The Black Hills are SO beautiful this time of year! Our trip there this past weekend had a dusting of snow and the evergreens and spruce trees were covered in white and absolutely gorgeous! We stayed at this really cozy log cabin and enjoyed wood burning fires and stunning scenes out the large windows.
While eastern South Dakota and our house was getting blasted with 16 inches of snow, we enjoyed the beautiful snowfall on the Black Hills.
We hit a few of the legendary Deadwood bars. What’s to do during snow… drink and gamble! :)
And of course we had to hit Wall Drug on the way home!
I always love going to Deadwood and the Black Hills. It’s so pretty. And it reminds me of our wedding! We got married in Deadwood on 7.20.12 and fun to reminisce about our nuptials!
This weekend was a fabulous weekend! We met the Sweeney cousins, Anna and Nora, in Minneapolis for the weekend, and it was go-go-go for about 2 days straight. A TON of fun though! I wish they lived closer! We don’t get to see them enough!
Friday night we went swimming at the hotel and those girls are like little fishes! Even Ivy was showing off her swimming lessons skills and got dipped under water four times!
Most of Saturday was spent at the Mall of America. Our hotel, the Radisson Blu, was connected to the Mall so that was very convenient with four kids! The kids loved all of the rides!
The three girls walked around the mall inseparable… so sweet
Saturday afternoon we went to the play the Jungle Book at the Children’s Theater. It was a really great play and the kids sat still for two hours, I couldn’t believe it!
Emmie and Papa were so thrilled having all the grandkids around!
See you girls at Christmas! Wishing cousins lived closer!! And missing you Becca. Your girls are growing up so nicely! They’re sweet and polite and just pretty much the best… you’d be proud.
This weekend was filled with fun Halloween activities and John and I even managed to squeeze a date in there on Sunday too. He was gone hunting for the pheasant opener weekend so I had the kids solo and tried to conquer some days out with them. Ivy was a little stinker and not taking her naps, so she was sure to be a bomb waiting to explode : |
Friday was the Spooky Science Night at the Washington Pavilion. So fun! Ivy loved to touch all of the experiments and get her hands dirty. Her favorite were the dry ice bubbles. I’ll admit, it was pretty cool!
Saturday morning I had a baby shower honoring my friend Ashley’s upcoming baby girl in January. It was GORGEOUS and the host is a terrific baker and made some outstanding dishes. My favorite were the mini pancakes! So cute! I wanted all of them!
Ashley got a TON of great items and mommy/baby essentials. I love baby showers and seeing what other Moms gift! I get ideas and hear of brands or things I didn’t even know about. Plus, it’s always fun to see friends! Look at all these lovely ladies! Baby ballerina is brewing! Cute!
Saturday night was time to get their costumes on! I took Ivy to the Halloween store and she immediately went to Minnie Mouse! I showed her some others but she was like NO MINNIE! So we went with that and I don’t blame her… pink, tutu, and Minnie, she was in girly heaven! I let her pick Leo’s costume and she picked a chubby monkey. ADORABLE!
This is what she did when she first saw herself! HAHA
Saturday night I took the kids to the Halloween Fest with some friends. It was their first annual and it was SO CHAOTIC! Way more people than they expected, so long lines ensued and jam packed crowds. Plus, Ivy decided NOT to nap AGAIN, so she was exhausted and delusional and Leo had to catch a little nap while we were there, so it was a bit of a wreck, BUT, seeing her say trick-or-treat was pretty dang adorable!
Sunday John returned home, thankfully! And we had an event with Queen City Bakery and K’s restaurant, two of Sioux Falls’ best, out on Kristina’s farm. It was a five-course meal with kabocha squash galette with greens, roasted carrot soup with pistou garnish and brioche croutons, pheasant and mushroom ravioli in sage brown butter, lamb cassoulet with mini corn muffins and biscuits served with pumpkin and corn butter, and lastly bourbon pecan pie with ice cream. Everything was INCREDIBLE! I had way too much wine and had a delightfully full stomach at the end. The evening was fabulous with friends and food!
I almost slurped up the rest of the sage brown butter… almost.
Whew! BUSY BUSY!! But so much fun. Now I can’t wait for Halloween to go trick-or-treating with the kids! Ivy will love it! And so will I :)
It kind of looks like the African Sahara behind me but lo and behold, FALL = PUMPKINS! And we spent the most lovely of a day (82 and sunny! October 11?! Yes please!) at the Country Apple Orchard checking out the sights and picking out a pumpkin. We took the hayride out to the pumpkin patch and began our search for juuuuust the right one. I usually say the bigger the better (that’s what she said), but this time we were looking for anything but ordinary! Ivy was hilarious as she tried to pick up each pumpkin regardless of the size :) You go girl!
And OF COURSE, we had to end the day with her FAVORITE… the train ride!
It’s days like this where I feel especially lucky to have children and a family. Spending days with them and riding on the hayride, walking through the corn fields, picking out their own pumpkin, running amuk… those were my favorite things as a child and I couldn’t be more happy to relive that with our own children. We are very lucky. And days like this is a good reminder of how special this circle of life really is.
We had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! We got a dose of family and friends throughout the days and had plenty of fun at our cabin and at the beach or on the boat. I hate to think that summer is almost over! :( I’m not ready for that yet! So we spent plenty of time outdoors and I’m kind of hoping for one last Indian Summer weekend with some big heat. It was pretty cloudy all weekend, but the nights were sunny and gorgeous, just in time for a pretty sunset!
John’s uncle John (yes, same name, hehe) and his wife Heidi and their daughter Ellen came to visit first. Really loved seeing them and Ivy had fun tubing with them! We hit a big wave when I was driving the boat and the tube went under knocking Heidi, Ellen, and Ivy off the tube! WHOOPS!!! Thankfully Ellen had a good hold of Ivy and all was good :) Thanks Ellen! And Ivy didn’t even cry, whew, she’s such a water baby!
Loved her swim cover up!! She got it from Nasty Gal
John twins
The rest of the weekend was spent with some friends and we hit the beach to soak in the couple hours of sun that finally peeked out.
Dear belly button, you can shrink back in now, ok? :/
John, Justin, and Shannon chillllaxin’
“Sand castle Daddy, sand castle!”
So confident…. love this chick
These colors and patterns in this photo! Oh and Daddy and baby, cute :)
Ivy, REALLY, damn…. the life of a toddler
Leo and the boys
Little Leo caught the cold that’s gone around our whole house, but he was still smiley as usual! We were thankful that Shannon, my friend and our pediatrician, was here with us! She’s a pro at suctioning the ickies out!!! He was still a tropper sleeping on the boat and at the beach dozing off to the sound of the waves… ahhh not so bad at all :)
Hope you all had a terrific holiday weekend! Thank you to all the hard workers out there that make our country amazing!
