Sioux Falls + Pumpkins

Man, fall is a busy time of year! The RHSMB ended up winning it all at their competition in Des Moines a few weekends ago, and then last weekend, they won big in Sioux Falls! They came in the Grand Champions in both competitions and took home several captions. Today, they are headed to US Bank Stadium for the state level championship. Fingers crossed that the RHSMB does fantastic!

My mom, G, and I made a mini-vacation and headed to Sioux Falls to cheer them on. SF has a lot to offer and we had fun exploring the city and enjoying the nice, warm weather (until the evening when it got pretty dang cold.)

We stopped at Minnesota's Largest Candy store on the way to SF. It was unlike anything we had seen before!

And then we visited the Green Giant...can you find G?

Wonderful adventure at Falls Park in SF

We streamed prelims at our hotel, and then headed to the stadium for finals.

From my stadium seat, I could see the Rosemount trailer! I took that as a good sign :)

We squeezed in a fun family trip to the MN Zoo this past weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect and the theme "Seasons" was one of the neatest we have seen in all of the years that we have gone there. It was a great mid-week break from all of the craziness that we're dealing with.

Not pumpkins, but really cool animals hidden in the walking trail trees!

Look at this guy's face...!

School is really busy. Work is really busy. LIFE is really busy. But, it's mostly fun, with a lot of hard work thrown in there, and most importantly, this too shall pass. At some point, we'll have a moment to stop and breathe!

Comments

Exploring Local Places

Last Sunday was the perfect day to explore an area that neither Arya nor I had been to before. We headed east to walk around the Vermillion Falls/River and Greenway area. The path was nicely paved, with lots of overhead shade from trees; there were so many families out on bikes and walking, and we had a nice view of the Vermillion River. Arya got some great pics, and I enjoyed spending time outdoors with my sweet girl. This weekend, G and I will be heading out to explore a creek area in a few towns just south of us. And I've already got an idea for another creek I want to walk by next month (it's a bit further away, and I'd rather put that aside until Arya is off at college) The tree leans to find the sun On the way home, we stopped at the DQ in another town (we have a love/hate relationship with the DQ in our town, so I wanted to avoid it.) The warm weather felt great, and we enjoyed some sweet treats while watching the world drive by. We're counting down the days unti...

What a Week

The weather has been unseasonably warm this fall, so we've been able to extend our outdoor projects just a bit. This past week Scott's been working in the garden, cleaning everything out, and repairing the back wall of our garage. Ava was such a good little helper, scooping up dirt, but still trying to keep her hands clean while doing it! I swear, a box is all she needs to make her happy. Princess Darla. Princess Darla has had enough. I personally like how she and Ava have the same expressions in this picture. Apparently Spanky was bored - check out that yawn in the background! We went down to Grand Meadow this weekend, and as always, it was so fun to see Ava and Isabel play together. They actually had several little conversations with each other - and they were so polite while doing so! We even had them share a room last night...boy, that was a challenge. I think they finally fell asleep around 10:00pm. And of course, Ava wa...

Malls and Zoos

Last Sunday, my friend Kristin and I went to the Mall of America to listen to Kim and Penn Holderness talk about their new kids' book about ADHD. They interact so well with the audience, and they are a joy to watch and listen to. At the end, we met them and got my book signed. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon with a friend! It's been a busy week. We sold Bernice (the Mariner) on Monday morning and had a company evaluate the Pilot on Monday night. They offered us much less than we wanted, so we passed. But someone we know is coming by this afternoon to look at it, so maybe it will go home with a new owner tonight. Fingers crossed that we're down to just 3 cars in the near future! Insurance is ridiculously high, and selling these two cars will save us at least $800/year. Every little penny adds up! G and I ran a bunch of errands this morning, then topped it off with a trip to a French bakery I had been wanting to try in the next town over. Ooh la la! Since he...

Go, Go, Goers!

Search This Blog