Take Down a Giant Tree Day

We had/have this tree that is right on the property line between us and our neighbors that looked like it might fall over if a spider sneezed on it. It was rotting from the inside and was split quite apart quite far already. The neighbor said that he had some friends that would help and we spent the day getting most of it done. It turned out to be even bigger than we expected and we'll probably spend another whole day cutting and splitting wood.

I spent the day mostly entertaining the children (who were super good) of both families. We met some very nice people and had an adventure of a day. There were a few crazy moments - one when a branch swung back about 5 feet and would have knocked our neighbor down if he hadn't speedily swung out of the way. Another man was hit by a branch and fell a long way down. He hopped right up and was just fine. We are so happy that no one was hurt. It was a very big project to take on. We will definitely be getting more sunlight in our living room now.

Lovely Afternoons

The weather has been so beautiful this week. It is chilly in the mornings (40s) and just right in the afternoons (70s) - we are outside enjoying every moment of it while we can!

Ready for Winter

Jeff has been working hard at getting everything ready for the cold season. The leaves are beginning to change and the nights are getting cool. He is excited to use the wood burning stove to heat the house (his dream heat system). He's already made a few fires and we spent yesterday afternoon stacking up the wood pile. He said that Harrison was the best helper putting logs into the wheelbarrow. He earned the ride back to the wood pile! After dinner we took a dip in the hot tub for the first time. In Jackson's words, "it was awesome!"

His own little hobby

Lincoln has a new collection. Lint. He loves to pull the lint from his pockets and he collects it. Apparently he has quite a stash in his desk at school.

He has been bragging about this little collection, so the other day I decided to donate a substantial amount of lint from the dryer. He was so excited and grateful. I told him that I usually just throw that in the trash. He couldn't believe I would do that and is thrilled that he can now multiply his collection even more quickly.

He also recently re-discovered a quilt that I made out of old jeans and other fabric. I included a few pockets just for fun and Jeff was telling him about how those were his old pockets from his pants. Lincoln reached inside and found some lint.

"Dad... you used to collect lint too?!!!!"

Jeff love: He offered to drive downtown and pick up my neighbor's 5 girls so that they could enjoy some adult time at her brother's all day and into the night wedding. They couldn't believe the generous offer and took our numbers with them in case of a meltdown. They didn't end up calling, but I thought it was still very nice of him to volunteer.

Conference and Corn

Before morning conference we decided to run over to the garden
center very near our house where they were having "fall daze." It was the early morning of their first day and they weren't quite organized yet. They were still training all of the help and didn't have everything set up yet. It was overpriced, etc. We laughed when we went to go for a hot chocolate. The lady there used her walkie talkie to say, "I have some customers here - will I be getting a register soon? They want hot chocolate - how much is that?" The response was $1.29. She had no way to make change so we were supposed to come up with exact change and calculate it all. We just laughed and she just shrugged and said, "whatever you have is what we'll be charging for hot chocolate this morning."

We let the kids play a few carnival games, walked around a bit and headed out.

We had purchased a Groupon for a corn maze about 20 minutes from our house that we thought would be much better so we thought we would check that out between conference sessions. My favorite morning session talk was from president Uchtdorf about how we are such a minute part of God's creations and yet we are of great worth to Him as we are His children. The kids did better at sitting through it than ever before and even listened a little bit. They are growing up!

The Corn Maze did not disappoint! In fact we ended up staying there for about 4 1/2 hours! The maze itself was huge. This is a view of it from the top. We paid $20 for the whole family and it included tokens for the games, the corn maze, a hot dog or brat burger, a drink and chips. The lady gave Jeff a few extra tokens because he carried a huge bucket of corn over to the corn cannons when he saw someone struggling with it.

The maze had 10 signs throughout it and when you came to the sign you could look at your paper and answer questions to get a hint as to which way to turn. There were different themed papers, we had a halloween one and a bible one. It was quite challenging and a lot of fun. They had really neat games as well. Our favorites were the corn cannon, the barrels pulled by a tractor and the archery. The kids got to shoot a paintball gun as well. On the hayride they took us over near the campgrounds and told us about other things to do there in the summer including a ropes course - we will definitely look into camping there. What a fun day!