Center Grove Orchard

It has turned into an annual tradition for our family to head to Center Grove Orchard to find apples and pumpkins. The place is awesome, if you haven't been there, we would highly recommend it!

Here's their website: https://centergroveorchard.com/

Our annual picture at the front entrance

 Who's excited?!?!?

 Our first stop is the corn pool. This year they added a slide! The boys loved it!

 And so did the girls!

 Kind of!

 G jumping in

 Trigg showing off his moves

 The dudes

 Not to be outdone, B jumps in...she is a little nervous at first

 But warms up when Mom jumps in too!

 Off to the pedal tractors

 All-American Farmer

 Trigg is getting a little big for this little tractors

 Pit stop at the animals

 We found Alice in Wonderland!

 And the adult pedal tractors, these are super fun!

 They have two big jump pillows that the boys loved jumping on!

 The giant slide is super fun, you slide down on old potato sacks and just fly down the hill!

 Center Grove Rocks!

 The old tractor

 Waiting for the hay rack to take us out to the field

 We thought we were pretty smart going to the orchard at the end of September, our plan was to beat the crowds. We did, it wasn't very crowded, but we also found out we can't pick pumpkins until October...so no pumpkins for us on this trip. On the bright side, the apple trees were full of apples!

 We taste tested to make sure they were delicious...they were!

 One more stop back at the corn pool before we left

 This time around, B was ready to jump in!

 And she did...over and over and over and over and over again!

Thanks Center Grove for a great fall day! See you again next year!
Pro tips if you are headed to Center Grove:
1. Take a day off of work and go during the week to avoid the crowds
2. Buy your tickets online in advance and save $2
3. Try the apple cider donuts, they are amazing
4. Pumpkins aren't ready to pick until October

Adventureland!

Every year we make a trip to Adventureland for a day of thrills and spills!  In years past, it has been all of Heather's side of the family, but with kiddo's getting older and summer schedules that is harder to work out. This year was just our family and Heather's mom (Nana) for the day at Adventureland!

The first stop...the carousel

 Nana and Blythe ready and excited!

 Here we go!

 After the carousel, we head over the the giant Ferris wheel! The ladies on one side.

 The dudes on the other!

 Then we check out the lady bugs!

 And the hot air balloons!

 Blythe sat with me for the balloons!

 Driving trucks...

 ...and trains

 ...and boats!

 G and I rode the sky glide across the park, Nana and Trigg were in another chair while we race Heather pushing Blythe in the stroller!

 Blythe and I took a pit stop in the shade while the boys and Heather rode the Gallion.

 One last spin on the tea cups and we called it a day!

It's always fun to spent a day at the park, to hear the laughs and giggles as we spin around on the rides, to sweat through our shirts and pack a picnic for lunch at the shelter house!

Rain + Boots = Fun

Do you know what's better than a rain shower on a summer day...

 Rain boots and jumping in puddles!

 So FUN!

1st day of school

Summer quickly winds to a close as we start to think about the 1st day of school!!! We had "Meet the Teacher" night at Trigg's elementary school. Johnston did some remodeling and moving schools around, so he is in a newly renovated school!  Not to worry, we still have a dragon out front!

 Everyone is excited for school to start!

 Official 1st Day of School...we have a 1st Grader!

 Big brother is off to school!

 I think this is one of the sweetest pictures!

 The crew!

 And he's off!

 Next up, G for his 2nd year in Preschool! He wanted to rock the mow-hawk for his first day!

 All smiles!

 Here we go Cottontail, let's have a great year!

Every year, it seems that summer just flies by and it's hard to believe we are already back to school.  Here's to a great year of learning and growing!

Flooded...

We live at the top of a big hill and have never had water in our basement...until now. On June 30th we had nearly 9 inches of rain fall in the span of about 3 hours. Standing in our basement, I watched as the backyard started to fill with water. At about this point in time, I called the city to let them know our storm drain was backing up, they told me, "It's not just yours, every storm drain in Johnston is backed up, this is just more water than the system can handle." Basically, thanks for your call but there is nothing we can do.

 The water kept coming and started to push against the basement slider...yikes!

 I was able to create a sort of "funnel" using some old boards and that area rug to funnel the water from the door to the sump pump on the other side of the room! Thankfully that sump pump kept working...this was max of the water in the basement.

 At one point, the water was this high up on the slider...that's about 12 inches!!!

I ended up tearing out the damaged drywall and baseboards, we were able to pull up the carpet in 1 piece and get it dried out. Our carpet guys put down new pad and reinstalled the carpet. All in all, it's never fun to get water in your basement, I am very thankful the sump pump kept working and even more thankful for great neighbors who came over and helped! It was also a big blessing that the rain started after the kids were in bed, so they didn't get too worked up about all the water!