Enjoy Fall Through a Toddler's Eyes

Take a few moments to enjoy fall through Noah's eyes (photos below). He had his first experience jumping in a pile of leaves and thought it was hysterical.

Apple Picking - Second Adventure

We picked apples at Minnesota Harvest last weekend with The Mocks. Minnesota Harvest is closing after this season, so it was bittersweet. I've been picking apples there for as long as I can remember and I wanted Noah to have the opportunity to experience it at least once too. The apple selection was much better than at Ahmad's so we actually got to pick apples off the trees. Noah really enjoyed pulling the ripe apples off the trees, cleaning them on his pant leg and taking huge bites from the juicy fruit. I think he probably ate three whole apples all by himself just during the short time it took us to fill 3 peck bags.

Here are a few photos from our recent adventure.

Memphis!!!

Noah took his first (and second) airplane rides this month when we traveled down to Memphis to visit his Godmother, Laura, and her family (Ryan, Ellie and Owen). Noah thought the airplane trip was quite the adventure. He enjoyed peering out the window during take-off and landing. Fortunately, both flights were not completely booked so the adults around us were able to rearrange themselves a bit to ensure they adequately avoided the annoying toddler bouncing the tray up and down and kicking the back of the seat in front of him. Overall, we survived the flights better than I had imagined we would. We were able to keep Noah between the two of us during both flights and so we didn't end up walking the aisle throughout the entire trip.

Memphis was a lot of fun, mostly because of the company we kept while we were there. Ryan and Laura went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We were also amazed at how well Noah related and played with Ellie (5) and Owen (2). Noah and Owen butted heads (figuratively) a few times but there were not major catastrophes caused by the need to share toys and books for a few days.

We enjoyed outings to the botanical gardens and the zoo. The kids had a blast and the adults enjoyed watching them run from exhibit to exhibit, eyes wide with wonder.

Below are selected photos from our trip.



















Wish we were still there. The cold weather is starting to settle into fall here now and we miss the warm sunshiny days we spent in Memphis. But most of all, we miss our friends and can't wait until we will see them again.

Apple Picking - Noah's First Adventure

We enjoyed scouring Ahmad's Apple Orchard in Stillwater for apples with our friends/neighbors a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the orchard with picked out so we didn't actually succeed in picking apples. We did enjoy picking already picked apples out of the bins in their barn though. And the kids had fun romping through the orchard.





The orchard also had a nice area where kids could ride all kinds of small tractors. Noah enjoyed this more than the apple hunting.