Fall has Fallen! Plus, Zook Invasion!

Today's post chronicles several days' activities.

Abi and I took a drive along 130th and 125th Sts down in Montgomery county one morning several days ago. 

It was beautiful!

Fall has snuck up on us again, arrayed in all of her splendor.

Even decay can be aesthetic... 

Notice the red tail hawk on the peak of this shed?

Our beloved 620th St B road.

I love B roads!

 Grandma Grice Visits

This was the first time she got to hold Katelyn! Can you believe that? Baby wasn't sure what to think of Great-Grandma Grice. :)

Aw, lookit that sweet profile!

Those blue eyes...

...And that whale spout...

Aunt Abba gave her a pen, which quickly became a bad idea! :)

A beanie baby frog is lots safer for little baby girls! 

Starting early on the frog legs...

Aw, love you, Grandpa!

Zook Invasion!

Due to a death in the family, Leon and Emma needed to go to KY, and asked us to baby-sit the children from Tanya up. We had them Thursday night to Monday morning. We weren't sure how Tanya would take being away from her parents, but she did very well!

The boys had little remote control cars. For some reason, they thought it was fun to drive them in the dark bathroom. Notice where they put the rug? On the vanity counter. Yuck!

I woke up one morning to the sun shining through the maple in the front yard.

Saturday morning, I stayed home from Bible study with the little people from Anthony down. We'd been planning to have biscuits and gravy, so Tanya and I made the biscuits. She was so cute! :) 

Yummy!

Tanya and Mom reading a bedtime story.

That night, we really had to crank out the baths. There were about 9 people to send through. We made it in about 2 1/2 hours and with hot water to spare!

Not too bad considering the amount of children we had at our house!

This is how Daddy listens to stories... :)

The Zook boys were a great help cleaning out our shed, so Dad promised ice cream as a reward. Thank you, boys, you did a wonderful job!

Looking at the kid's book My Dad is Awesome.

They absolutely loved the pictures in it! :)

Josh's bowl of popcorn.

Markie and Sam trying to do the splits. 

Of course, the rest of the boys had to try it too.

Sam and Marcus were playing "cowboy" on the arm rests with pillows as their saddles.

The boys were throwing popcorn up and trying to catch it in their mouths.

Poor Markie worked on one piece for a long time. I finally called him over and told him to tilt his head back really far with his mouth open, then I threw it into his mouth. He was so proud that he finally caught it! :) I know that was sorta cheating, but, hey, when you're 6, that's ok!

We had a lot of fun with the Zook clan! They're so happy, easy to take care and easy to please.   

Walking Down the Nishnabotna River

On September 14th Ben, Caleb, Brie, Grace, and I all went to the Rock Cut just for fun. While we were there we decided to explore up river. It was a lot of fun (wet and all)! Wish you could have been there!

Brie, Grace, and I looked at fossils for a little while...

After throwing rocks in the water, looking for fossils, and running around Ben, Caleb, and Brie crossed the river and were messing around on the other side. I never did find out what exactly they were doing. :)

Grace and I stayed a while longer looking for fossils, but then became bored also. Grace wanted to cross here to go over with the other guys but I told her no. So it ended up we all gathered on the east side of the rock 'bar' to cross over onto the sand bar.

And so the journey began!

Brie and Grace writing/drawing in the sand.

Caleb splashing around in the water. If you watch closely you will observe that for the most part at the beginning of our walk we try to keep our clothes OUT of the water. But after a while we just gave up trying to keep them dry. 

The view was amazing!

But some people (not mentioning names) kept getting in those perfect pictures!

Brie was doing this for you, Nate.

I told them to gather to take a group picture for you.

The result 

(if you can, zoom in on their faces)

All done!

Notice the big brown spot on Brie? She was trying to jump across some water, but unfortunately, Ben was in the way and she slipped and fell right into the mud. 

Ben found the top of a post and threw it into the water...

Right by Caleb :)

Being goofy

We could not figure out what this was (we thought maybe a worm), until a little later I realized it was someone dragging a stick. Elementary, my dear Watson. 

The sand was actually pretty hard. Some places were muddy or soft. :)

A fallen tree

I told them to all get on it and do something funny for you.

Here is what they came up with.

A dirt crusted flower

Grace with a turkey feather in her hair. 

The water was at the most two feet deep where we walked. Some places got deeper but we stayed out of those. :)

A huge sand bar

Here there was no sand bar and the rocks were sharp and slippery.

On our way back we walked in the water.

Just around the bend you can see a bridge. We had followed the river all the way to Lewis! Which was about 2 miles down (or is it up??) river.

As we were walking along the sand bar we came across an interesting find. A turtle shell in a black trash bag. YUCK!

Almost to the bridge!!

This was probably the deepest water we walked in. It was a little unnerving!

Under the bridge

I am not sure what these were. Maybe birds' nests?

Going up the river bank to see where we were. :)

Another one just for you, Nate

We all got up on top of the bridge and walked around or rested.

Looking over the part we just walked over.

Now, who is supposed to be watching these children???

A story...

The boys had gone down under the bridge and it was just us girls up top. Well, we had been saying it would be bad if a car came along and saw us up there all wet, disheveled, and no guys around.  A car did come. There was no time to run so we just stood off to the side, smiled and waved. How embarrassing!

Worn out and wet

The sand under the bridge was really soft. :)

Heading back

Two sticks

Grace was a trooper! She was tired of walking but we could hear thunder in the distance so we thought it would be a good idea to head back. Being that a lot of water comes down this river when it rains anywhere upstream.

Don't fall in! 

Again, WHO is supposed to be watching them?? 

(unfortunately, ME. :) )

Ben

Caleb

Ben found a tire along the river bank and rolled it into the water saying he was 'driving a car'.

'What is THAT??'

We can only imagine what the individual did when he saw theses tracks.

Towards the end of our trek I figured I should have some picture with me in it. So I decided to take a group picture of us all (sorry, it focused on the ground).

Almost back to the rock cut!

Being goofy

Another group picture (Brie is beside me)

Port in sight!

Arrived!

It you look just past Caleb's shadow you can see what looks like the end of the sand bar, but it really was just a dip in it (about three feet deep). To cross you jumped from the sand to the slanted rock (about a three foot jump) just in front and a little to the right of Caleb. Well when I was jumping across with the camera in hand (where were my brains??) I slipped and fell into the water. Believe it or not the camera barely got wet, but I sure did!

I hope you enjoyed the trip with us. :)

Jesus',

Abi