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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Apples, Thrift Stores, and a Wedding...

It was a busy weekend full of fun and interesting things. We traveled back to our hometown for the purpose of going to one of my cousin's wedding and as usual we found a lot of other fun things along the way.

Andrew just loves going to Grandpa and Grandma's farm as there is always something new and exciting for him to investigate beyond the usual peak at the tractors and rides on Grandpa's ranger. This time he discovered where apples come from! Our little guy loves, loves, loves applesauce and would eat it by the bucket load if we let him. Apples are always pointed out with a "Peaz" (Please) from him when we are at the grocery store. So he was very interested when he saw them hanging in the tree. 

He was grinning ear to ear when Grandpa told him they were ready and he could pick one (and so was I).

 
 He was such a happy boy carrying around his apple, pretty proud of himself I think too.


It wasn't only Andrew who got to experience a first, I had never picked apples before so I jumped at the change to head out and do so. I didn't know what to expect but an extremely good year for apples made it easy. From one tree we filled five 5-gallon buckets and could barely tell we were there it seemed like (they have two trees on their property and a few more down the road a little),. Our take was two full apple boxes, waiting to be peeled, sliced, and frozen for future pies or crisps or made into applesauce. The picking may have been fast and easy but the work ahead doesn't seem to go that way, very worth it though.

Oh, but the apples were not the end. My sister and I have found something new and exciting for us to do and this weekend we got our mom to come along for the ride (she may have thought we were a little crazy). My sister started going around to garage sales and finding frames, boxes, nic nacs, etc that could be painted and made into something new and great and I quickly jumped on. 

This time we found a great chair for Andrew that I plan to redo, make it a little less pink, among many other things, some to be posted later. I will be sure to post a before and after once it is completed.


The wedding was great, although a little chilly. Our weather has decided there would be no gradual move from summer (90-degree weather) to fall (70-degree weather). It was a beautiful setting at the bride's parent's horse ranch. It was a great time getting to see some extended family members that I haven't seen in quite a while. Sadly Andrew had had enough shortly after the meal so we weren't able to stay very long.

Our weekend wrapped up after our long drive home with Chinese take-out and my boys lounging on the floor watching football. "Go 9ers" (sadly they lost).

 

Labor Day Celebration


Over Labor Day weekend our home town has a celebration and always has since I can remember. The weekend is filled with lots of different events that will keep you busy but not too busy that you don't have any time to relax. This year we went back up there for the weekend for a couple reasons...it is always a good time and Todd's parents were in the community play (like we would miss that!).

When we heard that Todd's parents were going to be in a play we automatically decided that we would make the trip up there this year. Saturday night we got to enjoy their very funny play "Leaving Iowa". It was great to see them up there and great to laugh at all of the funny things that you know are true about your state (we were questioning just how funny it would be when performed outside of Iowa though). It was great to laugh at all the little jokes thrown in there that only people that grew up here would truly understand. They had a great performance and turn out at each show.

A picture of the "hog farmer and hog farmer's wife"

Now Monday is always the busiest day of the weekend, packed full with events. We started off by heading out to the Fly-In breakfast out at the airport with my dad and nephew. Andrew loved being able to see into one of his most recent fascinations...Airplanes! He also loved watching them as they took off and landed right in front of him. Now he gets even more excited than he did before when he hears an airplane.





Lastly, we headed up to the city park to check out everything up there. There is always a craft fair going on in one corner with local vendors, sadly though it continues to get smaller and smaller every year. A recent addition is the book "sale". The local libraries use this day as an opportunity to clean up their shelves a little. They put out duplicate copies of books that they no longer need as the book is no longer as popular or books that have been replaced because one has been very well read. The best part...they are all free!!! Now when you say free books to a person who loves to read, of course they will be there. I grabbed a few unknown titles that looked good but the best was I was able to find all but one book to the Narnia series for my niece (I later went to Half Price Books and got her the missing one). She loves to read as well and I know her imagination will soar when reading these great classics.

Before leaving the park we made sure to walk around and find some very special flags. There is a group in town that takes time out of their busy lives to honor our local heroes, past and present. Individuals (usually family members) can purchase a flag in honor of a veteran. A plaque is attached to the pole stating their name and division of the armed forces in which they serve. Every year on veteran related holidays (i.e. Flag Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, etc) the flags are displayed around the city park. There are hundreds of them that fly in the center of town on these days as a humbling reminder of what it takes to live in this free country.

Amongst these flags fly five that are very special to us (among many others that we know). All four of our, Todd and mine, grandfathers served in the either the Army or the Navy and Todd's dad served in the Army as well. These flags always give me such pride in those men that went to fight for our freedom, even before any of us were here. And we can not say thank you enough.

Andrew standing next to his Grandpa's flag

It was a great weekend filled with family, laughs, fun, and just an overall great time.