October Craziness

Whew, what a month!  October has been jam packed with activities.  We have literally been gone every weekend this entire month.  Here's the recap:

First, Joseph had a dental community outreach clinic in Davenport, IA.  They provided almost a million dollars worth of dentistry for free to those in need.  Since his company paid for food, lodging, and gas for Joseph, we all decided to tag along!  I didn't take pictures, but we had a good time enjoying one of the bigger cities in Iowa...which I realize isn't saying much but we had fun nonetheless!  

The next weekend we had a big wedding to attend!  Two of Joseph's classmates that met in dental school were getting married so my mom came into town and watched the boys for the weekend while Joseph and I had a little getaway of our own for the wedding.  As usual, the boys had a grand 'ole time with Grandma, and we were all sad to see her leave.  She traveled to Ottumwa on the train, and when she was leaving we took these pictures at the train museum located at the station.  

Then the next weekend we went to St. Joseph, MO to visit some of our best friends from dental school.  Jake was beyond excited to see Ethan and Noah and those boys were in seventh heaven all weekend just playing together.  They took us to an apple orchard/pumpkin patch where we picked apples, played on a playground, ran through a corn maze, rode an apple barrel train, and ate apple slushes.  

This is literally the best picture we got of everyone on the hayride...I didn't even bother trying to get a better one.

We loved eating the apples, though!

Finally, this past weekend we had our church's Halloween party!  Our family dressed as dragons and dragon tamers.  

There was a lot of eating.  Every time I turned around my kids were chowing down on some new sugary concoction.  But I figured, hey, Halloween only comes once a year, right?  And Joseph made sure their teeth were brushed extra well when we got home!

Jake enjoyed running around with his friend Crew.  Those boys look like they could be brothers.
(Also, did you notice that Jake's "chains" around his neck have a broken link at the end?  That was my idea...he's a runaway dragon!  I thought I was being pretty clever there.  C'mon, guys, just humor me.)

Then we spent all day yesterday in Des Moines where we picked out some more furniture for our still pretty barren home.   

Of course, in between all the craziness, we've still managed to spend a little time at home.       

The boys "helped" me rake the leaves in our front yard.  We only have one small tree in our yard, so there aren't a ton of leaves, but there was enough to have a little fall fun:

And there you have it!  The crazy October recap.  I hope your October was as full and fun as ours!