Apple Orchard

This past weekend we hit Nickle Dickel Days in Waconia. We spent the day with the Lechelts and had a blast! The weather could not have been more perfect. It was around 70 degrees and just a perfect fall day. We went to the fair they had in Waconia - saw fire trucks, old cars, had some snacks at the fair. Then afterwards, we went to an apple orchard - Deardorf's, which is somewhere between Victoria and Waconia. We didn't bring the camera, but had my telephone which we took a few pictures with. It's not the best by any means, but did capture a few good ones. We enjoyed running around and playing on the haybales. Kayla was kind enough to share her apple with Cailin too. Cailin and Drew had fun playing with Kayla and Christopher on the haystack. At the orchard, they had bunnies, sheep and horses that we visited with as well. It was big fun!

Grandma Betty's Birthday Party in Pine Island

We spent the second half of Labor Day weekend in Pine Island for the birthday party of Grandma Betty Pipho. It was held at their farm and we had a potluck lunch and lots of play time.
The kids mingled together playing with tractors, balloons, picking raspberries, playing with the walnuts as they fell off of the tree. We also played badmitten, volleyball and chatted. Everyone seemed to have a great time. The whole family was together and Grandma Betty seemed to really enjoy seeing everyone.

After the party we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's house and spent the night. The kids raided the raspberry bushes there as well, Andrew getting the hang of finding berries and picking them himself. Since the bees were out in force, he needed a bit of help.

Cailin liked to basically keep busy. She had Grandma running around, they seemed to enjoy one another's company quite a bit. Cailin and bear rode the tractor a lot, pushed by Grandma around the circle.

Family Time at the Farm

Since Uncle John, Auntie Melissa and cousin Michael were in town, we made a trip down to Nelson to visit with everyone for the first part of the Labor Day weekend. We stayed at a hotel in Wabasha for the night as Oma's house was full-up with family! The hotel was nice, had a pool and hot tub and it was a lot of fun to run in the halls as well.

We played at Oma's house, playing with the puppies, including a new black lab puppy named Emma. (Andrew likes to give out kisses to the puppies...) We played with the chickens, went to Carousel Toys in Kellogg (of course to ride the Carousel) ran around outside and generally had a great time.

The Tichlins Visit........again!

Karen's brother John, his wife Melissa and their baby Michael came for a visit this past week. They were here for a whole week, visited in the cities for a few days, then headed down to the farm in Nelson, WI where Oma is to spend the rest of the week.

The three kids seemed to have a very fun time, although Drew was very jealous of mommy paying any attention to 'other' babies. Every time mommy would talk to Michael, Drew would complain and then plop himself down on top of mommy. Cailin, on the other hand, seemed to love being a cousin. She played with Michael, gave him toys and chatted with him. Cailin also took quite a shine to Auntie Melissa. She followed Melissa around quite a bit. Probably didn't hurt that Melissa was willing to read some books with Cailin. She always seems to love that. Melissa also sends postcards and notes to Cailin throughout the year, which she proudly displays in her room. Those two are buddies!

Soccer Game

We went to watch cousin Joey play soccer when he was in Shakopee playing against their team. You see, Joey is a soccer all-star and it was nice to be able to watch him in action when he was playing right across the street from our house at the stadium! It was a very humid, misty day, but we still had a lot of fun running around and even Andrew got into soccer, he must have been inspired. He was kicking the ball around pretty much the entire game. It got the Chaska JV coach's attention as well as many players and fans. He liked getting all the praise and kept on kicking the ball. The only bummer was when he would kick it down the hill - that was a long walk!