Stone's Apple Orchard

The twins are now in the 4 year old class at Shepherd's Fold Preschool - which means that they are now able to take field trips! Their first trip was to Stone's Apple Orchard. It was a warm morning - after a long day of rain the day before. The kids enjoyed their tour and the fruit that they ate on the way home!
Will & Maddie waiting for the hayrack ride to start.
Group Photo!
Will feeding the donkey
Inside the big cooler...
Another group shot

Walking to see the chickens - acting like a chicken!

Will holding "Dan, the Apple Man"s hand

Snack Time

Rockford Letterboxing

Another beautiful day with nothing on the calendar!! We decided Saturday night that we would head to Rockford, IL to try to minimize the number of letterboxes in the area. It seems that we can't keep up with the planters in that area!!

Our first stop was in Oregon, IL to get this picture of Katie (aka Skeeter in the letterboxing world) at Skeeter's restaurant.
Once in Rockford, we found 2 boxes along the Rock River. We were able to park in one spot and travel across the river via a human/bike bridge that runs underneath the car bridge. The kids loved it! They were pretty engrossed in the water fowl while Matt stamped in.
At another point that morning, we stopped at Greenwood Cemetery to track down "Mr Bones @ Greenwood". We found the spot, but couldn't find the box. While Matt was looking for the box, the kids & I spotted this fox running around the cemetery. It was nice that it kept its distance!

I am assuming that this is still the Rock River. We found "Autumn Flyers" and got to take a short hike on this section of the river. Luckily it was short as a couple of the kids needed to use the bathroom as soon as we stamped in!
Sinnissippi Park was another stop further on in the day. Matt & I were so happy to have nicer weather than when we were there 2 years ago! We were able to find both stamps without problems (Rockin Runners & Batsy). Maddie even surprised us with her persistance at finding the first box (see pic). She slipped down that hill 7 or 8 times before finally getting all the way up (it wasn't a big hill by any means...but maybe for a 4 year old!)
Will - trying to find a spot for the new stamp in his logbook.

A beautiful smile from Katie!"Ghost in the Graveyard" was located in a cemetery - right next to a golf course! Will went with Matt to look for the box and came back with 4 golf balls! He was so excited to share them!

Another big part of driving to Rockford was to meet up with TrailRider to give her a stamp that she will be using at a gathering she is hosting next month. She has 2 horses and keeps asking when are we bringing the kids up to ride! Due to a biking accident, she isn't able to ride (therefore, our kids couldn't either)...but our kids loved seeing the horses (Ginger & Gospel), petting them and feeding them snacks!

While eating dinner, the national weather service announced a severe thunderstorm warning. We looked outside and saw that the sky was pretty dark to the west of us. All the kids got into their jammies after dinner and we started a movie for the drive home. As we were driving along Rt 2 along the Rock River, we were blessed with this beautiful scene! The sky was still dark, but the sun was peeking through in places - beeming the tops of the trees with a golden hue! It reflected in the river too - I just didn't get any pictures of that! We ended our day with 12 boxes...and still lots more to get in the Rockford area! Maybe next summer!!

4 Year Old Preschool

After a summer of Maddie waking up and asking, "Mommy, is it preschool today?"...me: "no, not today"...Maddie: "uh, this take forever!"..., Maddie woke up with the same question last Wednesday and I was able to tell her YES, Preschool is today!!

They both got up and got themselves dressed (take note of Will's shoes throughout the pictures!). I am so proud of my little ones for having no fear of "flying". I am blessed beyond measure! They love preschool and couldn't wait to get there! Once in the room, they found all their favorites: teachers, friends & toys! I think they were actually surprised to see Matt & I still there 10 minutes later! Matt & I said our goodbyes and went to McDonald's for an adult only breakfast. Yeah, I know...not very romantic...but it was kidless...and we sat as far away from the play area as possible!

I just couldn't get a "normal" picture out of them!!

Michigan - Days 4 & 5

We left Battle Creek to head to the Hart reunion on the 4th day. The reunion was held in Mendon in a bed & breakfast. It was a very old Inn with a lot of character! After a late breakfast and checkout at the hotel, we drove to Mendon. Most everyone was already there once we arrived - it was a wonderful time of seeing everyone and catching up! Most of the family is on Facebook, so we are able to keep up with each other...but it is still nice to reconnect every few years in person!

After being at the Inn for a while, people started dispursing. Some went canoeing while others played cards/games. A few others took naps! Matt & I discussed heading out to find a few more letterboxes while everyone was doing there own thing. Katie decided that she'd like to stay at the Inn, but the other 3 headed out with us. We found 3 boxes and attempted one other one with no luck. Here are the 3 kids playing on the school playground at "K-5" while Matt hunted for the box.
The cool find for this day was the Air Zoo in Kalmazoo!! This FREE place was awesome! If you are a plane buff - new & old - this is a very cool place to visit! They have 2 campuses, but we only visited one due to time constraints. The kids & Becki took a balloon ride, bought souvenirs and found a letterbox!
Will comparing his new plane to the one on display.

It was raining when we went outside. Will was so worried that his plane would get wet...

We left the Air Zoo and headed back towards the reunion. We arrived just in time - dinner time!! After dinner, we headed outside for some sharing and games. Here are a few members trying their luck at the 3 legged race.

Matt & Katie gave the race a go - Matt picked up Katie and went running!! Still didn't help though...

We had an enjoyable evening of games & fellowship with the extended Hart/Brundage Family. Everyone is so wonderful! We woke up the next morning ready to head back to Illinois. We had a wonderful time, but as with any trip, we were ready to get home. We found 3 boxes on the way home. We ended our trip with 27 new boxes and 5 exchanges, LOTS of sand in the van/hair/clothes/etc, 1200 pictures and many fond memories of places visited in Michigan. What's even better than that...those places were free!! I know that the kids will remember this trip for years to come. They'll remember swimming in the Lake, running around at the farm, the two petting zoos, playing at the children's museum, building castles in the sand, walking up the dunes, seeing super cool airplanes and visiting family (and making homemade ice cream!!). You can't BUY those kinds of memories!!

Michigan - Day 3

Day 3 was started in Stanton. Bob told us he wanted to take the family to a farm just minutes away from their house. He was telling us that there was a petting zoo, but we never expected to find this gem! I think this was the highlight of the whole trip for the kids! We first fed the goats - you buy the seed and place it in the cups on the pulleys. The goats then eat the seeds from on top the bridges/lookouts. The kids loved watching from down below. We then walked around and saw such a huge variety of animals! It was amazing. Here is a link to their website http://www.andersonandgirls.com/ . The animals included goats, pigs, kangaroos, sloth, lemurs, rabbits, peacocks, reindeer, cows, camel, zebras, horses, wallabies, birds, ducks, fish, roosters (attacking...just ask Becki about that!), llamas & emus. I am sure that there were more...I just can't remember them all!
Alex had this parrot talking up a storm! Of course, once we all caught up to her, he wouldn't talk at all! She is yelling to us, telling us what the parrot is saying.

There were some neat wooden toys to play on too. Here is Katie "driving" a tractor, the 4 kids riding on the train and Maddie giving the girls a ride in an old truck.
The firetruck & speedboat were big hits - esp. for Will. In the boat picture, notice the white tube on the hill - that is a slide! A penny horse!

Inside the bird house. A maintenance worker was weed-eating outside of this house and every time that he bumped the building, the birds would go into frenzied flight! We all ducked and covered! As an adult, it was unnerving! As a kid, they thought it was the funniest thing!!
Anderson's Farm also has a gift shop, ice cream shop & orchard. After seeing all of the animals, we headed into the gift shop where Bob surprised us with some delicious donuts! Here are the kids cleaning their hands at the trough!

We said our goodbyes to our family in Stanton (with the plans of seeing them at the reunion the next day) and headed out of town. Matt wanted to visit the local cemetery where some of his family is buried. On the way there, we found this second gem of the day!! Isn't this a cool playground! The bear is holding a sign "Maddie's House". Our Maddie thought that was pretty cool - so here's a picture of her in HER house! Matt was busy hiding 2 boxes while the kids & Becki played at the park. After a quick drive around the cemetery (and another box planted), we hit the road towards Battle Creek.
While driving south, Matt remembered a new box that had been mentioned to him (the name of the town we were driving through triggered the memory!). He knew that it was at an ice cream shop, but couldn't remember beyond that. He used the "phone a friend" help (Family of 6...since he had their number in his phone!!) and Mr Family of 6 gave us some help finding the next box. We were so happy that he helped us, because this place was so much fun! We stopped and decided that Matt would go in to ask for the box while Becki took the kids to the petting zoo, play area.
The twins ran right for the sand (we saw enough sand on this trip to last us for an entire year!!!) while Katie & Alex headed towards the animals. The kittens were the biggest hit though. We don't know how old they were, but they couldn't have been too old. They were very cute!

Alex found this bunny rabbit outside its cage area...and started to run after it to catch it. Needless to say, Alex never caught it because it always ended up under the shed!! The 2nd picture is of the kids trying to see the bunny (and Alex trying to feed it grass to get it out!).
Fort Custer National Cemetery - a beautiful cemetery to honor those who have served our country with the ultimate sacrifice. Finding our last box of the day "Walk on the Beach" in Battle Creek. We had a successful day of boxing (9 found and 3 planted) and lots of fun at petting zoos & parks!We ended our third day in Battle Creek - very excited about swimming & hanging out with Grandpa Hart. He met us at the hotel so we could enjoy some one on one time before the reunion. Here are the kids checking out their hotel beds! Just because they never get to do that at home!!