism on actual Halloween. Mmmmkay. So there might be more crime/vandalism on Beggar's Night then instead? I don't know, we're new to this. Adam and I both grew up doing the trick-or-treating thing on the actual night of Halloween. But nevertheless, we enjoyed our first Beggar's Night with a child (last year J was too young to enjoy it). Oh, yes, Jeremiah was there, too, and seemed to have a good time! Our friends Travis, Celeste, and Tristan came over to our neighborhood and the boys rode in the wagon and trick-or-treated. We walked around the block, and that was good enough for us! :)


Loaded up in the wagon-- A doggie and Mike Wazowski from "Monster's Inc."


"What are we doing, guys?"


After awhile, Jeremiah kind of got the hang of it! He would be half-way out of the wagon before we got to the next house! However, he still was not a fan of putting the candy IN his bucket, so he clutched several pieces in his hands the whole time.



Jeremiah kept saying "Ooooo! Oooo!" when we got to this house-- it was ALL decked out! It even had a manequin that crawled across the driveway!


"What are our parents doing to us?"


And with that, October is done. Well, yes, I know we still have tomorrow. J has his Halloween party at daycare, and will get one more wear out of the doggie costume. I am going to just hope that my kids at school aren't too wired from the candy-- with Parent/Teacher Conferences till 8:30 pm Tuesday and Thursday, it promises to be a LONG week! It's hard to believe that we are just a few short weeks from Thanksgiving!

Jeremiah the Doggie

We had yet another fun and busy weekend! AND it was another weekend of beautiful fall weather! Adam's sister and brother-in-law and their 2 boys came down from the OC for the weekend. We packed lots of great stuff into a short weekend!

First, though, just wanted to document what J looks like after eating his vegetables (aka KETCHUP) at dinner.


Saturday morning we hit the Des Moines Farmer's Market-- it was a bit chilly, but the sun warmed things up quite nicely. I must say, that for being not that big of a city, Des Moines has an awesome Farmer's Market!

Watching for doggies! If Molly was even remotely well-behaved, we might think about bringing her once in a while, too.


J rode in the wagon with his cousins for a while, and he thought that was pretty cool!


Then we went to enjoy a gourmet lunch at McDonald's! What can I say, I wanted J to have one of those cute Halloween buckets! And Jeremiah never turns down a meal that involves "kop-kop"!


After naps, we got J all suited up and hit the Blank Park Zoo for "Night Eyes."

First Jeremiah LOVED his doggie costume!


Then he didn't.


Then he liked it (well, tolerated it) again.


Waiting at the entrance-- sleepy doggie!


Once we got in and started seeing animals and CANDY, J perked right up!

"Is there candy over there? I can't see, my ears are in the way!"


Strolling along, looking for more animals (and CANDY!).


Freedom!


The cheeks. The ears. I know, it's just too much!

The doggie by the monkeys!


He soon forgot what that silly bucket was for and tried to hold all of the candy pieces in his little hands.



After our time at the zoo, we went to Incredible Pizza Co. for dinner. Well, if you like over-priced food, kids running wild, and loud crazy video games and rides then this is the place for you. Jeremiah did enjoy himself quite a bit.

Driving his very own convertible!


Taking a spin on the "carousel."

J was not so sure at first. The lady in the background, though, was having a great time!

Now it's kinda fun! Sorry for the blurry picture-- that carousel must have been spinning REALLY fast.


J also shot some baskets with Daddy...


...and took Lowly Worm for a spin.


It was a fun-filled weekend! Jeremiah just LOVES his big cousins, Kyan and Kobe!!!

And just in case you may not have seen on Facebook, here is the video of Jeremiah singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Personally, I think it is the cutest thing EVER, and I watch it several times a day to give myself a smile. :) And remember, he's only 20 months old!!!

Another fun and busy weekend!

This weekend we headed up to NW Iowa to hang out with family and friends! We left Ankeny as soon as I got home from school, stopped at Subway for dinner in Stuart, and arrived in Sgt. Bluff between 8 and 8:30. The past 2 roadtrips we have done have been to Michigan and Indiana, so MUCH longer than this trek up north. So in comparison to those long trips, we figured this small trek would be a piece of cake with Jeremiah-- and we were right! I will say that the DVD player that we bought that attaches to the back of the passengers seat has proved to be a good one-- one Melmo and a couple Gab-Gabba's and we were there! :) And I used to be one of those people (before Jeremiah came along...) who said, "I will never let my kids watch DVD's in the car! When I was little we traveled across the country and did just fine with tape players, travel games, and books!" And then we had a kid. And I justify this by saying that the DVD player only comes out for long road trips (2 hours or more) and not for a quick run to the grocery store. ANYWAY, we love the DVD player. Amen.

Once we arrived at Meema and Boppa's house in Sgt. Bluff, Jeremiah burned off the last of his energy by running laps through the kitchen and living room (one downside to the DVD player is that J rarely falls asleep when he's watching, so if we want him to nap or sleep we have to turn it off...). He went to bed well and slept great!

Saturday morning we drove up to Orange City to Adam's sister's house for brunch. Jeremiah LOVED playing with his cousins, Kyan and Kobe! It is fun to see that Jeremiah is getting older and more able to interact and play with his big cousins!

And of course they have trucks, tractors, and trains galore (and a toy vacuum!) at their house, so J was in heaven!


Playing with Kobe!


Eyeing Kyan's tractor...

We also went outside to check out their property-- I think Jeremiah has a little bit of farm-boy in him!


Kyan and Kobe have a motorized Gator and tractor... and Jeremiah jumped right on for a ride!


Kyan made sure to hold on to J and keep him safe while he was driving. How cute is that?!?!

Jeremiah also took a liking to the barn kitty (much to his mother's horror!). I don't know what's wrong with him!


Little boys having quite a serious discussion about that kitty...


Cousins!


J even hopped into the driver's seat of the Gator to take a spin. He thought that was SO cool! But he didn't really go anywhere-- doesn't quite get the concept of pushing down the gas pedal yet.


And then Saturday afternoon I was able to meet one of my former co-workers (from when I taught in Sioux City) for coffee-- it was great to catch up and hear about how things are going there!

Saturday night was the event that we made this trip for-- Steer & Beer at the Dykshorn's! :)

It was a beautiful fall evening and we were able to eat our steer and drink our beer (I had the root kind-- I'm not a huge fan of real beer) outside!

I also got to meet my friend Natasha's new little guy, Levi! Don't be fooled, he actually did very little of this over the course of the evening!

Adam took baby duty for a few minutes, too-- he's a pretty good baby rocker!


Me and my besties!

And yes, they always dress like that. Weird, right? Okay, no that's not true. The theme for Steer & Beer this year was "90's Cowboy." Makes more sense now, right? Yeah, and only 2 party-poopers didn't participate in the dressing-up:

Me and this guy. What can I say? I choose not to relive my horrible fashion choices in the 90's.

Sunday we enjoyed church, lunch at the Pizza Ranch (quickly becoming Jeremiah's favorite restaurant, by the way!) and then we headed back home to Ankeny. We had to turn off Gabba-Gabba in order for J to take a nap, unfortunately he only slept an hour which is SO not long enough! He was in bed early tonight, needless to say. We had a great time and are so glad we made the trip (I just wish that maybe I could have 1 day to recover before heading back to school...)!