Weekend Visitors

Grandma and Grandpa Schrag came to visit this past weekend. The weekend was full of family, friends, Fall Fest, food and football. The weather was prrrrfect. And, as I write this on Thursday evening, it seems like Sunday was a long, long time ago! Here are a ton of photos to share with you the who's and what's of our weekend.

It is somewhat standard around here lately that Levi mows and Noah plays baseball/football/soccer.


It's hard to tell, but each boy has an apple in hand, laying on the kitchen floor.


Noah and I planted a very short row of carrot seeds in July. He was given a packet of seeds and since we don't have a garden, I jumped at the chance to help Noah learn about growing a plant. So, he diligently watered his "carrot seeds" - he never called them plants, always seeds. And finally, finally this weekend they were ready to be harvested. Three odd shaped carrots emerged from the ground, much to Noah's delight.






Saturday was Bethel College's Fall Fest and we all went in the morning. I volunteered to sell New Year's Cookies and while I did that the boys enjoyed the kids area. No pictures to prove it, sadly. After consuming too many New Year's Cookies the boys headed home for naps. After naps, Aunts Erica and Sherri came over with cousin Rylee and Great Aunt Susan came over too!


Aunt Susan proved to be a pretty good kicker!


Noah gobbled up all the attention and loved every tackle.

Noah loves to kick the football. He picks it up and tries to kick it like a punter does. He misses the ball, a lot. On this day, he actually started to catch the football. It was just a few weeks ago that we finally got him to catch a basketball. He is still a little hesitant with the football, but a couple times he held out his arms and caught it against his chest.

Erica, Sherri and Susan all live/work in the Wichita area, so they made all sorts of connections with each other.

Grandma Schrag got the boys to sit and draw with sidewalk chalk for quite a while! That's something I can't ever get them to do for more than 30 seconds. I think Grandma Schrag is way more creative then I am at keeping them engaged in an activity.

Saturday evening I took Noah to the Bethel football game to watch my cousin Austin play. Thankfully, we parked right next to grandpa Schmidt so we walked to the stadium with him. Noah had two million questions about everything that was going on, but otherwise sat still, ate popcorn and last through 3 quarters of the game.

Sunday was a FULL day, but I didn't have my camera along for any of it. We had brunch at Great Grandma and Grandpa Hertzler's, then we dashed off to church, out to lunch and then I walked 6 miles in the CROP walk in Goessel that afternoon. In the evening, we went to visit some friends and the boys ran around like wild children outside until it was too dark and cold to be outside.

Tim and Sue - thanks for making the drive out to Kansas!

State Fair Day

Sunday we skipped out on church and headed to the State Fair. What an event?!? The boys were thrilled with all the sites, sounds and food. We spent the morning there, a chunk of change and left with full bellies and lots of new things learned.

My dad was volunteering in the Farm Bureau booth all morning, so we stopped in to visit him first. We picked up my mom there, too. It sure was helpful to have another set of hands to help keep track of the boys.

There was no shortage of tractors and lawn mowers for the boys to climb on.

Our two little farmers.

It's a family affair, really.

See? I told you it was the whole family.

This picture is not the greatest, but it's handy because it shows two things. 1) some really cool honey bees and 2) Ben with one of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever tasted. We walked around with Ben holding the cinnamon roll and fork and Noah and Levi both demanding a "Bite!" until the thing was gone. Luckily, I got to have a bite or two, too!

While we were enjoying "bites" of the cinnamon roll we also saw Curious George and his Friend the Man with the Yellow Hat - as part of the scarecrow contest.

One last bite! I kid-you-not, the boys wouldn't stop asking for bites. They were just this chatter in the background constantly asking.

This is the biggest pumpkin I've ever seen.

That says 832.4 lbs. Ever since my 4-H days, I've loved those big purple ribbons. I have a few of them in a box in my basement. They're likely curled up and wrinkled from being stuck in a box too small for them.

I love the texture on this turkey's head. I don't know anything about turkeys but their heads sure are fascinating and creepy.

The boys were making bunny faces while we were in the Rabbit barn.

It was a beautiful morning. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to go to the fair. The sky was an amazing, brilliant blue color.

This quilt was one of the Grand Champion winners. The detail work on it was incredible. I can't imagine how much time it took to create such a masterpiece.

The construction area was a hit! Each boy HAD to have a turn with cordless drill.

Noah was fascinated by the remote-controlled skid steer/Bobcat in the construction area. We couldn't stay long enough for him to have a turn, but I think he would have stood there for another 15 minutes if we would've let him.

These are the faces of disgust when we told them it was time to go home.

Thankfully, that chunk of change we spent at the fair was truly enjoyed!

Choppin' Corn

For weeks, Noah has been asking about when my dad will chop corn. Well, the time finally came and the experience did not disappoint. For the most part, the corn that my dad plants is destined to become corn silage (aka chopped corn). Dad hires Duerksen Harvesting to do this job, while dad and my uncle manage the silage pile at the farm. This was all new to the boys, somehow we had missed this in previous years, and Noah's excitement level was near the giddy mark.

Dad in the tractor on the bunker/pile of silage. This was at the beginning of the morning and by the end of the chopping the pile was much, much larger.


Duerksen Harvesting runs 3 trucks and one chopper. The tucks were constantly coming in. Interestingly, two of trucks didn't dump there loads like you would expect. Their back doors would swing open and then a conveyor belt moved the entire load out the back of the truck.


As soon as the truck pulled away, dad would start to push the silage up the pile to make for more efficient storage.


All the way to the top and all around. The boys thought this was neat, my mom and I were on pins and needles! It's unsettling to watch a huge tractor up on a big pile of chopped corn.


Dad and Levi watching another load getting dumped.






Noah and Grandpa had plans to go on the chopper in the corn field, but since the crew had to switch fields it took a little while before they could go. There was lots of impatient waiting, while watching the chopper and trucks from the front porch.




Waiting and waiting...


Finally, though, Noah and grandpa left for their ride. Levi, mom and I left for Hillsboro to visit The Garden Center for some mums. Noah told me all about his chopper ride and I think he had a great time. He also learned about another type of harvest - the combine doesn't do everything.

Fun Dip First

Fun Dip is one of Ben's favorite sugary snacks. He bought several packets while on a recent work trip and had a few left over when he got home. Our boys had never experienced Fun Dip before. It took them a little while to figure out how it was supposed to work and nearly every time Levi would blow on the powder instead of sucking it off the stick. Eventually, they got the hang of it and they loved it!