A Fun Fall Visit!

I'm almost caught up! Woo hoo! We had a nice long visit recently with Dave's folks, Ron and Bobbi! They had some time off and though Dave did not, they decided to come on up anyway! Since his schedule is so variable, it is almost best to just ignore it right now:) 

They arrived Friday afternoon and it was a bit funny with Dave leaving work (he was on call that weekend - boo) and I had the kids and was leaving the doctor's office and they were arriving all at the same time! I got home first, which was nice:) 

The boys had fun playing with Grandpa!

Bobbi brought me this aloe vera plant - I love it!

Luckily, Dave was home in time for supper and since it was already a crazy day we decided to get some Wisconsin fish fry. We drove to the golf course to eat and it was closed! So, we doubled back and went to Shipwreck Bay. It was busy, but we found a long high top table to sit at. The kids were totally distracted by those gambling games and they rigged up a high chair for Ayden by stacking three wooden high chairs. But I was very happy that Gma Bobbi held him for the whole time:) Dave made it through his walleye before being called back to the hospital, so I'm glad he was able to eat.

Dave was in the hospital Saturday as well, but we stayed busy playing at home! We did a little working out, a few fun projects with the kids, lots of chasing and wrestling, some time outside and talked a lot about Christmas:) 

We opened the cool kit that Laurie sent for Kate's birthday!

Collin helping, of course:)

She was into it
Though at this point she is not following the directions of the activity at all:)

This was so cool

We had some rather rough nights with Ayden. At first, we tried having him in our room but that didn't work out well so we moved him into the sun room. That was kind of interesting but still not ideal. Collin was up too (oh - I forgot to mention. At Kate and Ayden's doctor appointment, we found double-ear infection for Collin!) and he didn't want Gma or Daddy. So....yeah. Uff da. But despite the hard night, we still went to church Sunday morning. 

We've been having the worst time deciding where to go for church. We had settled on the ELCA church in New Lisbon, but they don't have any kids! I was so surprised. And super disappointed. Kate is really excited about church and Sunday School and I don't want that to die out because this church is the opposite of vibrant. 

So, we went one more time back to Faith Christian Church outside Mauston. It is a Christian non-denominational church and so it is VERY different then what we are used to, but it energizes us and has amazing programming for the kids. We are trying it for now. And we were able to bring Ron and Bobbi! 

Sunday had more playing, we watched the football games, I think Dave was back in the hospital as well. Monday was kind of dreary and we hung out inside until we went and looked at a house for sale south of town. It was under foreclosure, much cheaper but still a disaster:) No go. 

One of our projects - melting mints to make ornaments

It kind of worked! They were super fragile
Collin just wanted to eat them all:)

It was fun to have Gma and Gpa around to see Kate get on and off the bus:) On Tuesday, I took Kate to gymnastics and ran some errands without the boys which was nice. Tuesday night the forecast was calling for strong storms basically between our house and Ron and Bobbi's so we decided they would stay an extra night and avoid driving through that mess. Just more time to tag team the kids, tag team meals (I planned and purchased - they made them!) and have a glass of wine and watch The Voice while the kids slept:) 

They mainly run around and yell loudly.
But sometimes they are quieter:) They LOVE to color together

Ron and Dave spent some time splitting wood out in the backyard (an oak that was taken down this summer) and Ron kept at it while Dave was at work - the whole huge pile was split! That was a huge project, Dave is very happy that is done:) I thought it was adorable when Collin went out to watch/help. I took a bunch of pictures...

The boys out back

Someone is pretty proud that he can help:)

Happy!

It was a great visit! We had a lot of time together to play and chat. We got a lot accomplished! A huge thank you to them for helping with so many things! So appreciated! And it was so nice to just say,"See you next month!" as they are coming back up here for Christmas - with Laurie joining us as well!