Fun on the Farm

 Sunday night our church had a Fun on the Farm night and it was FUN!  The boys just love going to this event each year and we do too.  Delton and Janice Voth have a wonderful farm for hosting the event, including a swing set, a big grassy area for playing baseball and football and a wonderful red barn. The weather could not have been better and it was great to see young and old from our church out enjoying the evening.

 We explored the barn before supper (that's Levi, Ben and I standing up there), and later in the evening the kids played some games in the hay loft (which doesn't have any hay, it's all cleaned up, strung with white Christmas lights and has a big screen for projecting movies on).

Just as the sun was setting we went on a hay rack ride that turned out to be quite the adventure!  We went through tight tunnels of trees and over tricky bridges. It was a GREAT way to end the evening. Well, actually we ended our time with boys bawling because they didn't want to leave.  As it turns out, they were actually crying because they were so tired from playing so hard with their friends at the farm. 

I didn't have my camera with me on Sunday so I stole all these photos from my cousin Megan's blog.  Thanks Meg!

State Fair

The State Fair is becoming a family tradition for us.  So far, we don't have to pay for our kids in the gate.

 Seeing baby animals and huge Watusi cows all in one place certainly feels like an adventure.

 Pronto Pup, Root Beer, Nachos, Chicken Fingers - it was a well-balanced fair food supper.

 The boys got to take their turn at being weathermen.  They didn't understand what was going on, so after we told them to point to a number, this is what they did.  Noah, clearly, was still confused.  

 We rounded out our already healthy meal with a funnel cake - it was DElicious!

 As it started to mist, we headed for the midway.  We had already rode the train around the fair grounds, so we let each boy pick one more ride to go on.  Noah chose the motorcycles. 

 Levi picked the race cars. 

 And then we all went on this Ferris wheel.  

 The boys LOVED it!

 The boys love coming to the state fair grounds.  They go there for the fair and for the MCC Sale in the springtime - what isn't to love about that?!

Outdoor Rock Concert

 The other day I found the boys outside performing a concert at the top of their lungs!

 I couldn't pick up what the tune was, but the lyrics were, "David and the Giant Pickle....and Star Wars!"  Seriously.  It was such a funny combination and they just kept repeating it over and over - at the top of their lungs.

Camping

 We had so much fun on our first family camping trip that Levi couldn't stay awake for the drive home.

The four us, plus Ben's parents and brother made the journey to Kanopolis for our 2 night tent camping adventure.

Thank goodness Tim and Sue have experience camping - not to mention all the helpful cooking equipment! Ben and I have a tent.  Well two of them actually, but we took our 6-person tent, blankets and some food and clothing.  Otherwise, Tim and Sue brought everything else.  Sue even planned the menu for us and it was fantastic!
We borrowed my dad's pick-up truck to help with hauling the wood (thanks James Wiens!), and all our bulking camping gear.  Thankfully, Levi was eager to help clean up the mess the wood left behind in the bed of the truck (if nothing else it kept him busy while the rest of us set up tents and started to figure out what we'd eat for supper).

The hammock chair was amazing.  From the moment it was hung from the tree, it was popular with the boys.  They swung and had Andy give them tornado ("tomato" as Levi calls them) rides.

 S'mores - hmmmm! They were so good.

 We counted it up and we think Noah consumed 8 of them!  One of those may or may not have been for breakfast.... He enjoyed them so much that since it was his turn to take snack to school this week, we made Ooey Gooey Indoor S'mores for him to share with his classmates.

 Pancakes, bacon and syrup with hot chocolate and a fire to warm your toes - what a lovely way to start the day.

 We lucked out with the weather.  It's been a miserable summer, but just before our trip it turned cooler.  The highs were around 80 each day and the lows were in the 50s!  We were actually COLD for the first time in a long, long time.  I was surprised to see my breath while making breakfast one morning!

 So while some of us finished eating our breakfast, others were getting ready to go fishing.  Tim gave Noah his very own fishing rod so Noah did some "practicing" while waiting to head over to the water.

And low and behold, Noah caught the only fish of trip!  And it was a good sized carp! 

 But, after Levi saw the fish flop around and struggle for air, he declared himself done with fishing.  Lucky for Levi there was plenty of space to explore and throw rocks into the water.

Little pizzas, made just to your liking and baked over a fire makes for a delicious lunch.

 Cleaning up after meals was pretty simple.  Our campground actually had a sink with running warm water so we simply took our dirty dishes over there, washed and dried them and then brought them back.

 Our humble abode.

 It got warm enough for Andy and the boys to take a dip in the lake/reservoir/body of water near our campground.

 Great Grandpa and Grandma came out to spend the day with us on Labor Day.  It was handy for us, since we'd forgotten several items at our house and they brought them  to us.  Who needs most of the refrigerated food we planned to eat?  Or coffee mugs?  We made it through one night and two meals without that stuff pretty well, right Sue?

 It was wonderful to camp, to feel life flow in a different way then what is normal for us, to see the velvety night sky, to hear nature (and the 24/7 weather announcements from the speaker outside the bath house), to spend time with family and watch the boys thrive in a new adventure.