Fall Fun

We've really enjoyed taking walks this fall. There have been some beautiful days lately! And this house has an enormous yard for the kids to play in. The house sits on 13 acres of which a large part is wooded. They keep several trails mowed through the woods. We've loved walking the trails and finding all kinds of treasures!

This morning, the kids and I went out to collect some leaves.

At one point on the trail, there's a salt lick for the deer. In the same vicinity, there are some apple trees. So Noah always likes to line up a few apples for the deer and then check back to see if they've eaten them!

Here's a view from the front yard looking at the house. This tree is beautiful!

Miller's Apple Hill

It wasn't ALL work while my parents were up! We spent a play day at Miller's Apple Hill.

This has become one of my favorite family traditions. Each year we visit the apple orchard to pick some apples. There's also a pumpkin patch and a kids' play area, too. It's always a fun day!

Here's Abby walking up the driveway at the new house just before we left.

And here we are picking out some pumpkins!

Noah seems very serious about his choice!


Abby was just amazed by the soft bunny rabbits. She had so much fun watching those little critters!

Noah fed the donkeys and goats some apple slices.

And both the kids ran around in the hay maze.

Then we loaded up on the hay wagon to drive out to the orchard. I'm pretty sure both Abby and Noah picked an apple off the first tree we came to and then spent the rest of the time eating. They both love apples! Noah has discovered caramel dip this year (with the help of Grammy). Every meal (no kidding!) he asks for apples and "cawmel" dip.

Catching Up

Wow.......that word pretty much sums up the last six weeks of our lives! Since the last post, we have sold our house, packed up all our belongings, moved into a new house, and spent two weeks sick with the swine flu.....seriously.

It's been a hectic month! We've never sold a house before, and it's been a LONG time since we've had to move -- which is a completely different experience with kids! We closed on our house October 1. We praise God that He sold our house so quickly (we had a contract in under 30 days!), giving us a better price than we should have expected. Luckily, my mom came out to help me pack -- it was originally scheduled to be a five day trip, but it turned into a 19 day trip! We spent a week cleaning our "new" house, and then Dad flew up at the last minute to help us make the actual move. It was an absolute blessing to have their help!

Luke and I had made plans to rent a small house, but it ended up a gentleman in our church offered to let us live in his vacant house at NO CHARGE! This is kind of a dream house to us. It has more space than we could have hoped for, and it's out in the country in a beautiful setting. We've loved spending the fall here! It's definitely going to be hard to leave.

So let me back up.......over Labor Day, Luke took Noah to the Cleveland Air Show. They drove to the nearest station and rode the RTA downtown. Noah was, of course, thrilled!

I can't really comment on any of the photos because I wasn't there, and I don't know what any of that stuff is! They came home with good reports, though!

Luke celebrated his 29th birthday on September 10. This is how he spent most of his special day:

.....working on the wiring at the old house -- there were a few things we had to do at the buyers' request. And luckily, Luke's handy around the house which has saved us lots of money over the years!

We did have his favorite meal for dinner -- stuffed pork chops -- and he got a few presents! I love this picture of my family. I think Noah and Abby actually look like a brother and sister instead of completely different like they usually do!