Fall Beauty

The ones that DIDN'T get away

In August, Stephen went camping at the Ludington State Park with his best friend. While there, his friend's dad took the boys out fishing on his boat. Upon Stephen's return home, he proudly announced that he caught a couple of fish and boy did he! Here are the pictures of his 13 pound King Salmon and 9 inch Rock Bass. The fillets are currently in our freezer waiting to be consumed. This should make Uncle Jeff proud!!!

Applesauce -- YUM!!!!

We discovered that after our trip to Gull Meadow Farms, we had picked way too many apples. Soooo, Matthew and I decided to try our hand at making applesauce. Stephen and Michael were at Stephen's soccer practice, so Matthew and I had the kitchen all to ourselves. The end result was incredibly yummy in spite of the fact that my little chef refused to eat it.

TA-DA!!!!!

Apple Pickin' Time

Today was such a beautiful, crisp fall day that we decided to take the boys to Gull Meadow Farms. All 4 of us enjoyed a day of apple picking, walking through the pumpkin patch, strolling down Pumpkin Lane to see all of the pumpkin displays, winding our way through the 1/2 acre corn maze and bumping around on a wagon ride. As always, family fun time is always the best time!

Pumpkin Lane has all sorts of interactive displays, as well as pumpkin displays depicting well known characters (Elmo, Barney, Charlie Brown, etc). The boys thought the giant rocking chair was a riot!

The challenge with this maze was to complete it making only right turns.

Yes, Matthew has a powdered doughnut in his hand. I think he got more sugar on him than in him!

Still working on that doughnut!

Here are the boys making their way through the corn maze.

This is an aerial view of what the corn maze looks like. It's amazing. If you go to the Gull Meadow Farms website, you can see pictures of the corn mazes from the last few years. I thought they had said that the maze was 1/2 an acre.

Here are my guys picking some Golden Delicious apples to take home. Stephen is behind the branch. You can just see him peeking through the leaves.

JACKPOT!!!!!

Stephen felt that the best ones were closer to the top of the tree. I think he was just looking for an excuse to climb one!

Mmmmmmmm! APPLES!

We wandered through the actual pumpkin patch, but it was pretty picked over. So, we made our way over to the Pumpkin Corral and found a couple of just right pumpkins to take home.

Stephen is having a hard time choosing.

Mission accomplished! Perfect pumpkin found!

Apple pickin' is exhausting work!

Sadie and the Boys

The boys love playing with Sadie in the backyard. The funny thing is, she wants to play a lot longer than they do. She would chase the tennis ball all over the backyard from sun up to sun down if someone were willing to throw it for her.

She is so patient with both of the boys even though you know as well as I do that the following thought is going through her head..."Just throw the #!$*!@ ball already!!!!!"

Great catch Sadie Girl!!!!

Look at her. She is daring Matthew to just try and grab the ball.

She snatched the ball and ran off with it. Sadie is great at taunting the boys and she of course LOVES it when they chase her.

Sadie sees an opening and makes a break for it.....





...with Matthew




...and Stephen not far behind!





Oh no, it's the classic double back fake out! Matthew was running so fast that the only way he could stop was to fall down! Shortly afterwards, Sadie came in and passed out in the living room floor with a very satisfied groan!

More Soccer Fun

Here are a few more pictures showing my awesome boys in action! Soccer is definitely the sport of choice for both of them.

Michael helps out at each of Matthew's games. Stephen chose to help out during this warm up drill as well.

Warm up drill #1 - Run to the middle and kick a ball back to your starting point. Continue doing this until all of the soccer balls are gone from the middle.

Warm up drill #2 - Making the shot. Each boy got to try and kick the ball into the goal. Look at the determination and focus on Matthew's face.

Taking the shot!!!!!!







What a ham bone. He is actually supposed to be helping his teammates since the game had actually started. Such a goofball! ;)







Go Matthew Go!

Stephen continues to amaze us at the level of skill he has developed in such a short amount of time. He is definitely focused and quick on his feet!







He's not afraid to get a little aggressive either. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Sometimes it's hard to watch because I'm scared he's going to get hurt.







Look how grown up he looks.




Again with the aggressiveness. He's definitely not afraid to go after the ball full force.





Stephen is in the middle, playing goalie. He had just caught a ball and stopped it from going in the goal. He's getting ready to throw it back into play for his teammates.

Matthew's warm up drill #1. (I couldn't get it to post with his pictures. Go figure!)

Matthew's warm up drill #2.

Matthew in action!