Play day!

Our hot water heater is broken and can't be fixed until Tuesday or Wednesday which is really frustrating and made us sad, so we needed a great day out to cheer up.  We drove up to Freeport to pick up our fab new orange chair (see post below) first. Then we found a cute little family restaurant to have lunch and decided to search for a park because the weather was turning from gloomy to great. We found a fun little park in Rockford off of Alpine Road that kept Abby (and maybe us too) busy for awhile. We also got to check out a microbrew in Rockford's downtown area for beer, rootbeer and pretzels.



I love seeing my girly girl climbing, running and playing SO MUCH after all the time she spent in casts, braces and in physical therapy with her brokey leg bad luck.



The biggest hit at the park was this slide made out of rollers. I didn't try it, but Abby and Daddy did.

Pumpkin Pickin'

Yesterday we took a trip to Jonomac Orchard for some fall fun. We were hoping to pick apples, but they were all gone just a few hours before we got there. We had a great time picking our own pumpkins (They were on 3 for $10!) and taking a wagon ride. We also had some yummy hot apple cider and our daughter took a ride on the apple train.

Berry Picking

Some photos from Saturday when we went raspberry picking at a local farm.

Family Time

Yesterday we spent the day with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. Helping around the house and just enjoying our time together. We even got to celebrate my birthday. My Mom made a homemade apple pie from the apples Evan picked off of their trees in the backyard.

Dad and Mom.




Cassandra and Joe.



The kids being silly.




Dad and I.




My hubby.

Berry picking

Saturday we took the kids to Honey Hill Orchards in Waterman to pick raspberries. Although Josh has been fruit picking as a child, the kids and I had never gone so it was a cool first experience for us. We had a great time and I hope to go again soon.


Berries!






For some reason my children want to make goofy faces whenever I take their photo lately...






My handsome husband



Josh made friends with the bloodhound who lives at the farm.



More berries, yum!

Hooray for 3 day weekends!

This past weekend was a much needed time for our family to slow down. Although we had originally planned to do some home improvement projects, both Evan and Josh were feeling under the weather with a cold so we changed our plans. Rather than working this weekend, we relaxed. I think we had sort of forgotten what that was like. It was really nice.

*We played at the park:

*Had our first fire:

*Toasted marshmallows and made s'mores:

*Played the bean bag game with our buddy Matt:



*Watched a beautiful sunset:

*Matt taught me how to chop wood and I chopped my first log. It was fun!

*Made blueberry muffins

*Read the Sunday paper front to back.

*Slept in

Zoo Pictures

Although Mother's Day has long since passed, I thought I would still share our photos from our Mother's Day trip to the zoo.

Meerkats!