Early Fall

We are off to a busy fall.  Drew started preschool at Wargo Nature Center at the end of September.  He chose his own outfit for the first day.  He thought a shirt and tie would be the perfect ensemble.  He sure was excited.  It took him about a week to get used to the schedule.  We learned that he really does like a schedule.  It seems to work well with his mathmatical mind.  

Ryan, Christy and Kevin came to visit us the first Friday of October.   Drew had fun dancing with Kevin.  It's hard to believe both of these boys are growing so fast!

We celebrated Nala's 14th birthday with some cake and ice cream.  Drew had fun lighting and blowing out Nala's candles.

Drew and I went to the Wildlife Center in Colombus for Oktoberfest.  Drew wasn't too interested in the over 100 wolves, but he sure did enjoy painting the pumpkin.  Not only that, the pumpkins that Grandpa and Grandpa brought, got a full cleaning along with a terrific decorative alignment.  All courtesy of Drew.

A big part of the fall has been the designing and building of Drew's loft for his bedroom. He helped his dad shop for the wood, put up the frame, and set up the entire bed.

When it was finished he put all of his stuffed animals and favorite books on the shelf. 

We took many different trips to Apple Orchards, and Pumpkin Farms.  Anoka County Farm was a cute little place, with one giant pumpkin.  Andrew and Drew had fun playing together at the farm.

In the middle of October we took a week long trip back to grandpa and grandma's house.  We broke up the trip by stopping at the Veteran's Memorial outside of Sauk City.

Toria and Drew spent a lot of time together playing while we were visiting.  One of their favorite activities was giving the fuzzy wuzzy caterpillars baths in the 5 gallon bucket.

While we were back home we attended my friend Angie's annual Halloween party in Belleville.  Drew got to Dress up as Jake-From Jake and The Neverland Pirates, and play a little BB.  He was terrified of all the life sized scary statues that were displayed (Freddie Krueger, Jason, etc.)

Grandpa and Grandma babysat while I had a night out with Gayle, Kristen, Jack, and Deb.  We did some Wine tasting at Wollersheim's and followed it up with dinner at the Dorf Haus in Roxbury.

Grandpa had the idea of making a deer stand in the tree in the field, but changed his mind when he realized he would have to take it down.  So, instead he and Drew worked on a wood working art project.  What does this look like to you?

My former High School English teacher, Mrs. Frye,  and myself attend Buffalo Bill at the American Players Theatre in Spring Green.

The rest of the time Drew has been writing his own books, and taking selfies for the illustrations of his books. This picture was for his book about Ted (the red bear) and Silkie.

We bought one VERY large pumpking at Anoka Farm when we went with Amber and Andrew.  John carved it, and Drew took the credit.  It didn't take long for it to rot.

We've been doing some read alouds from our Usborne Books.  This is John and Drew reading "A squirrel's Tale" to a group of kids at Wargo Nature Center for their Fall Festival.

We spent the afternoon at Pinehaven with Becky and Viktoria.  They had all sorts of stuff to do!  They had pumpkin launching, a pirate ship, a big bouncy pad to jump on, petting farm, and wagon rides.  It was well worth the 8 dollars.

Once Drew had all of his pumpkins he made his own little fort at the front of the house.  He used other decor besides pumpkins.

Drew loves to take photos of Nala.  Here is one that turned out pretty good.

This year we went trick or treating with the Espinosas in Lino Lakes, and

we finally all were able to wear our costumes together (Jake, Captain Hook and Izzie).

Today we are getting blasted with our very first WINTER STORM!!!

End of Summer! Sniff, Sniff....

It was a fun filled August, just like the rest of the summer.  

Drew and I went to visit the Espinosa family at Interstate State Park on a really rainy day.  We tried to get some hiking in, but it just wouldn't stop raining.  On the way home from the short hike we stopped at Fraconia Sculpture Park to do a little walk, and then stopped for some mini golf.  The sculptures were artsy and fun to see!   We had fun in spite of the rain.

After we returned from our trip to Branson Drew asked if he could learn how to play golf.  So, we signed him up for golf lessons at Oneka Golf course in Hugo.  He sure had lots of fun playing golf.  His teacher, Tim, had a good way with the kids.  He's looking forward to lessons next summer already!

In the middle of the month we attended Blue Heron Days in Lino Lakes.  John did the 5K, and Drew did the bouncy houses.  We followed that up with the parade, lunch and petting farm.

Waldoch Farm had their annual Flower Garden tour.  The ladies sure had interesting gardens.  I thought it was fun learning about the gardens, but they boys were more interested in the free ear of corn.

At the beginning of the summer Drew asked if he could make yarn.  Well, instead of making yarn we went to visit a sheep farm, so he could see where the yarn comes from.  It was an authentic sheep farm, with guard dogs and the whole bit.  We are looking foward to going back in the spring for the shearing.

I gave in and took Drew to the MN State Fair.  I really hate fairs, but this one was terrific!  We were shuttle to it on a FREE bus.   It's rated #4 in the country for best fairs!  There was just so much to see that we didn't have time to fit everything in....One of the highlights for me was the live animal birthing section.  We were able to see the aftermath of a calf being born.

We waited all summer to go to a Saint's Baseball Game.  We wound up at the last game that was to be held at Midway Stadium.  If Kati hadn't shown up with Sophia, I don't think Drew would have lasted so long.

One of my favorite things we did this summer was going to the horse races at Running Aces.  It was a gorgeous evening, and the overall culture of the horse race was relaxing and entertaining.  

We spent a night at the Musser's place on Turtle Lake.  During that time Drew was practicing his one mand band skills by playing his kazoo and ukele a the same time.

My hummingbird feeder proved to be a big success.  We had the cutest familly here all summer long.  I finally figured out that they have a nest in our big maple tree.

We did our first camping trip on a weekend in MN.  It was REALLY crowded, and noisy.  We camped at Father Hennepin.  Not one of our favorite camping spots, but we still made it fun with hiking and biking.

Labor Day weekend we had the Espinosa's over and we rented a pontoon boat.  Obviously the boat was pretty slow for pulling a tube.  So slow that we decided to do tricks on the tube.  This was def. the highlight of the day!  Seeing John try and do a head stand---hee, hee!  Nathan asked if this was legal.  We had a great fish fry to end the evening.

The last hoorah for the summer was a camping trip with grandpa and grandma at Afton State Park.  We wound up not camping because we realized we had to hike in 1 mile to our campsite. We weren't prepared for that!!  So, instead we rented a cabin for the night.  It had bunk beds which made Drew really excited!!!   Minus the diarrhea and not having any tp on our walk, it was a pretty good time!!

July 2014

Another month of summer has passed us by.  

In the beginning of July Grandpa and Grandma came to visit for the 4th of July.  Drew did some fishing with grandpa.

 During that visit we did a big canoe and kayak trip in the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes.  It took us almost 3 hours from beginning to end.

Drew and I had a blast camping with the Espinosa Family at William O'brien State Park on the St. Croix.  We had the most fun biking on the trail to the ice cream shop in town.

Drew and I did a 1 mile hike through the park, and I lost my phone.

 We had tons of fun when the McIntosh family came to visit in the middle of July.  We did lots of swimmng at the house, and of course some more bike riding.  We took a day trip to Stillwater and made a visit to Teddy Bear Park and spent some time checking out Lumberjack Days.

Towards the end of July Drew and I went along with dadddy on his work conference.  We stayed in 3 different hotels.  Two were in Racine, and one was in Milwaukee.

We spent the last part of the weekend visiting with the cousins at grandpa and grandmas.  The neighbor brought over his goats for the kids to visit.  It sure was fun watching the goats run!!!

Grandma Nita Visits

Grandma and Mike came to visit for 9 days.  She brought Drew some gifts.  His favorite was his "Drew" doll that he could dress and undress.  He had fun playing with him.  Mini Drew has been resting near his bed for the last month. 

One day Mike spent some time helping Drew make a hacky sack, and airplanes.  Drew sure did like that time constructing things with Mike.

Grandma did some fishing with Drew too.  They both caught fish one right after the other.  Between them and John, they caught enough to do a fish fry before Grandma and Mike left.

During their visit they were able to see Drew at his t-ball practice.  Drew and his friend Andrew had more fun playing in the sand, than playing t-ball.

Saturday, the 14th, was Grandma's 70th birthday party.  All of the Truesdell boys came over with their children.  One of the highlights was getting all of the kids into the canoe for a paddle.

We even had a pinata for grandma and the kids.

On Father's Day we hung around the house, and captured a photo of John and Drew in their Lutgen Strong t-shirts in support of John's aunt Chris and her fight with stage 4 melanoma.