Pumpkin patch

Down the street is one of the quaintest pumpkin patches that we are very grateful to Corey for sharing with us. The corn maze free and the pumpkins are real cheap and it was great fun for a two year old and his mama.
Joachim had a blast in the corn maze that was complete with challenging dead end and long "tunnels" as he called them. It would have been better only if Daddy could have joined us.
This is the pumpkin picture Liza and Steven sent last Christmas. It's been on our fridge all year and is one of Joachim's favorite pictures. He often takes it down and talks about their big pumpkin. This fall season he's talked about all pumpkins in relation to this one. We had a very nice crop of pumpkins in our garden (7 good pumpkins, but none as impressive as this Alaskan accomplishment). I've been diligently cooking them down in the crock pot, but only one fits at a time. We need to hook up our freezer to accommodate the bounty. I think our friends can expect a lot of pumpkin bread and pumpkin soup this year.

Vail

Earlier in October we stayed in Vail with a my parents at a time share. It was fun for all, but we are looking forward to going back to Telluride next year.
This is some of our own fall colors outside our door, although the golden shine is long gone now.

Bar b que

We went to a fall bbq with all of Joachim's best buddies. Much to my surprise his social side has been blossoming all on it's own and he will run off with pack of kids and I don't hear from him again for long periods of time. This is a big change from even a few months ago when I still wondered if he would ever leavemy side.
Can you tell Katia is the youngest of 5? Joachim hasn't learned to make faces for the camera yet, I'm sure it won't be long.and another addition to the sleeping series.

Michael's Birthday

We were honored to celebrate Michael's b-day with him while he visited his grandparents here on the western slope. This was one of the first times Joachim seemed more independent with his peers (although, he would NOT join everyone else in wearing a party hat).
Michael's much coveted barn. Fortunately we found an old Fisher Price one at a yard sale about a week later. I keep looking for that toy that will entertain him for long periods of time and the barn was interesting for a while, but cooking remains his absolute favorite past time.

Yesterday he was out a the swings with my mom and he said, "I want to go in now to cook at my stove." He helps himself to our kitchen untensils and we can pretty much be sure that if it's not in the drawer then it's with his "kitchen"... That is where all strainers, spatulas, pots, pans, measuring spoons and so on end up. Last night he worked diligently sawing away at a pinecone with a plastic knife. He also has an "oven" (box) set up in the sand box with half of grandma's cooking utensils... she's just now learning to look in the sandbox for measuring spoons and pie pans.

Applefest

The festivals continue, our third annual family trip to Applefest for kettle corn.
I hadn't seen the frost damage to our garden when Ben came home and said that he felt guilty because it looks like he neglected picking tomatoes. He'd been bringing home so many tomatoes I couldn't imagine there were any still on the vines... I was surprised later that week when I stopped by. Would you believe those tomatoes are actually turning red now!?

tractor pull

Back in August Joachim and I drove out to our humble little county fair for the tractor pull. I've never been to this event so I had no idea what to expect, but a 2 year old boy plus tractors I figured I wouldn't be disappointed.
As it turns out it's a very exciting event and was far more entertaining that the "rope n' riding" going on in the background. For anyone else who has never been to such an event I'll explain. The tractors were all about 40+years old and they would pull a scale with a weight that increased as they pulled. We, the onlookers, cheered as the digital scale went up. When the tractor stopped rolling the weight was read and measured against the weight of the tractor.
It was super exciting, fueled by the enthusiasm in the stands, Joachim and I really enjoyed ourselves. Here a 7 year old is driving the tractor. Another interesting part is that sometimes more than one driver would try driving the same tractor to see who could get the better weight. Apparently there is quite an enthusiastic following.
Joachim enjoyed his evening with mama.