Fall Fix

When your favorite season is fall, it gets a little sad living in the south, particularly in October. It is one of the biggest things we miss about living in Nebraska, second to the people!

We miss the fall weather, as well as one of our favorite places, Vala's Pumpkin Patch (which just completes the fall package of course). As I was missing fall one of the last couple of years, I had the thought about traveling north over Columbus Day weekend. GCA does not have a fall break, so it seemed like the chance to get our fall fix without making up too much school work. Brad worked very hard to make it happen for us this year, and we were so thankful for a special, fun, family weekend.

What Google says should take 10 hours, actually takes us at least 11 with stops, so if we do this again we are strongly considering flying instead. :) But, it wasn't too bad.

We got a bit of a head start after picking up the kids from school and headed to Heather's place, knocking out 3 hours of the drive. A.J. recently moved to Edmond as well, so we loved getting to see them both during our quick stop in Oklahoma.

What I like to call Fun Aunt Cereal

(Yes I'm really regretting my choice not to primp a little more on our "just driving" day after seeing these pics!)

Between the tween clothes, bangs and headphones she looks way too old.

We settled in Friday and had to fit in a Runza supper and a quick swim in the pool even though it kept us up late! 

We headed out bright and early so we could fit in every minute we could at the zoo. We were excited to see the new areas they had added (specifically the elephants) as well as our "old" favorites. We loved getting a chance to see Michelle and Alea as well.

Oh the penguins!

How we love the aquarium!

We ate lunch overlooking the indoor rain-forest and got to watch the monkeys play.

Checking out the new elephant exhibit with Michelle and Alea.

Sting Ray Beach

Interactive kids area - playing in a giant tree house play area, pulling the rope to make our raft move, twirling in a chrysalis and checking out a giant bird's nest.

Oh how we miss these ladies! Thankful for the afternoon together.
(And you know how much I'm kicking myself for forgetting to get a picture until the parking lot in the sun!?)

As we were contemplating this trip, we weren't sure if it would be a good opportunity to see the Sr. Stahls because Omaha is a 6 hour drive from their place. However, God totally worked things out! They had already planned a trip to Lincoln that same weekend to see a Husker game! (This also meant they weren't in bed until about 2 AM before their outing with us! Boy did they play hard this weekend!) So, we loaded up with Grandma and Grandpa and headed to Vala's Pumpkin Patch! I love that we have now had the opportunity to take both sets of parents, I just love seeing their reactions. You can read about it plenty but seeing it in person is a whole 'nother story! :) The kids remembered A LOT and had plenty of requests for the day. There were also new places they added that we enjoyed checking out. We definitely missed out usual week-day lack-of-crowds but still had a great time.

(I would apologize for the amount of pictures in this post...but if you read this blog you probably know that this is just the way I am!)

One of the first requests were "the giant Lincoln Logs" so we had to oblige.

It was quite the project but they got their house built! Great team work!

They loved feeding the animals.

Rubber Duck Races

The Egg Scrambler was a new addition. It is now one of Makin's favorites. When I told him it was time to go to the next activity he said, "But I love this place!" Just picture three levels of mass chaos, balls shooting everywhere from every direction, and kids having a total blast and you pretty much have it.

We had fun in the sports section. The boys played here while L and I took on the corn maze.

My little photographer in the making!

Lorelei and I were quite proud we made it out of the corn maze without getting turned around once!

Maybe I've been away too long but the corn seemed extra tall to me!

I had always wanted to try The Pie Barn, so I got my wish for lunch. You can see the apples being sliced, cored and cut for the pies as well as the pies being made. The ladies making pies said they had already made 100 pies so far that day.

I just love barns.

Eating out on the Pie Barn patio overlooking the corn field.
Yes it was yummy. :)

We had to go on The Big Slide Ride of course. So fun!

Both the kids and the grown men had fun shooting apples from these apple cannons. I don't really get it, but it was on the top of the boy's lists of best parts of Vala's when I asked. :)

The only perk to being there over the weekend: entertainment! So fun! 

Had to include a video glimpse.

Our hayride to the pumpkin patch!

While the idea of agreeing on one pumpkin seemed like a good one to me, it was hard to actually make it happen. L consented to a smaller pumpkin for now, but is ready to choose a bigger one soon. :) Makin's choice ended up weighing in at 22 pounds. He insisted that he had to find one still on the vine and actually cut it off for it to be real pumpkin picking.

Why does my seven year old look like he could be posing for senior pictures?

The whole family!

So happy.

Thankful for this guy for working so hard to make this little dream come true!

We wrapped up a busy day with pizza and America's Funniest Videos. :)

This was such a great weekend and we are so thankful for our special little fall getaway!
As I look through all these pictures my heart just swells with happiness. So blessed.