More Letterboxing!

We did it again!  This letterboxing adventure took us on a beautiful drive past several amazing wineries (which Bobby and I will DEFINITELY be checking out as soon as we find a good babysitter!), the Busch Wildlife Conservation Area, 2 State Parks, and Daniel Boone's House.  The leaves are turning and it was an amazing sight to take in as we drove through the rolling hills to our destination.  It is called Klondike Park and it was SO worth the drive!  The views from atop the bluff were spectacular and the pictures below do not even come close to doing it justice!  We had a wonderful time hiking up the steep trail together!

Bobby and the kids posing in front of the bluff before we started our hike

Another pic at the bottom of the trail

Heading up the steep paved trail to the top of the bluff

Thank goodness for Bobby's long arms!  They are great for picture taking! ;)

Digging for the letterbox!

Found it!

Next we headed up another trail from the top of the bluff that took us even higher.  Neil decided he needed a "walking stick" for this!

Neil looking out at the Missouri River

Here is what he saw

And this...

Of course, we had to be fair, so Bobby found sister a walking stick, too! ;)  Here they are posing proudly!

 This Letterboxing thing is proving to be a great way to get out and learn the area while getting some great exercise and seeing some beautiful sights.  We love it and Neil is always asking when we are going to do it again!  SUCH a wonderful way to spend our Sunday afternoon!

It's an alien! It's Spiderman! No, it's Neil!

A couple of little Neil things to add to the blog today...

First of all, this morning Bobby surprised us by dropping by with THE coolest balloon character I think I have EVER seen!  Check out this alien with a "light saber" that he had made for Neil.

I had to take the alien's picture and print it out so Neil could take it to school to show his friends!

Now onto Spiderman!  We have been waiting for Neil's Spiderman costume to arrive for a while now.  We have been tracking it each day on the UPS site and mapping the locations to see how far away they are, since we are still learning the geography around here. ;)  We knew it should arrive today and the UPS delivery guy did not disappoint!  Unfortunately, buycostumes.com did!  They sent us a BLACK Spiderman costume...WHAT??!!!  Neil does NOT like the black version of Spiderman and thinks he is a "bad guy".  SO, needless to say, I just got off the phone with buycostumes.com, who, by the way, were very apologetic, and they have guaranteed to have the correct BLUE and RED Spiderman costume to us no later than the 28th.  Whew!  Crisis averted!  Of course, in true little boy fashion, Neil HAD to try on the black one before we return it.  I snapped some pics and even got him posing with the alien!

Flexing his muscles

Spiderman with his new side-kick, the alien!  They make quite a pair!

Thank goodness for great customer service!  If this all works out smoothly, I must say I will definitely be ordering from buycostumes.com again in the future.  I guess we shall see!

What a mess!

Here is our little girl who is now in that lovely stage of learning to feed herself.  She so enjoys trying her hand at using a spoon and, as you can see, she makes a great big mess while she's at it!  I remember this stage with Neil, too.  All I can say is, "Oh, my goodness!"

SO very proud of herself!

"What are you guys looking at?"

The Pumpkin Patch

Fall is a VERY big deal around here and people are just crazy about going to the pumpkin patch.  There are several to choose from, but one, in particular, has been mentioned to me over and over again as being the BEST. So, of course, we just had to go and see what all the fuss was about and it certainly did not disappoint!  Here are the pictures from our Saturday afternoon at THE pumpkin patch!  Enjoy!

So this is how it started...I was trying to get one of those adorable pics of my two precious children sitting in a pile of pumpkins BEFORE they got tired, dirty and hungry...

Obviously, here they were having NONE of it! ;)

Here I got Ella looking, while Neil is wiping his nose with his shirt...

And, here I got Neil looking while Ella is checking out the pony rides!

I was just about to give up when...

I finally got one that was as good as it was gonna get!  Not what I was originally going for, but I'll take it! ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next it was off to ride the "train"!

Our little Neil driving one all by himself (this was a first and he felt like such a big boy!)

Daddy and Ella getting ready to ride the train together.  People were laughing at Bobby trying to fit his long legs into this thing.  Oh, the things we do for our children!

And just for the fun of it, here is a video of them taking off for their ride.  The sound you here is the squeaking of the horns that are mounted on each "train car".  The kids all love it and squeak them the whole time.  The going joke among the adults is that the driver is either deaf or has nerves of steel!  Can you imagine having to listen to THIS all day?!

After the train ride, we went on the hayride.  I loved how the sound of the tractor and the dust blowing in the wind mixed with the smells of the farm took me back to my childhood!  It was wonderful, and the kids loved it, too!

Here we are just about to leave!

Ella putting her hand up to feel the wind.

Neil sitting on a bale of hay in the middle of the trailer.

The hayride takes you through the pumpkin patch.  We thought it was pretty amazing, so Bobby snapped a pic to share!  Some the the pumpkins were SO big that they were selling for $40.00!  Now THAT'S a lot of pumpkin pie!

 Next we took a break and just let Neil play and be silly.  There was an old fire truck and some old tractors he enjoyed climbing on and pretending to drive.

Standing in the back of the fire truck.

Our child who never meets a stranger "riding" with 3 other kids he has never met before...and loving it!

Now look who's driving!

Swinging from the back of the fire truck.

Who knew a tractor tire could make such a great chair!

Watch out!  Now he is driving a tractor!

AND another one!

I was brave enough to climb on for a ride!

Here are the 3 loves of my life acting silly!

Such sweet memories!

Last, but definitely not least, we introduced the kids to one of our all-time favorite things to eat at a carnival.  Any guesses?????  If you were thinking funnel cake, you would be right!

Here is Bobby educating Neil on the makings of a funnel cake!

YUM!  The finished product!

Ella having her first bite of funnel cake, which, by the way, she liked VERY much!

As you can see from the pictures, we had a FANTASTIC time and will definitely be returning again next year!  Anybody wanna come with us?! ;)

Glow-in-the-dark PJ's are the best!

Here are some pics of the kids in their new glow-in-the-dark pj's in honor of Halloween! 

Neil the Jack-o-lantern!

Ella the Skeleton!

Letterboxing Anyone???

Last week, while I was waiting in my doctor's office, I was reading an article in a parenting magazine about cheap outdoor activities to do with your kids.  The first one on the list was Letterboxing.  I was so intrigued that I came home and looked up the web site.  Check it out at www.letterboxing.org.  It is like going on a treasure hunt.  You follow clues that lead to a secret hiding place where there is a container with a rubber stamp and a notebook.  Sometimes there are other items, too.  Like the next one we want to do has a cookie recipe in it.  We are going to buy our own notebook and stamp, so we can collect the stamps of which letterboxes we have found and we can also stamp the notebook in the letterbox with our stamp, so that person knows we were there.  It is all very secret and exciting!  I showed it to Bobby Saturday afternoon and he was totally sold.  So we picked one near us and set out on a new great adventure!  We got to do some hiking, discovered a new park and had a fantastic time!  I highly recommend this for anyone who loves outdoor adventure!  You can search your area for letterboxes on the web site, so don't waste another minute!  This was one of the neatest things we have ever done, and I think it is going to become our new favorite family past time!  Here are some pics of our adventure!

Just a picture of the beautiful woods.

Neil and I following the clues up the trail.

Here is a great pic I took of Bobby and the kids right before we got to cross the creek.  Neil thought this was one of the neatest things ever!

We found the "treasure" hidden inside an old mossy log!

The green notebook we signed is in the baggie.  We just signed it and put the date, since we didn't have a stamp yet or a notebook of our own.  We will have to go back to this one once we get everything, and stamp our notebook so we have a record of it.

Neil throwing rocks into the woods.

Another picture of the beautiful scenery.

Ella got to ride on Daddy's back for the hike.

Here is a makeshift family pic taken by Bobby's long arm.  You can barely see Ella peeking over Bobby's shoulder! ;)

This was truly a blast!  So, get out there and try it for yourself!  We are even talking about making our own letterbox and hiding it someday.  I had no idea people did this, but it is the coolest thing ever, and, best of all, it is totally free!